WHAT THE FU.................

Damilola trials delayed after gay sauna meeting

DAIL MAIL online

 09 August 2006

Both Damilola Taylor trials were brought to a standstill after a chance encounter between a juror and a witness in a gay sauna.

The witness said he and the male juror had realised who they were after starting a conversation.
The 21-year-old said he had tape recorded the juror and taken a film of him on his mobile phone. He claimed the juror had offered him drugs and tried to have sex with him.
The juror in the first trial of brothers Danny and Ricky Preddie was discharged after the judge, Mr Justice Leveson, heard from each man separately in closed hearings.
The late night encounter emerged during the retrial of the brothers at the Old Bailey.
Cross-examined by Nigel Sweeney QC, defending Ricky, the witness agreed he had signed a contract with a national newspaper for £1,250 after giving evidence in the first trial.
In March, he went to a sauna called Chariots where he had the accidental meeting in the early hours with the man, who was still serving on the jury.
Asked about the meeting, the witness stormed out of court protesting that it was his private life.
On his return, Mr Sweeney told him: "We have your account and we have his account."
After storming out of court, the witness was asked why he had made the recordings.
He said: "He had offered me drugs, he had tried to have sex with me, he was a member of the jury, he was talking about the case and I needed to prove he was a member of the jury and he was doing wrong."
The witness, who was wearing a white tracksuit top and had a sweatband across his head, said he spent all night at the sauna and left at 9.15am on a Saturday morning with two friends.
He said he had telephoned a reporter and a detective from the sauna but had not been able to get through to either.

Statement

He made a statement to police on the Sunday in which he said he had made recordings of the juror in front of him.
The witness told the court: "I was intoxicated and p***** at the sauna when I was recording this."
Pressed further about whether he had phoned the reporter up to 14 times from the sauna, the witness asked for a break, saying he was depressed because he had a suspected brain tumour.
He returned after doctors said he was fit to answer questions.
Earlier, he had denied being motivated by money in dealing with the newspaper, The Sun.
He said he had a boyfriend who lived in a £2.6million house and who was worth £6million. The witness, who cannot be identified on the orders of the judge, said Ricky admitted attacking Damilola to him.
The witness was in a local children's home at the time and asked Ricky outside the building whether he was responsible.
The witness said: "He was intoxicated, he was quite high. His eyes were red and he was a little bit wobbly from weed.
"He replied 'Yeah man, I juked Damilola'."
The witness agreed he had made a number of things up while he was in the children's home, but denied he had claimed he saved Tony Blair's life, although he maintained he was a family friend of the Blairs.