(1) A person commits an offence if—
(a) the person is a juror for a criminal trial; and
(b) the person makes an inquiry; and
(c) the inquiry was made—
(i) after the person is sworn as a juror and before being discharged; and
(ii) for the purpose of obtaining information about any matter relating to the trial; and
(d) the inquiry was not made in the proper exercise of the person's functions as a juror.
Maximum penalty: imprisonment for 2 years.
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply to a person making an inquiry authorised by the court.
Note The defendant has an evidential burden in relation to the matters mentioned in s (2) (see Criminal Code
, s 58).
(3) For this section, an inquiry made in contravention of a direction, or permission, given to the jury by the judge is not a proper exercise of the person's functions as a juror.
(4) In this section:
"making an inquiry" includes any of the following:
(a) asking a question of another person;
(b) conducting any research;
(c) viewing or inspecting any place or object;
(d) conducting an experiment;
(e) causing another person to make an inquiry.
Examples—making an inquiry
1 conducting research using the internet to search an electronic database for information
2 bringing information into the jury room, such as news articles, research papers or books