Jenny Wiltshire in Law Society Gazette on impact of social media influencers on criminal trials

Hickman & Rose’s Head of Serious and General Crime Jenny Wiltshire has spoken to the Law Society Gazette about the impact social media ‘influencers’ can have on a fair trial.

Jenny, together with Humzah Ilyas, represented the actor Micheal Ward in his recent trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court for rape and sexual assault, at which he was cleared of all charges.

The Law Society Gazette article explains how, during the course of the Mr Ward’s trial, an online content creator was seen filming outside the door of the court and approaching members of Ward’s family. He was confronted by the judge who told him to delete his posts.

Jenny told said the incident, in her view, posed a significant risk of the trial collapsing.

“The real danger was that this could have derailed the whole trial”, she said. “The jury had to be asked whether they had seen anything about it and the risk was that the jury could have been discharged. The complainant would have had to come back in a year’s time and be cross-examined again and Micheal Ward would have been in limbo for another year.’

Jenny described the issue of social commentators not understanding contempt law as “an age old problem” and suggested that social media platforms could make it easier to remove content which breaches contempt law. She also suggested that judges may need to “spell out” the basics of contempt law to some people in court.

The full Law Society Gazette article is here.