Court spectator jailed for laughing at jury from gallery during £150m tax trial

A man who was spotted laughing at the jury during a complex £150m tax fraud trial has been jailed for contempt of court.

Construction worker Michael Moynihan, 31, was seen pointing at the jurors and chuckling to a friend as Judge Steven Everett was finishing his summing up of 14 weeks of evidence at Chester Crown Court on 27 March.

Two of jurors who saw Moynihan pointing at them were said to be “obviously affected” and were looking down at the feet as they later filed in and out of the jury box.

Moynihan was asked to leave the courtroom by staff but he initially refused to go and then declined to give his name.

When asked to leave immediately by the judge he answered back: “You ought to be patient.”

He was subsequently arrested and it was discovered he had been at the court for a different trial over unrelated public order matters.

Moynihan of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire who lost his left leg in accident in 2021, was jailed for 21 days after being found guilty of contempt of court.

Everett said if the jury members had asked themselves why he had been pointing and laughing at them it could have led to the trial being abandoned.

He described Moynihan’s actions as “threatening and arrogant”.

The trial itself was part of criminal proceedings that had been ongoing for 10 years that had cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The judge told Moynihan: “It’s important that everybody understands that the court is a place where people have to behave.

"If people do not behave in a court, we are heading down the road to anarchy and that is a problem.

”I found your behaviour threatening and arrogant. It was not just rude, it was way beyond that and what concerned me most was it was threatening to the jury. I see that they saw that.

The judge told Moynihan he had “an enormous chip on your shoulder” had behaved in a “horrible way” to the jurors.

Moynihan's counsel Kay Driver said her client had been on painkillers that made him “too relaxed”, adding that he believed the person on the jury was someone he had gone to school with and pointed him out to his friend.

Driver said Moynihan “apologises for his language and behaviour”, adding: “He realises now that could be very intimidating to a jury member.”

Despite fears the trial might have to be abandoned due to them feeling intimidated, the panel later convicted two men including the mastermind of a fake designer clothing scam who ran one of the UK’s largest ever carousel tax frauds.