‘Distraught’ juror faces jail for using Facebook in drugs trial

The first juror ever to be prosecuted for contempt of court involving the internet sobbed today as she was warned she faces jail.

London’s High Court heard that Joanne Fraill, 40, from Manchester, admitted using Facebook to contact Jamie Sewart, 34, a defendant already acquitted in a drugs trial in Manchester.

The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, said the court could not announce sentence today.

But he warned Fraill, who had been “distraught” throughout the hearing, the court did not think there were any circumstances in which she could avoid an immediate jail sentence.

Sewart denied contempt, but the judges ruled the case against her was “proved”.

However Lord Judge, sitting with two other senior judges, told her she would receive a suspended jail order.

The judge said Sewart’s own trial had led to her lengthy separation from her baby and it would not be in anybody’s interest to “remove the mother from her child again”.

The exact penalities in both cases are expected to be announced later this week.