A YOUNG woman juror sitting on an "unpleasant and emotional" sex abuse case, who was accused of delaying the trial by shopping at the Broadway Centre, has been given a dressing down by a judge.

A fellow juror had reported seeing 20-year-old Diane Batty in the shopping centre, yards from the Bradford Crown Court building where the trial was taking place, after she had attended an appointment at hospital.

The trial, of Darren Holmes, was held up by her absence, with a knock on delay on a trial listed to follow it.

Holmes, 49, of Manningham Lane, Manningham, Bradford, was jailed for 22 years last week after he was convicted of nine offences, including rape and repeated buggery, of three children.

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Batty, of Landsholme Court, Holme Wood, Bradford, yesterday appeared before the trial judge, David Hatton QC. She was accused of perverting the course of public justice.

Batty denied going to the shopping centre, and Judge Hatton released her after deciding it would not be right to call the other jurors to give evidence.

He told bespectacled Batty, who had shoulder-length reddish-tinted hair and was dressed in a purple casual hooded top and black trousers: "Those responsible jurors have undergone the experience of dealing with an unpleasant and emotional case, and I am not going to trouble them to come back to give evidence about all this.

"Without that evidence I can't be satisfied - although sceptical and dubious I remain - so I will regard the matter as closed."

Batty, who appeared untroubled by the proceedings as she sat at the back of the court, provided the judge with documentary evidence that she had been treated at hospital. She told the judge that after attending hospital she had gone to her brother's home in Manchester Road and she denied going to the Broadway Centre.

Judge Hatton said he accepted that she had attended the accident and emergency department. But he said the document she had provided from the hospital did not confirm the reason she had stated to the court for not returning to continue the trial later that day.

The judge said that because of the information she provided to the court about the medical advice she had been given, he had excused her from attending for the remainder of the day and had sent the remaining jurors home.

Judge Hatton went on: "As a result, a whole day of a very important trial was wasted, as was part of the next day when you arrived late, some considerable time after the remainder of the jurors arrived.

"My concern has been that this caused considerable inconvenience to other jurors, and to witnesses who were anxiously waiting to give their evidence."

He said it extended the trial and delayed the following trial, and cost the state several thousand pounds.

Judge Hatton said: "Whether or not all that was caused by you, and a desire by you to have the day off, is something I am concerned about. I am very dubious about it. But in order for me to be satisfied I would have to take evidence in court from those jurors."