No, it was Anthony Arlidge (prosecution) who told the Justice Drake that he was concerned about one of the jurors shutting his eyes once or twice, so the judge lectured the jury on the need to pay attention, then the trial continued.
Yes, no juror is allowed to fall asleep/not pay attention
The QC’s, lawyers, judge — and especially the clerk of the courts who are are told to keep an eye on the jury to make sure there’s no eyeballing between the accused and jury — could never get away with falling asleep.
JB has exaggerated that.
Sounds like one of the juror’s closed their eyes to concentrate and picture a scene and the prosecutor had to make sure they weren’t dozing off. That’s all. But they obviously got a stern talking to, rightly so.
I know of a similar case where the jurors were told not to discuss the case they were on to anyone outside the court, including their friends/family etc, as is the case in all trials, and two jurors were overheard discussing the case on the way to the train station and they had to swear a new jury in.
On another case one of the juror’s happened to smile at the girlfriend of the accused in the restaurant in the Old Bailey, even though there was no evidence they knew each other, and that jury were dismissed too.
Courts have eyes everywhere...trust me
