A JUROR HAS been given eight months in prison after she was found in contempt of court for communicating with a trial defendant via Facebook, in the first case of its kind at the UK High Court.

Joanne Fraill, 40, admitted to using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, who has already been acquitted in an ongoing multi-million drug trial which collapsed as a result of conversations between the pair.

Although the first court case of its kind, it was reported earlier this week that there was growing evidence of jurors in criminal trials using the internet to research and discuss cases and on occasion communicate with people involved in proceedings.

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

Sewart herself was given a two-month sentence suspended for two years after also being found guilty of contempt.

Because other defendants were on trial at the time of the contact between Fraill and Sweart, the judge in the trial discharged the jury and the trial, related to drug offences and costing some €6 million, collapsed.

BBC News reports that in his judgement yesterday, the Lord Chief Justice of the High Court, Lord Judge said:

Her [Fraill] conduct in visiting the internet repeatedly was directly contrary to her oath as a juror, and her contact with the acquitted defendant, as well as her repeated searches on the internet, constituted flagrant breaches of the orders made by the judge for the proper conduct of the trial.

During the trial details of the conversation between Fraill, who added Sewart on Facebook, and the acquitted defendant emerged with the Guardian publishing the full, offending transcript that caused the multi-million pound trial to collapse.

The transcript contains numerous references to the trial and expressions such as “lol” and other internet slang whilst Fraill refers to herself as “Jo Smilie” on the social networking site.