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A Welsh Government (WG) minister commented on social media about a court case which is underway, apparently against all legal rules, and even after a fellow senior politician from a different party, caused a huge row by doing so, it has emerged.
The extraordinary incident last week, involved the Labour Member of the Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament (SC/WP), Jeremy Miles, following an astonishing episode concerning ANOTHER member of the SC/WP – Plaid Cymru’s Helen Mary Jones, after which she was heavily criticised by a senior Judge.
Also during a trial, last February she had shared a Twitter post written by a domestic abuse campaigner, which expressed “hope” that a jury would find a man guilty of murdering his wife, but following the sentencing, the Judge in the case accused her of abusing “social media, political influences and high profiles”, and of risking the collapse of the court case.
Yet apparently undaunted by the row this caused, in HIS Twitter announcement, Mr Miles (who has served as Minister for Education and Minister for the Welsh Language since last year) included a link to a report on the trial now, of three people accused of murdering a consultant in a Cardiff park.
Controversially, he tweeted above the link: ‘He (the alleged victim) was not “undone” by his “sexual proclivities”. He was brutally attacked and died. We have a long way to go”.
Yet the UK Government website, clearly spells out the Contempt of Court Act in the following way: “You might be in contempt of court if you speak publicly or post on social media.
“For example, you should not:
- say whether you think a person is guilty or innocent
- refer to someone’s previous convictions
- name someone the judge has allowed to be anonymous, even if you did not know this
- name victims, witnesses and offenders under 18
- name sex crime victims
- share any evidence or facts about a case that the judge has said cannot be made public”.
In apparently ignoring these rules, though, and making a DIRECT comment on Twitter about a live trial, Mr Miles may be viewed as putting himself in even further contravention of the law, than by simply ‘SHARING’ a tweet someone else had actually written, as Ms Jones did.
The tweet shared by her, was alongside a BBC article about a different court case, and said: “Another perp using the ‘I just snapped’. It is complete bullshit! As so many of us will know, there would have been history of domestic abuse. I hope this jury finds him guilty of murder”.
When it was written and ‘shared’, the jury in the trial had been sent away for the weekend and were in the middle of deliberating counts of murder or manslaughter, so it incurred the wrath of the judge.
However politicians have been at the centre of Contempt of Court Act headlines before, and, as with Ms Jones and Mr Miles, they have sometimes involved ones in Wales.
Almost 10 years ago an intriguing case by the then Attorney General for Northern Ireland, John Larkin, QC, was mentioned in the Belfast Royal Courts of Justice, with at its heart the former Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain, MP.
Mr Larkin relied on a little used interpretation of contempt of “scandalising the court”, by denigrating a judge, and it rested on a section of Mr Hain’s autobiography “Outside In”, in which the former Welsh Secretary hit out at Mr Justice Sir Frederick Girvan for ruling against him in a judicial review over his appointment of interim Victim’s Commissioner Bertha McDougall.
Legal academics have also spoken about the problem.
In ‘A Policy Exchange Judicial Power Project Paper’ Dyson Heydon QC who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia wrote: “…it is said that criticisms of judges by politicians damages their independence”.
The expensive case in Cardiff Mr Miles commented about, has been reported with the word “alleged” in WalesOnline, and is expected to last over three weeks, in front of Judge Daniel Williams, QC, although it may now have been put at risk.
It remains to be seen, however, whether this Judge will scold Mr Miles, like a colleague of his did another politician in the SC/WP…
Our Editor Phil Parry’s memories of his extraordinary 38-year award-winning career in journalism (including knowing about the legal rules surrounding court cases) as he was gripped by the incurable disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – how during 23 years with The BBC, as well as the decades in journalism (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), political stories and the use of certain words have always been central, but Phil looks at why the phrase “a witch-hunt” is now being increasingly used by those in trouble, which Boris Johnson employs to explain away ‘partygate’.
