Legal professionals concerned about jurors using Google

Legal professionals are increasingly concerned about the influence of the Internet on juries in criminal trials, The Irish Times reports.

The trial of a childminder charged with causing serious harm to a 10-month-old baby recently collapsed after a juror admitted looking up one of the witnesses on Google.

Barrister Tony McGillicuddy said: “If people have a curiosity, it’s a very hard temptation to avoid. Barristers would be worried that if you are defending a client who might be notorious, the jurors would Google them and see he was in the Sunday World four weeks in a row.”

However, he added: “But what can you do about it, short of taking people’s phones off them, which nobody wants to do because you’d never get people to do jury service?”

One solicitor said: “If a judge alerts them not to Google, you’re going to have someone who feels the need to do exactly that.”