Chin up, sexy!
What juror wrote to child rapist she ‘felt sorry for’ after he was sent to jail
A JUROR who signed off a letter to a convicted paedophile ‘chin up (sexy)’ narrowly escaped prison yesterday after admitting contempt of court.
Deborah Dean wrote to child rapist Shakeal Rehman after he was jailed for 12 years for raping a 13-year-old girl.
She also sent two letters, signed with a kiss, to fellow sex attacker Usman Ali who was sentenced to three years for molesting a child.
Mrs Dean, 47, who had been on the jury at the trial, told him she had fought his corner in the room where the jury deliberated.
But when the letters came to light she was hauled to court herself. Yesterday she was in disgrace after admitting breaking the law by revealing private jury matters.
Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas, the most senior judge in England and Wales, imposed a three-month jail term suspended for 12 months at the High Court in London. Rehman and Ali had been found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court in 2014 in connection with offences against a young girl.
It was only later, as the men prepared an appeal, that the letters which Dean, of Sheffield, subsequently sent to them came to light.
In them, she complained about the other jurors, suggesting they were ‘snobbish’ and had looked down on her because of her Sheffield accent. She signed off her letters with an ‘X’ and identified herself as ‘Dee Dee’.
She told both that if they needed money, a letter or a visit she would be there for them.
When questioned, Dean accepted what she had done but said she did not know she was in breach of a court order by revealing what happened in the jury room – a claim rejected by Lord Thomas.
Her barrister Craig Hassall told the High Court that Dean had not done anything which affected the actual trial.
She had contacted the men because she felt sorry for them and wanted to make sure they were all right, he said. At the time, she had been very unwell, having earlier suffered a brain haemorrhage, and was on medication.
In a separate case, Lord Thomas imposed a nine-month suspended sentence on a juror who had done internet research into a defendant during a trial, causing it to collapse and costing the taxpayer £80,000.
Taxi driver James Smith, 28, of Rainford, Merseyside, looked up a
‘Ignored instructions’
man who was on trial for serious firearms and drugs offences at Liverpool Crown Court.
Smith admitted finding out about his previous dealings with police before disclosing the information to another juror.
However, because it happened in 2014, Lord Thomas suspended Smith’s nine-month term for a year.
Lord Thomas said that both Smith and Dean had been seriously affected by the time it had taken to bring the matter to court.
Solicitor general Robert Buckland QC, who took the cases to court, said afterwards that the pair had ‘blatantly ignored’ instructions of judges in their trials.
‘One of the cases cost the taxpayer huge amounts of money when the trial had to be abandoned,’ he said. ‘This wastage of costs was completely avoidable.
‘Contempt of court of this nature involves serious wrongdoing and I instigated these proceedings as it was clearly in the wider public interest to do so.
‘Any action which interferes with the administration of justice is a serious breach and I hope today’s judgment sends a lesson to other jurors about their responsibilities.’