Court of Appeal! Urgent

[Dainty]

My friend successfully managed to get her abuser convicted last year and he got 12 months for 14 counts of child abuse against her. His daughter and 2 others also got him convicted but in a separate trial.

Now the Court of Appeal have granted him leave to appeal as one of the Jurors on my friends case is a trainee social worker and may have had access to the daughters case!!

Can you please tell me if there is anything that my friend can do? Any course of action she can take? She is devastated......................

[Ashley]

Your friend can do nothing that will affect the course of events following the decision to grant leave to appeal.
I would have thought that the very nature of the jurors occupation, let alone the potential access to case papers, might have precluded that juror making up the panel.
As matters of conviction or acquittal are decided by a jury even the appearance of bias is sufficient to make the application for leave.
The Court of Appeal will consider the applicants complaint in conjunction with the strength of the evidence in the case as a whole and make a decision as to whether or not the point raised on appeal is sufficient to render the conviction unsafe.
At this moment all your friend can do is wait and perhaps prepare mentally for the POSSIBILITY of a re-trial