Jury discharged in attempted rape trial due to concerns over jury tampering

The jury in the trial of police officer Elliott Brooke has been discharged, after the possibility of jury tampering was raised at the Supreme Court this morning.

He is faces charges of sexual assault and attempted rape, said to have taken place at New Mole House Police Station last year.

On Monday, the jury were sent to deliberate their verdict, however as the day drew to a close they had not reached a decision. They were due to continue their deliberations on Tuesday morning. 

However, before they could begin, lead prosecutor on the case, Johan Fernandez, told the judge that a police officer had informed him of an incident that could be  described as jury tampering.

The police officer, who explained he was a friend of Elliott Brooke,  told the court he had seen a woman approach two jurors after court closed for the day and that they had discussed the case. He took a photograph of the three of them together and said it made him ‘uncomfortable’.

Defence lawyer Shane Danino said it would be impossible for the judge to determine the impact this interaction could have had on the jury.

Chief Justice Anthony Dudley then said that it was ‘with great regret’ he had to discharge the jury, but explained that a fair process requires no engagement with jurors about the case from anyone. He said although it may have been unintentional, they could not fairly proceed.

This caused quite a reaction in court, with family members crying.

The woman who is said to have approached the jury was sitting in court listening to proceedings. She walked out, saying, “It’s a lie!” Someone said to her, “You’ve jeopardised the case!”

The Chief Justice apologised to the defendant. He spoke of the impact this has had on court resources. He said, “We’ve lost three weeks when we could have had other trials.” He thanked the jury for their involvement in what he described as a ‘difficult trial’.

The case was adjourned until next month, with 33 year old Elliott Brooke given bail until then.

The Chief Justice said a retrial would likely be in the spring.

A retrial  would mean a third jury would be empanelled for the same case, as one jury was already discharged two weeks ago due to issues with that jury. This could mean a total of five weeks on this case.

GBC has asked the Royal Gibraltar Police and the Gibraltar Court Service for comment.