Law AS and BTEC
Welcome to Law!
In preparation for the Law lesson the week beginning 12th September
2016 could you please complete the following work and bring it to the
lesson .
Jill ([email protected]) and Jo ([email protected])
1. Look up the legal definition of the following terms;
www.judiciary.gov.uk/glossary
Acquittal:
Advocate:
Barrister:
Bail:
Conviction:
Crown Court:
Damages:
Inns of Court:
Judiciary:
2. Read this a newspaper article from the Guardian and answer
the questions at the end.
Juror jailed over online research
University lecturer Theodora Dallas jailed for six months for researching criminal defendant
while serving on jury
Theodora Dallas at the high court in London. Photograph: Rex Features
A former university lecturer who carried out online research about a criminal defendant while
serving as a juror has been jailed for six months.
Theodora Dallas, 34, who taught psychology at the University of Bedfordshire, was found
guilty of contempt of court by three high court judges, including Lord Judge, the lord chief
justice.
The case highlights the growing problem courts face in ensuring jurors do not use the internet
to investigate cases in an era when looking facts up on a computer seems an increasingly
natural instinct.
Dallas, who conducted her research at home, was a juror in the trial at Luton crown court in
July 2011. She told members of the jury what she had found out about the defendant, Barry
Medlock, who was on trial for causing grievous bodily harm. The judge had to halt the case
after discovering what had occurred, though Medlock was eventually retried and found
guilty.
Dallas will serve three months and be on licence for the remainder of the term.
Contempt proceedings were launched by the attorney general, Dominic Grieve. The judges
refused Dallas permission to appeal but she can nonetheless apply directly to challenge the
decision.
The lord chief justice said Dallas, who was in court for the hearing, had deliberately
disobeyed the trial judge's instructions not to search the internet and added: "The damage to
the administration of justice is obvious."
Sentencing Dallas, he said: "Misuse of the internet by a juror is always a most serious
irregularity and an effective custodial sentence is virtually inevitable."
Judge said her counsel, Charles Parry, had made a plea to the court to be merciful and impose
a suspended sentence. Rejecting the plea, Judge said there was no sufficient basis for
suspension.
He said other jurors "were obviously concerned to ensure that their responsibilities as jurors
was properly discharged. It also demonstrates that they had fully understood the prohibition
against use of internet ... Her conduct in visiting the internet repeatedly was directly contrary
to her oath as a juror."
Dallas, already suspended by the university, resigned her post at the main campus in Luton
last week. The court had previously heard that she was a woman of "good character", and that
she had gained a degree in the UK, having arrived from Greece as a 19-year-old.
In a hearing last week, she said she had been checking the meaning of grievous bodily harm
on the internet then added the word "Luton" to a search which produced a newspaper report
mentioning that Medlock had previously faced an allegation of rape. It showed he had been
acquitted of the charge and included information not disclosed during his trial.
In a written witness statement to the judges, Dallas admitted that "sometimes my grasp of
English is not that good".
"I did not understand that I could make no search on the internet," Dallas explained. "I had no
intention at all to prejudice the jury in any way. I had no intention to disobey what the judge
said. I really apologise. I never thought it would cause such disruption."
The court heard that she had suffered depression. It emerged that another juror told an usher
that Dallas had carried out internet research while jurors were considering their verdict.
Judge acknowledged that such cases posed a relatively novel dilemma for the courts. "We are
trying to produce a simple formula for use," he said. "This is a relatively new area."
After the sentence was passed, Grieve said: "I take no pleasure in bringing such cases but
they send an important message. By her action Ms Dallas halted a trial which was near
completion and aside from the financial implications, her actions resulted in the victim in the
case being forced to return to court and give evidence for a second time.
"There can be little doubt that repeated warnings were given to Ms Dallas and her fellow
jurors as to the prohibition on conducting research into the case which they were trying. Only
three weeks earlier the solicitor general prosecuted juror Joanne Fraill for discussing a trial on
Facebook; a case mentioned by the judge in his directions to the jury."
The duties imposed on jurors are becoming more rigorous. A report for the Ministry of
Justice in 2010 found that two out of three jurors do not fully understand the legal directions
given to them by judges when they retire to consider their verdicts.
Jurors deemed to have misbehaved are regularly being given custodial sentences. Last month
Matthew Banks, 19, was jailed for two weeks after he pretended to be sick and instead went
to a West End musical in London when he was supposed to be serving on a Manchester jury.
Judge Martin Rudland called him "frivolous".
In June 2011, Joanne Fraill, 40, was given an eight-month jail term after becoming the first
juror to be prosecuted for contempt of court for using the internet.
She admitted using Facebook to exchange messages with Jamie Sewart, 34, a defendant
already acquitted in a multimillion-pound drug trial in Manchester in 2010, and carrying out
research into another defendant while the jury was deliberating.
