Juror guilty of taking bribe during drugs dealing case

A FORMER classroom assistant has been convicted of taking a bribe as a juror during a five-month money laundering and drug trafficking trial.

First offender 62-year-old Catherine Leahy, of Springboig, Glasgow, is behind bars after a jury found her guilty of accepting an “advantage” to perform her task as a juror improperly.

She was the spokeswoman for the jury at the High Court in Glasgow which acquitted alleged drug dealer Graham Clarke and others. The Crown may now seek a retrial of that case.

Yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow judge Lord Turnbull told Leahy, who will be sentenced later: “You took advantage of your public responsibility of jury service and you took a bribe.

“This is conduct which strikes at the heart of the justice system. It is matched in its gravity by its rareness. It is obvious that for such a serious offence only a custodial sentence can be imposed.”

The judge told the jury: “I’m not personally aware of a previous case of a juror taking a bribe in the course of a trial.”

Prosecutor Iain Mcsporran QC said that four amounts of cash paid in to Leahy’s Santander account between April 19 and June 2, 2016, was bribe money.

These sums of £300, £1,000, £1,200 and £330 amounted to £2,830.

Leahy denied that she had been bribed, saying in evidence: “Absolutely not.”

She claimed the money came from a cheque for £7,446.77 she received from a British Shipbuilders and menage money.

But, the jury did not believe her and, after deliberating for three hours, found her guilty by majority.

The court heard that the day after the verdict in the Clarke trial the procurator fiscal’s office received a tip-off that members of the jury may have been bribed. A probe into all the jurors’ finances was ordered at the highest level after suspicion fell on Leahy.

Her Glasgow home was bugged from September 19 to 30, 2016.

High-level discussions, including a meeting between the Government’s senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, and the most senior judge, the Lord President, led to the decision to bug the house Leahy shared with her 22-year-old son Joseph, who was originally on trial with his mother. He walked free when the charges against him were dropped.

The court heard that a trawl of jurors’ bank accounts led to one person – Leahy.

This is conduct which strikes at the heart of the justice system

Thirty-one conversations between Leahy and her son were recorded by the hidden bug in their home.

At one point Mr Leahy is heard to say: “Mum, it wasn’t just you that got bribed so that now when they come to you, you’re a step ahead.”

His mother then said: “There is nothing that can link you with them.”

Leahy is also heard saying that she hopes her son’s car was not bugged and then adds: “That night I went down there nobody could have seen me.”

She served as a juror in the trial of Graham Clarke, his wife Lindsay and others. All the charges against Mr Clarke were not proven and his wife convicted of mortgage fraud.

Leahy denied acting improperly as a juror and taking “a bung” and claimed that when she heard rumours of jury nobbling she treated it as a joke.