JURY SERVICE AT A PRICE

THE TIMES

11^th Sept , 1982.

 

 

 

Judge orders 24-hour police guard on jury

 

 

By a Staff Reporter

 

 Sixty potential jurors for a burglary trial were told at the Central Criminal Court yesterday that the 12 finally selected would face restrictions 24 hours daily on their freedom and privacy to prevent jury 'nobbling'.

They were each given until Monday to consider the implications of being followed by two police officers at all times and having their phone calls intercepted.

Judge Peter Slot,QC said 48 police officers were being detailed to protect the jury from possible interference and each juror would be allocated four policemen.

He said he realized that each of the potential jurors would want to discuss the measures with their families, but a jury with "conscience and good sense" was needed and he hoped they could accept the conditions.

Judge Slot said there had been a previous trial which ended on Wednesday because the jury had to be discharged after many weeks because of an alleged approach to one of the jurors to influence the verdict.

 He added that the trial had nothing to do with the present proceedings.

The judge said it had become the practice to reduce the risk of jurors being approached. "I have ordered that certain positive steps be taken in this case. I want to emphasize that the precautions which are going to be taken in this case are fairly orthodox.”

He said he would give sympathetic consideration to any juror who felt unable to accept living under the conditions of protection.

Judge Slot told the jurors who were crowded into the Old Bailey's No 2 court that the steps being taken were "for the benefit of the defendant as well as anyone eIse". The measures were being taken largely on his own initiative and he could not emphasize too strongly they involved no reflection upon the defendant in the case.

He said the trial could last more than six weeks and if that length of time was considered by a juror to cause difficulty he could say so.

 Four police officers would be allocated to guard each juror, two of them on duty at a time. They would be local police of the uniformed branch who would work 12 hour shifts in pairs.

The jurors would be followed to and from the court and when they left their homes on private business.

 He said: "You will find you are being followed discreetly at a distance by police officers you will come to recognize.

If a juror goes away at the weekend four police officers will go too", the judge added amid laughter from the prospective jurors.

The purpose of the police was to inhibit and prevent approaches by people they did not know. But there was to be no conversation whatever between a juror and his police escorts.

Judge Slot said: The police officers are instructed, under no circumstances, to speak to you at all and I have to ask you not to speak to them.

 "There must be no suggestion that police officers are seeking to influence you and it would be as wrong as anything else if they did."

He said there was no reason why police should go to the front door or into the house of any juror. If a juror went into a pub and saw his police escort there also there must still be "no conversation".

Judge Slot told the jurors that there had to be sonic check on telephones but there was no question of' phones being tapped.

He added: "There will be no check on calls you make outwards but arrangements will be made with the telephone exchange that anyone who rings in will have his call intercepted by the telephone operator who will ask the name of the caller and the reason for the call." Judge Slot said the juror would be asked if he knew the caller and wished to accept the call.

If he wanted to speak to the person they would do so in private. The judge said “ lt stands to reason that these are inhibitions on your actions so each one of you will be asked to accept. I would not want anybody to accept this sort of thing without having had a chance to think about it and discuss it with his family.'

He said: "I am going to invite you to go back home and think about it over the weekend. On Monday when we embark with a jury of 12 you will know all about these matters."

Judge Slot said: "I hope you all feel able to accept these conditions. We need a jury and if it turns out that large numbers of jurors were not willing to accept temporary restrictions on their freedom it would be extremely difficult for positive steps to be taken were these not thought necessary. It is to be left to your conscience and your good sense. He asked the potential jury not to discuss the case and the matters he had referred to outside their own family.