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High Court throws out gangster Frank Carberry's appeal claim after it emerged jurors googled him

By Angela Haggerty, Reporter

September 5, 2013 | 3 min read

Scottish gangster Frank Carberry has had his battle to launch an appeal against his conviction for indecent assault, based on allegations a jury member googled him during his trial, thrown out.

Decision: The High Court ruled Carberry did not have appeal grounds

The 53-year-old – who had a lengthy criminal record before the trial - was convicted of assaulting three young men in 2006.

He then attempted to launch an appeal in 2007 on the grounds that information had emerged that at least one juror had googled information on him and uncovered his links in the Glasgow gang scene.

Lord Carloway ruled: “In this particular case, for the appellant to succeed, he would have to demonstrate that the googling juror accessed information which was not already in the public domain and which was prejudicial to his interests in a material way. The material presented does not begin to demonstrate this.”

According to his legal team, Carberry’s brother in law, John Daly, picked up a passenger in his taxi around eight months after the trial who turned out to be one of the trial’s jurors. According to Daly, ‘Mrs D’ revealed details of the trial and said one juror had uncovered information from previous newspaper articles about Carberry from the internet and then “painted pictures” of his past for other jury members.

The grounds for appeal based on the “hearsay” of Mr Daly were initially thrown out by Lord Justice Clerk (Gill), Lords Nimmo Smith and Eassie, although a written reason for the decision wasn’t recorded.

Carberry’s legal team then submitted an application to Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) which ruled that there may have been a miscarriage of justice and referred the case back to the courts.

However, after further examination and investigation – including speaking to jurors involved in the case - the High Court again ruled that the information did not provide reasonable grounds for an appeal, this time because the court is satisfied that any information uncovered was already clearly in the public domain and the verdict was reached based upon the evidence heard in court.

Lord Carloway added that press reports from the time of the trial and just prior to it had made clear that Carberry had a reputation as a Glasgow gangster and that he’d “gloried” in it.

The ruling is significant for building case law as courts struggle to balance the challenge posed by jurors’ accessing the internet during proceedings and the right to a fair trial.

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