16 Jun 2011

Judge’s warning as Facebook juror jailed for contempt

Joanne Fraill is jailed for eight months for contacting a defendant through Facebook. The Solicitor General tells Channel 4 News the case had to go to trial to protect jury integrity.

Fraill, a 40-year-old mother of three, became the first juror to be prosecuted for contempt of court for using the internet during a multi-million pound trial last year.

She was jailed at the High Court in London today after previously admitting to exchanging Facebook messages with defendant Jamie Sewart, who was acquitted last year for conspiracy to supply drugs, in an online conversation that lasted 35 minutes.

Fraill also admitted conducting an internet search into Sewart’s boyfriend, Gary Knox, a co-defendant, while the jury was still deliberating.

When the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, announced her eight-month sentence, Fraill said “Eight months!” and put her head on the table in front of her and cried.

She sobbed uncontrollably with her head in her arms, and the judge announced a short adjournment “for everyone to calm down”.

Her defending solicitor Peter Wright QC, told the judges Fraill’s heavily pregnant daughter had gone into labour and was in hospital, causing her “additional anguish”.

Lord Judge did appear to display some sympathy towards Fraill’s position, saying that she was a woman of “good character” and that her actions were not in any way attempts to pervert the course of action.

But he said that the misuse of the internet by a juror was always “a most serious irregularity and contempt”.

Speaking to Channel 4 News, Solicitor General Edward Garnier QC said the case had to go to trial to protect the jury integrity.

Mr Garnier said he hoped the trial would “provide education and learning to those who may be on juries in the future. Please don’t do it.”

Lord Judge, and his two assistant senior judges, looked at Fraill’s reasons for contacting Sewart and the possible empathy she felt towards the defendant.

“Without in any way condoning her actions in contacting Sewart after Sewart’s acquittal, we carried out an examination of the psychiatric evidence to understand how her own background may have led her to wish to commiserate with Sewart’s personal problems arising from the fact that a 14-month period in custody had separated her from her baby.”

Read more: Q & A - Contempt of court in the internet age

However he warned that the communication between the pair went “much further than the expression of a compassionate concern”.

The judges observed that when Fraill was asked if she had contacted Sewart, she immediately admitted to what she had done and apologised for it.

She then went on to provide the evidence against herself of her misuse of the internet throughout the trial, said the judge.

He said Fraill had for some time “been waiting for the present proceedings to take place, and to know what the consequences of her contempt will be”.

“The effect of all these stresses and strains was virtually palpable here in court,” said the judge.

The woman she contacted, Jamie Sewart, was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after being found guilty of contempt of court.

Juror Joanne Fraill has been jailed for eight months for contempt of court, after contacting a defendant during a multi-million pound drug trial via Facebook (Reuters)

Later Sewart said: “I really feel for the woman (Fraill). She’s got kids. She apologised and she’s not a bad lady. I really feel for her.”

Fraill hugged relatives who were also crying before she was led away to start her sentence.

Fraill’s Facebook communication

Fraill was a juror in the third of four trials at Manchester Crown Court estimated to have cost £6m, when she contacted Sewart, who had been acquitted of conspiracy to supply drugs.

Using the Facebook profile of “Jo Smilie”, she told Sewart: “You should know me, I’ve cried with you enough.”

When later Sewart asked about an outstanding charge Fraill replied: “cant get anywaone to go either no one budging pleeeeeese dont say anyhting cause jamie they could call mmiss trial and i will get 4cked to0”.

Sewart said: “i know i have deleted all the messages i wudnt do that to u dont worry xx”

The following day, Sewart told her solicitor about the conversation, triggering the contempt of court action.

Sewart’s boyfriend Knox, 35, was jailed for six years for conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office. Knox put forward a claim that his conviction was unsafe in the light of Fraill’s misconduct.

However the judges also threw out his appeal against sentence. As Knox stood in the dock, Sewart blew kisses to him from the public gallery.

Ironically in a case all about the collision of the internet, social media and the law, Lord Judge told journalists after the hearing started: “You can tweet away.”

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