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Richards had previously pleaded guilty to being a juror conducting unauthorised research and of being a juror disclosing prohibited information to other jury members. Ruth Smith, mitigating, said Richards had taken his jury service "very seriously" and struggled with some of the legal concepts in the case. "He is deeply ashamed of his behaviour," she said. "It is a very sad set of circumstances that sees a 65-year-old man before the court who has previously led an exemplary life." Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke described Richards' actions as a "flagrant disobedience of the court's directions". "Had the usher not inadvertently happened upon you, it may be that this would never have come to light, and the verdicts of the jury of which you were a member could have been returned on the basis of a misunderstanding of the law on joint enterprise, or other improper considerations," she said. "I accept you were not motivated by malice, and that the responsibility of being a juror, particularly in such a serious case, weighed heavily upon you. "But there are very good reasons why people are told not to undertake their own research."
