Photo phone sends jury into hiding

Snapped: Photo-capable cellphones pose a new court security threat. Picture / Reuters

A district court jury was taken to a secret location after a gang member appeared to use a cellphone to photograph its members in court.

Never before, say police, has anyone tried to threaten, blackmail or bribe New Zealand jurors by taking their photographs in court. They say it is also the first time a district court jury has been sequestered - kept together in a motel every night.

Courts Minister Rick Barker said court security might need to be re-examined in response to the new pxt cellphones, which can take digital photographs.

The five-week trial, in the Auckland District Court, involved four people on drugs charges, including senior Headhunters gang member David Gerrard O'Carroll.

O'Carroll, two other men and a woman were eventually found guilty of charges involving making and supplying methamphetamine, and are now awaiting sentencing.

In the fourth week of the trial, a patched Headhunters gang member came into the court with six other gang associates and was seen using his cellphone, apparently to photograph the jury.

Judge Josephine Bouchier ruled that the jury should be sequestered and high-ranking detectives were brought in to oversee the process.

Judge Bouchier suppressed her reasons for doing so until the end of the trial.

The Herald and Television NZ then challenged requests by lawyers involved in the case to have the issue permanently suppressed.

Judge Bouchier yesterday ruled in favour of the Herald and TVNZ, saying the district court did not have the jurisdiction for a permanent suppression order to be put in place.

The case has sparked a police investigation and questions surrounding court security.

It again brings to the fore the issue of pxt phones, which have been banned in schools and gym changing rooms to stop them from being used to take photographs of people without their knowledge.

Detective Inspector Stu Allsopp-Smith of Auckland City police said an investigation was continuing into the gang member's actions. Police believed he used the cellphone to undermine the jury's verdict. One way of doing that would have been to abort the trial.

"Any attempt to interfere with the judicial process is a concern," he said.

Gangs in New Zealand were organised and made millions of dollars from drugs.

Their level of sophistication might lead them to try to undermine the court process, he said, but cases of their doing so were rare.

In the cases he had been involved in there had never been a situation where there was a direct threat to a particular juror.

Police would do everything necessary to prevent juries and their verdicts being undermined, he said.

"Those on juries should not feel at personal risk. These are extremely rare events."

Auckland University law expert Scott Optican described the sequestering of the jury as extremely uncommon.

In some gang trials in the United States, jurors were identified by number, rather than name, to give them protection.

"In one Mafia case the jurors were picked up at a secret location, taken to the court room in a van, then at night they were taken to a secret location, then dispersed to their homes from there," he said.

Mr Barker said judges frequently requested that mobile phones were turned off and were extra vigilant about jury protection when gang members were in the public gallery supporting an accused gang member.