R v Ponting
A jury acquitted a civil servant who leaked documents, despite the judge's direction that he had no defence, illustrating jury equity.
Facts
Clive Ponting, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, sent documents to a Labour MP, Tam Dalyell, showing that ministers had misled Parliament about the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano during the Falklands War in 1982. He was charged under section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. His defence was that he had acted in the interests of the State, because Parliament had a right to know the truth.
Legal principle
The trial judge, McCowan J, directed the jury that the interests of the State meant the policies of the government of the day, which effectively left Mr Ponting without a defence. The jury nevertheless acquitted him. The case is often cited as an example of jury equity, where a jury refuses to convict despite the law and the evidence, because it considers a conviction would be unjust. The Official Secrets Act 1989 later replaced section 2 and removed the possibility of such a defence.
Related cases on juries
- Attorney General v Dallas [2012] EWHC 156 (Admin), [2012] 1 WLR 991
- Attorney General v Fraill [2011] EWCA Crim 1570, [2012] 1 Cr App R 1
- Bushell's Case (1670) Vaughan 135
- Gregory v United Kingdom (1998) 25 EHRR 577
- Hanif and Khan v United Kingdom (2012) 55 EHRR 16
- R v Abdroikov [2007] UKHL 37, [2007] 1 WLR 2679
- R v Ford [1989] QB 868
- R v Karakaya [2005] EWCA Crim 346, [2005] 2 Cr App R 5
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