Police bugged juror’s home over trial bribe claim, High Court is told

A FORMER juror’s home was bugged by police following an allegation that she had taken a bribe.

Catherine Leahy, 62, who was the spokeswoman of the jury that returned acquittal verdicts in the case of Graham Clarke and others accused of drug trafficking, fraud and money laundering, went on trial yesterday with her son Joseph, 22, at the High Court in Glasgow.

The pair deny that, between November 2 2015 and June 2 2016 while she was serving as a juror, she and her son agreed to “receive a financial or other advantage”.

Prosecutors claim that as a consequence of the two accused accepting the alleged “advantage”, Mrs Leahy agreed that she would perform her task as a juror “improperly”.

Mr Leahy also denies being involved in the supply of cocaine and cannabis and possession of MDMA and cannabis.

Yesterday Detective Inspector Graeme Everest of the organised crime and counter terrorism financial investigations unit said the fivemonth long trial of Mr Clarke ended on April 14, 2016.

The following day he received a phone call from the prosecutor fiscal saying he had received an allegation against a juror in the case.

The jury was told that following a meeting with the Lord Advocate and the Lord President it was agreed to allow all the jurors details to be released and for their financial backgrounds to be investigated.

The prosecutor asked the police officer: “Did you identify the juror or jurors,” and he stated: “Yes we did. One juror – Catherine Leahy. We had very little to go on.”

Det Insp Everest added: “We needed to interview jury members and had to go to the High Court to get permission.”

The officer, who has 22 years’ service, told the court he had never heard of jurors being quizzed before and agreed with Mr Mcsporran it was as extremely unusual event.

The next step, Det Insp Everest said, was to ask the Chief Constable and the Scottish Government to give the go-ahead for a bug to be placed in the Leahys’ Glasgow home.

The court was told that 31 conversations between Leahy and her son were recorded by the hidden bug in their home.

Defence QC Thomas Ross asked the policeman: “One of the police’s objectives was the retrial of Graham Clarke?” and he replied: “It was an outcome, the objective was to get to the truth.”

Never heard of jurors being quizzed before