Questions: Juror jailed over online research
1.
Where had Theodora Dallas been serving on a jury in July 2011?
2. What was the charge against Barry Medlock?
3. What was Theodora Dallas charged with?
4. Give details of the offence.
5. In which court was the case heard?
6. What sentence did Theodora Dallas receive?
7. What do you think the aim of the sentence was?
8. What instructions had the trial judge given to the jury?
9. What information had Theodora Dallas found on the Internet about the defendant?
10. What did the report for the Ministry of Justice (2010) find with regard to jurors
and their understanding of jury directions?
11. Name two other jurors who have recently been convicted of contempt of court
offences involving jury service?
12. Why is it so important that jurors do not do research in to the defendant whilst
serving on a jury?
3. Research 2 legal cases from: (a) a national newspaper such
as the Times (www.thetimes.co.uk) ; The Guardian
(www.guardian.co.uk) ; The Telegraph
(www.telegraph.co.uk) and (b) a local newspaper; The
Argus (www.theargus.co.uk) or the Leader
(www.mediauk.com) or The Metro (www.metro.co.uk) .
Here is an example:
Hatton Garden gang members jailed for
terms of up to seven years (March 2016)
Five members of a gang, including pensioners and serious career criminals, have
been jailed for breaking into a Hatton Garden security vault and stealing £14m-worth
of jewellery, cash and gold.
The men, aged 59 to 75, received prison terms ranging from six to seven years as they
were sentenced at Woolwich crown court for their roles in what prosecutors called
the biggest burglary in English legal history.
But the gang’s oldest member, ringleader Brian Reader, who was known by his fellow
raiders as “the Guvnor” or “Master”, was absent and will be sentenced at a later date
after suffering a stroke in high-security Belmarsh prison.
Judge Christopher Kinch said: “The burglary of the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit
vault in April 2015 has been labelled by many as the biggest burglary in English legal
history. Whether that assertion is capable of proof, I do not know.
The gang, most of whom suffer from serious illnesses including diabetes and
arthritis, ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit after using a diamondtipped drill to bore a hole into the 50cm-thick concrete vault wall, over Easter
weekend last year. More than £9m-worth of the loot has yet to be recovered, with at
least some of it feared to have been taken overseas.
Reader’s fellow ringleaders, John “Kenny” Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 61, and Terry
Perkins, 67, were each jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to
commit burglary last September. Carl Wood, 59, and William Lincoln, 60, were jailed
for six and seven years respectively after they were convicted of conspiracy to commit
burglary and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property after a trial.
Plumber Hugh Doyle, 48, was given a 21-month suspended sentence after he was
found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between 1
January and 19 May last year. The men calmly waved at various family and friends in
the public gallery as they left the dock. “There will be some out there who have
sympathy for these men believing this crime to be a bold heist where no- one got
hurt,” Turner said. “The truth is these men were career criminals who didn’t give a
moment’s thought for the people they were stealing from.” The burglary, which
captured the imagination, was up to three years in the planning and gang members
scoured the area beforehand and even visited the vault.
National Newspaper Daily Mail
(2016)
Headline
Five Hatton Garden gang members jailed up to seven years
Defendants
John “Kenny” Collins, 75, Daniel Jones, 61, and Terry Perkins,
67, Carl Wood, 59, and William Lincoln 60
Criminal – Burglary; conspiracy to commit burglary
Crime or
Civil Action
Which
Court?
Additional
Information
Sentence
Woolwich Crown Court
Hatton Garden security vault and stealing £14m-worth of
jewellery, cash and gold.
Collins, Jones and Perkins =- 7 years imprisonment
Wood = 6 years
Lincoln = 7 years
o
Continued…….Using your 2 newspaper articles
complete the following table:
National Newspaper
Headline
Defendant
Local Newspaper
Crime or Civil
Action
Describe the
incident
Which Court?
Additional
Information
Sentence
Crown Court - Match Crown Court diagram?
Press
Defence Barrister
Judge
Jury
Defendant
Usher
Prosecution Barrister
Witness
Public
No:
Law: Questions, Questions……………..
What equipment will I need? For every lesson you will need a folder, divider, lined
paper, pen, highligher. We will tell you in September which textbook to buy.
How can I begin preparing for Law? Firstly, complete the Flying Start work that is
on Varndean College Website; watch the news to keep up to date with curren t legal
affairs; try and visit either a magistrates’ Court or a Crown Court (Lews or Hove) and
watch a trial.
Are there any trips planned for next year? Yes, we will visit Brighton Magistrates’
Court in the Autumn term and meet magistrates; Lewes Crown Court and the Old
Bailey, Royal Courts of Justice and the Scupreme Court in London.
We are really looking forward to working with you in September.
The Law Team – Jo and Jill.