A JUDGE in England has jailed a juror who carried out internet research at home while sitting at a criminal trial.
Academic Theodora Dallas (34) had told other jurors what her research had revealed about a defendant on trial at Luton Crown Court in July 2011. The judge aborted the trial after learning about her research.
She was sentenced yesterday to six months’ imprisonment for contempt by three judges at the High Court in London, including Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice.
Dallas was in court for the ruling. She will serve three months and be on licence for the rest of the term. The judges refused her permission to appeal to the Supreme Court, but she can still apply directly to the highest court in the land.
Contempt proceedings had been launched against her by the attorney general Dominic Grieve QC.
Lord Judge said Dallas had “deliberately disobeyed” the trial judge’s instructions not to search the internet, adding: “The damage to the administration of justice is obvious.” Sentencing her, he said: “Misuse of the internet by a juror is always a most serious irregularity and an effective custodial sentence is virtually inevitable.”
The judge said her counsel Charles Parry had made a plea to the court to be merciful and impose a suspended sentence.
Rejecting the plea, Lord Judge said there was “no sufficient basis” for suspension – “in this case an immediate custodial sentence is appropriate for the contempt which has been proved”.
At the time of the trial which she caused to be abandoned, Dallas was a psychology lecturer at the University of Bedfordshire, which has its main campus in Luton. She told the judges she had “no intention” to “influence” the jury. She claimed she had not “deliberately” ignored instructions but had “misunderstood” the trial judge’s directions.
Mr Grieve, the British government’s chief legal adviser, said the trial involved a defendant called Barry Medlock at Luton, accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. He said jurors had been told by the trial judge to base decisions on the evidence and warned not to use the internet or discuss the case with others.
A juror had told an usher that Dallas had carried out internet research while jurors were deliberating their verdict. Dallas had revealed to jurors that Medlock had previously been acquitted of rape – information not given during the trial.
Mr Grieve said the judge had investigated and then aborted the trial. Medlock had been retried, convicted and jailed, he said.
Dallas said she had been checking the meaning of grievous bodily harm on the internet. She had added the word “Luton” to a search and that search had then produced a newspaper report which mentioned Medlock and the previous rape charge.
Dallas said in a written witness statement that “sometimes my grasp of English is not that good”.
“I did not understand that I could make no search on the internet,” she said. “I had no intention at all to prejudice the jury in any way. I had no intention to disobey what the judge said. I really apologise. I never thought it would cause such disruption.”
Dallas said she had resigned her university post after facing disciplinary proceedings. She had suffered depression and ill-health as a result of her ordeal. – (PA)