Juror googled defendant
A JUROR who conducted research while sitting on a Huddersfield grooming gang trial has avoided jail as he works for the ambulance service and needs to serve the public during the coronavirus pandemic.
John Sayles was sitting on the first Operation Tendersea trial when he repeatedly researched one of the defendants – Raj Singh Barsran.
The 14-week trial, which took place between January and April 2018, saw 15 women give evidence against their abusers and eight defendants convicted.
All eight defendants have lodged appeals on the basis that it was unfair to be convicted after Sayles’ research and Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday that a retrial is ‘likely.’
Sayles, who works as an emergency medical technician for Yorkshire Ambulance Service and is a member of the special operational response team, avoided jail after the court was told public services will be overstretched during the coronavirus pandemic.
Sentencing, Judge Guy Kearl QC, the Recorder of Leeds, told Sayles: “Jurors are not entitled to pick and choose which legal directions they wish to follow and which to disregard.
“To think otherwise is to undermine the confidence of the pubic in the entire system of trial by jury.”
Prosecutor Georgina Coade said it was not Sayles’ first time serving on a jury.
The jurors were warned before and during the trial not to conduct their own research as they would be provided with all the evidence they needed in the courtroom.
During Barsran’s cross-examination, he said he could not have committed one of the offences as he was in prison at the time.
Ms Coade said that jurors were struggling to reach verdicts on eight or nine counts and wanted to know why Barsran had been in prison. She said Sayles then said it had been for an assault.
Another juror told Sayles he should not be sharing such information.
The following day, a female juror told the court usher what had happened and both jurors were brought before the trial judge – Judge Geoffrey Marson QC.
Sayles admitted conducting research and was dismissed and the case continued with 11 jurors.
He was arrested on May 30, 2018, and in his police interview he said he came across the information inadvertently on Predator Exposure’s Facebook page and a Manchester newspaper’s website.
However, this was a lie and caused a delay in the proceedings as police seized and analysed six digital devices, only to find out he had made four internet searches for Barsran’s previous convictions.
Following the trial, Barsran, then aged 34, of Caldercliffe Road, Berry Brow, was convicted of two counts of sexual assault and one count of rape and jailed for 17 years.
Barsran and seven of his codefendants have ongoing appeals and a hearing will take place at the Court of Appeal.
Ms Coade said the victims described the trial process as the hardest thing they have ever had to do, with one describing it as her ‘darkest days’ during which time she felt ‘emotionally and mentally bare.’