Report: British juror axed for disclosures on Facebook

A British woman has reportedly been kicked off a jury for posting a "note" on Facebook asking her friends what they thought of the trial.

She was given the boot after the court received a tip about the posting.

The original source of the story is the U.K. tabloid The Sun, which is better known for trashy stories about Prince Harry's partying habits than for sound news about social networking.

Regardless, spilling court case details on the Web certainly sounds like pretty good grounds for getting the boot.

The Sun explains: "It was thought she did not use privacy settings, meaning the Facebook posts could be read by anyone." Well, not quite. You need to be logged into Facebook in order to read anything on the site, something that occasionally gets on the nerves of the "open Web" crowd. But if the juror had no friends-only settings in place, the note could still have been pretty public.

The woman's name has not been released, but the court appears to have been Burnley Crown Court in Lancastershire, and the case involved child abduction and sexual assault. According to The Sun, the woman posted details of the case on Facebook and added, "I don't know which way to go, so I'm holding a poll." Yeah, that's bad.

The trial is said to have continued with 11 jurors instead of 12.

[faboumen]

"Lancastershire" does not exist. You mean Lancashire.

[bigfish033]

it is not the point that she did not use the privacy setting. the point is she has disclosed information on a case to her "facebook friends" and for sure she don't know or have not met all of her friends. i believe the court has made the right decision on this, as there is a reason for the jury to not disclose anything outside the court and that reason is to have a fair trial! if action had not been taken by removing the juror what would be the future for the British justice system.........internet poll if guilty or not???