THE solicitors’ regulatory body has yet to decide whether to discipline a York lawyer whose actions collapsed a child sexual abuse trial more than two years ago.

Leeds Crown Court heard last year that Caroline Elizabeth Mitchell had “undermined the course of justice”.

She was jailed for two months, sacked by the firm of which she was a senior lawyer and is currently listed as “non-practising” on the Law Society’s website.

A spokesman for the Solicitors’ Regulatory Authority said: “We are aware of this issue and are still dealing with it. So no decision has yet been taken about whether or not to take action.”

Mitchell, now 54, of North Parade, Clifton, pleaded guilty in December 2021 to disclosing information to fellow jurors when she was sitting as a juror at York Crown Court in March 2021.

The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl KC, sentencing her in April 2022, said: "I don't doubt you didn't intend to undermine the course of justice but that is the effect of what you were doing.”

By telling other jurors information she had found on the internet on an important part of the evidence, she had risked them returning the wrong verdict.

As a solicitor, she knew "the importance of court orders and the consequences of breaching them," he said.

Leeds Crown Court heard Mitchell was a juror in the trial which had to be abandoned following her actions at an estimated cost of £30,000.

The defendant was accused of sexually abusing a young boy. 

Both the complainant, now an adult, and the defendant had to wait eight months for a new trial in front of a new jury and each had to give evidence a second time.

Leeds Crown Court heard that despite being warned along with all the other jurors by Judge Simon Hickey not to research the case, Mitchell went online and found information she thought was relevant to the case.

She brought the information to the court and disclosed it to other jurors. 

When the judge learnt what she had done, he ordered the jury to be discharged without letting them reach a verdict. 

Read more about what Mitchell did.

According to the Law Society, Mitchell has been a solicitor since 1995. She specialises in clinical negligence and personal injury law.

All jurors are warned at the start of every trial in England by the judge not to do their own research and in particular they are warned not to go online to find out information about the case they are sitting on.

They are also given similar written warnings. They all swear an oath to try the case before them on the evidence before them in court.