The system of jury trial is facing a new threat from the internet, with barristers now googling the jurors sitting on their cases, The Times has learnt.
The idea is to find out the occupations, interests or predilections of individual jurors so that barristers can pitch or modify their speeches accordingly and win a sympathetic hearing.
The practice has already been raised with the Bar Council, which is in the process of drawing up guidelines to tackle what one senior Crown Court judge has condemned as an unethical practice.
The discovery comes as research at University College London (UCL) confirms continued use of the internet by jurors themselves, to research defendants and their case history, coupled with an ignorance of the rules or a reluctance