How Stupid Can You Get?

I'm a defence witness in a fraud case that has taken two years to get to court. Whether or not I will be called to give evidence in person hasn't been decided yet, I've given a statement that has been submitted to court but haven't been informed whether or not the statement will be presented in written or oral form.

Anyway the case opened on Tuesday at the Crown Court and today the case was adjourned when the jury was dismissed. The reason? Apparently the person who brought the case to court for the prosecution instructed a third party to follow a member of the jury home and ask them how the case was going. The Judge was informed and has dismissed the jury and set a retrial for October. All this is going to do is prolong the mental suffering for the person who is defending his professional and personal integrity and that of his family. He has already had to wait since January 2006, firstly because the CPS couldn't decide whether or not there was actually a case to answer, in my opinion there never has been a case but obviously I can't comment here on the ins and outs, and then there wasn't a space in the court diary for the case to be squeezed in.

The only good thing I can say about all of this is well done to the juror for bringing the matter to the attention of the court. The feedback I've had is that the juror actually told the third party that the jury had already decided there was no case to answer. Unfortunately that won't change the way the wheels of justice work and we all come back in October and start again!