Protest outside Reading Crown Court for jurors rights

Across the country, demonstrators have been holding silent protests with placards informing jurors of their rights, coming amid jury acquittals of defendants in recent years.

The ‘Colston Four’ protestors who were accused of tearing down the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 were acquitted of charges of criminal damage following a trial on January 5, 2022.

In April 2021, six Extinction Rebellion protesters were acquitted after being accused of causing criminal damage to Shell Energy’s London offices in 2019.

Five people were spotted at the demonstration held outside Reading Crown Court in the morning on Monday, September 25.

Protesters held signs saying: “Jurors have the right to give their verdict according to their convictions.”

Anne Coffey, who is in her 70s, came from Wokingham in support of the protest, despite not being an active participant.

Anne Coffey from Wokingham viewed the protest and spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service outside Reading Crown Court. Credit: James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporting Service

She said: “A jury is 12 ordinary people. There have been projects where they have done test cases where juries and judges do pretend verdicts and 90 per cent of the time they all come to the same conclusion.

“So a 12-person jury is a very good democratic way of giving a verdict.

“If all those 12 people feel that person shouldn’t be sent to prison, then it is their right to give their own verdict according to their conscience rather than follow the directions of the judge.

“But it appears that the judiciary or the government, I’m not quite sure who is responsible are clamping down on people being able to explain their motivations.”

She added that the freedom of juries to make a decision is ‘set in stone’ at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England.

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The ‘Right of Juries’ to give their verdict according to their convictions was established in the ‘Bushel’s Case’ of William Penn and William Mead in 1670.

The right was famously used during the trial of Clive Ponting, who leaked official documents concerning the sinking of the Argentine naval boat the General Belgrano during the Falklands War in 1982.

Mr Ponting was charged with breaching official secrets law in 1984 but was ultimately acquitted in a trial the following year.

Ms Coffey also referred to the case of Trudi Warner, who has been charged with contempt of court for holding a similar sign up outside of the Inner London Crown Court earlier this month.

She said: “The protesters are not here to interfere with any case or any jury.

“They are there to publicise that law [the rights of jurors] so that anyone going to court is aware of it.”