From the odd twist department - were the UK judge below following sharia law, the now convicted murderer could have been acting within his rights and the twenty-something juror could have been beaten, or put to death.
A juror wearing a hijab was tossed from a murder trial by a UK judge and warned she may be facing contempt charges. The hijab wasn't the issue, it was the music playing on the iPod she was wearing under it. The defendant was later found guilty of murdering his wife.
But then, given he is only looking at 11 years for brutally beating his wife to death and trying to hide the evidence, I'm still not convinced justice was truly served.
The Muslim woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of concealing the device beneath her headscarf so that she could listen to music during the testimony of a man who bludgeoned his disabled wife to death.
Judge Roger Chapple, presiding, said that he thought he could hear “tinny music” in the courtroom at Blackfriars Crown Court in Central London, but dismissed it as a figment of his imagination until another juror sent him a note.
The woman was arrested for contempt of court on the direction of the judge on June 27 and is bailed to appear at the court before Judge Aidan Marron on July 23. The arrest can only be reported now after Alan Wicks, 72, the defendant at the trial, was convicted yesterday.
The juror, who is in her early twenties, was discharged by Judge Chapple and given warning that her behaviour, if proved, would amount to contempt of court. Outside the court she was searched by a police officer and an MP3 player was confiscated.
The remaining 11 members of the jury found Wicks guilty of murder. Judge Chapple told the defendant: “This was a ferocious and dreadful attack. Murders are often described as brutal, but it seems to me that description is entirely justified in this case.
“The force used was substantial - a minimum of 11 heavy blows to the skull. You then sought to spin a web of lies and deceit to cover your tracks and seek to avoid detection, but as this jury has found that was as false as it was elaborate.”
He told Wicks, who has suffered a series of minor strokes and now faces the prospect of dying in prison, that he would have to serve at least 11 years before being considered for parole
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