Sobbing juror to be jailed for contacting defendant on Facebook during trial

A juror sobbed in court today after she was told by a judge that she will definitely be going to prison for contacting a defendant on Facebook during a multi-million-pound drugs trial.

Joanne Fraill admitted committing a contempt of court for the online conversation while deliberating over verdicts.

She and Jamie Sewart - who was found guilty of contempt by the judges today - face a maximum sentence of two years' imprisonment. The judges were due to pass sentence this afternoon.

Fraill sat hyperventilating and crying behind her barrister, Peter Wright QC, at the High Court as the landmark proceedings started.

The Judge said more information was needed before he could pass sentence on both women, including the appeal against conviction of Sewart's boyfriend Gary Knox.

Sewart had served 14 months on remand awaiting trial on the charges of which she was later cleared,

The Solicitor General, Edward Garnier QC, described the hearing as "the first case in which a contempt arises from use of the internet by a juror."

Fraill, 40, was sitting in one of a series of trials in Manchester estimated to have cost £6million and which lasted for 10 weeks.

The court heard that Fraill contacted Sewart, 34, with the words "You should know me - I have cried with you enough".

Mr Wright said Fraill's intention was not to divulge the secrets of the jury room but to show her empathy with the defendant who had just been acquitted.

He said: "Her conduct was borne out of cathartic release of returning a verdict in Sewart's case and not a need to reveal or divulge.

"Her conduct, though reprehensible, was not calculated or designed by her to subvert the trial process."

He said that Fraill was "contrite and remorseful" and confessed she had also tried to contact Sewart's boyfriend, the convicted drug dealer Gary Knox. Mr Wright pleaded with the judges to deliver a suspended sentence, saying the mother-of-three was "terrified at the prospect of prison".

Sewart told the court she had been ecstatic at being acquitted and was in contact with the juror because "I just wanted to know when the end was".

Knox, who was jailed for six years for conspiracy to bribe a police officer, is now challenging his conviction on the basis of the alleged jury misconduct.
The case continues.