Facebook contempt juror looking at 'immediate jail'

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

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

Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge warned Fraill, who had been "distraught" throughout the hearing, that the court did not think there were any circumstances in which she could avoid an immediate jail sentence.

Sewart had 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 penalities in both cases are expected later this week.

Sewart, of Bolton, had earlier said in evidence that she had never attempted to find out what had gone on in the jury room but just wanted to know when the trial would end.