'Jury Photos Aim To Pervert The Course Of Justice'

A legal expert has raised concerns about incidents of members of the jury being photographed, warning these are blatant attempts to pervert the course of justice.

A trial over the Mong Kok riot was shut to the public on Friday after the judiciary received an email containing photographs of four jurors. The same trial was caught up in a similar scare in February when a man claiming to be a mainland tourist took pictures of the jurors.

Duncan Ho, a barrister and member of the Progressive Lawyers' Group, said there is a need to provide training to court bailiffs and security guards so that they know how to identify and deal with people who take photos inside courtrooms.

Ho said it didn't affect the fairness of the trial as the jurors didn't even know about the latest incident. But he said in his knowledge, such occurrences had never taken place before in Hong Kong.

Ho said in future cases the jury may have to be hid from public view to avoid such incidents.

He told RTHK's Priscilla Ng that a ban on mobile phones inside courtrooms may not be enough to protect jury members.