The Daily Mirror and The Sun face contempt trial at High Court in London next Tuesday
The Daily Mirror and The Sun will be in the dock in the High Court in London next Tuesday (5 July) to face charges of contempt of court for their coverage of the widely-publicised murder of Joanna Yeates in Bristol last December.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, is pursuing the contempt proceedings over articles about Christopher Jefferies, the man arrested during the police inquiry into the murder of Yeates last December. She was a tenant at his house in Bristol.
Grieve alleges that two articles in the Daily Mirror and one in The Sun might have prejudiced a trial should Jefferies have been charged.
As it was, Jefferies was later released without charge and another man was subsequently charged. His trial has yet to take place. Both papers deny liability for contempt.
According to media pundit Roy Greenslade, writing on the Media Guardian website: ”One man sure to be closely monitoring the trial is Louis Charalambous, the lawyer acting for Jefferies, who says his client expects newspaper owners to fire editors if found guilty of contempt.
“Charalamous has also issued writs for libel against the Mirror and Sun, plus four other papers – the Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Record and Daily Star.”