Juror dismissed after Facebook poll
28 November 2008

A juror has been dismissed after posting a case on Facebook and asking her friends to vote on the verdict she should deliver.

The unnamed woman was told to step down from the sexual assault and child abduction case at Burnley Crown Court. The court had been tipped off that she had  asked her friends to decide the defendants' guilt or innocence. She said "I don't know which way to go, so I'm holding a poll". Several of her friends came back with guilty verdicts.

Computer says no

The trial continued with 11 jurors, and the three defendants were subsequently cleared - although one of them is due to be sentenced after admitting an unrelated offence.

A spokesman for the Court Service confirmed that the juror had been dismissed on 18th November for discussing the case.