Nobbling a jury not easy, says former criminal

Press, 15 April 1987, Page 26

Nobbling a jury not easy, says former criminal

NZPA-PA London Crooked Crown court jurors recruited to ensure the acquittal of an accused person are promised large sums of money but invariably receive nothing, it is asserted in a report in “The Times” by a reformed criminal, John McVicar. Mr McVicar describes how jury-nobbling takes place and how it could be avoided in the light of a claim by the police that an attempt was made to nobble an Old Bailey jury.

“Police surveillance of the kind used in last week’s case makes nobbling impossible,” says Mr McVicar, who was paroled in 1978 after serving 11 years of a 26-year sentence for crimes, includ-

ing armed robbery. Mr McVicar, twice a jail breaker, was once branded Britain’s most wanted man, but went on to study for a degree in sociology and is now a writer and lecturer on criminology. "Successful jury-nob-bling doesn’t depend on jury lists or even scrutinising the jurors from the public gallery,” he writes.

“But once inside the court precincts, individual jurors not covered by a jury protection order can be followed by the prospective nobbier, their names, addresses and photographs collected.

“Once this information is gathered efforts are made to find someone who knows them and is

willing to make an approach.

“Once a mole is recruited he is coached on how to push the defendant’s case with other jurors. The emphasis is always on the mole not alienating himself from the others, but persuading them of the merits of the defence. “Even if he is unsuccessful in this, his reports on how the jury is reacting as a body to aspects of the case can be invaluable in managing the defence.

“Crooked jurors are always given some money when they first agree to help and promised the world whether they get ‘a result* or not. Invariably they get nothing.

“Efficient jury-nobbling is an expensive and exclusive service which only a few successful and connected criminals in London can draw on.

“It can’t, however, be prevented by pretending that jury-nobbling is done in pubs opposite the Old Bailey by relatives of the accused and in full view of the police guard. “The interests of justice would be much better served by considering the merits of keeping juries in isolation throughout the trial, which besides preventing nobbling would also stop the enormously prejudicial effect of armed police patrolling British courts, a practice now being criticised by the judges themselves.”