A juror who researched the law on child neglect to hold her own amid 'personality clashes' in the jury room has been spared prison.
Suzanne Asquith had been serving on a jury in a child cruelty case in 2022 when she became 'frustrated' with the other members of the jury during heated deliberations, Reading Crown Court heard yesterday.
The 56-year-old foster carer for guide dogs decided to do online research to arm herself for the debates, as the jury deliberated in a case concerning offences of harm to a child and child cruelty.
Another member of the jury subsequently became concerned with Asquith’s 'bullying attitude', the court heard. Matthew Knight, prosecuting, said: 'The juror noted Ms Asquith had made some comments about having found something out or words to the effect, "I know we are not supposed to Google but".'
A police search of Asquith’s devices revealed search terms such as the word ‘cretin’, ‘how do jurors reach a verdict?’, and ‘does a jury have to be unanimous?’. She had also searched on the the Mumsnet forum about children being taken into care and, separately, information about the defence counsel in the case, the court heard.
The court heard Asquith had also downloaded an article entitled ‘Criminal Law, Child Neglect’ and looked up the offence of perjury. Knight added: 'There was no direct searching for that case or those within it. How that impacted on deliberations, no one can really say.'
The court heard the 11 jurors had reached a majority decision to clear the defendants, with Asquith the sole juror feeling the defendants were guilty.
For Asquith, Hassan Baig said the defendant had expressed the 'frustrations she felt during the deliberations' as she started 'feeling isolated'. She had not wanted to put a note before the judge seeking clear directions because of 'personality clashes within that jury room'.
Asquith admitted one count of carrying out research while a member of the jury during the trial period.
Judge Amjad Nawaz said the judge in the 2022 trial had given clear directions to the jury about not doing their own research. 'This is not a case where she has researched any evidence, such as bad character,' Judge Nawaz said. 'But these directions are given so to ensure the trial process is undertaken fairly, that it is open justice on the basis that everybody else involved in the trial process clearly understands that they are all working from the same page of the book. This defendant decided to break ranks.’
Asquith was sentenced to 22 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. She was also ordered to carry out 20 days of rehabilitation activity.
