Grooming trial collapse due to jurors’ WhatsApps

A TRIAL into alleged historic sexual offences in Rochdale collapsed following concerns over the contents of a WhatsApp group set up by jurors, it can now be reported.

- BY ANDREW BARDSLEY

Rochdale town centre

The trial at Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester had been progressing for almost two months, before a judge discharged the jury in December.

Six men deny a series of historic allegations, including rape, alleged to have been committed against three girls in the town.

The six men are now set to face a retrial in August. Reporting restrictions were imposed by a judge preventing disclosure of the reason behind the jury being discharged.

But following a legal submission by our sister paper the Manchester Evening News, the reasons behind the jury being discharged can now be revealed. Defence barristers applied to discharge the jury and halt the trial after it emerged that jurors had discussed a broadcast about ‘grooming gangs’ in a WhatsApp group they had set up.

One member of the jury alerted the judge to the matter, with an investigation then being launched.