Atkins v London Weekend Television Ltd
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 13 January 1978 |
| Date | 13 January 1978 |
| Docket Number | No. 10. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
JC
L. J.-G. Emslie, Lords Cameron, Johnston.
Justiciary—Contempt of Court—Broadcast of television programme on, and showing photographs of, accused person—Whether prejudicial to course of justice—Petition to nobile officium.
The petitioner was charged on indictment with assaulting a 13-year-old girl (who subsequently died) to the danger of her life. On the day prior to the trial of the petitioner, a television programme entitled "Weekend World" was broadcast throughout the United Kingdom by London Weekend Television Limited. The programme made referenceinter alia to the circumstances of the alleged offence and the trial of the petitioner which was due to take place the following day. Photographs of the petitioner, taken without her knowledge and consent, were shown twice. The programme also showed a number of pictures of the girl and the Edinburgh Sheriff Court House where the trial was to take place. Because of the television programme, the Sheriff on the petitioner's motion, adjourned the diet of trial to a subsequent date. On that date, the diet was not called, and the indictment fell. The petitioner presented a petition to the nobile officium of the High Court of Justiciary to prohibit London Weekend Television and others from transmitting any programme calculated to prejudice any future trial of the petitioner.
Held (1) that the references to the petitioner in the context of the programme as a whole were in the highest degree likely to prejudice the petitioner's prospects of a fair and impartial trial; (2) that the broadcasting of the programme constituted interference with the administration of justice and amounted to contempt of court; and prayer of the petition granted in so far as directed against certain of the respondents.
M'Alister v. Associated Newspapers LimitedUNK 1954 S.L.T. 14 followed.
Mrs Margaret Anne Bryant Glover or Atkins presented a petition to the nobile officium of the High Court of Justiciary craving that the Court prohibit London Weekend Television and others from broadcasting, transmitting and publishing any programme or feature or comment or any material calculated to create prejudice to, or giving rise to possible prejudice to, any future trial of the petitioner. Answers thereto were lodged on behalf of the respondents and the Lord Advocate.
The petition was heard before the High Court of Justiciary. The facts appear sufficiently from the opinion of the Court.
LORD JUSTICE-GENERAL (Emslie).—The petitioner, who is a nursing sister, was charged on indictment with assaulting Elizabeth Semple, a 13-year-old girl who is now deceased, to the danger of her life. According to the indictment the girl, who had suffered severe brain damage, was a patient in the intensive care unit of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary in February 1977 and the charges were that on two occasions in that month the petitioner attempted to block the girl's air supply. To these charges the petitioner pled not guilty and her trial was due to begin before a Sheriff and a jury in Edinburgh on 14th November 1977.
On 13th November 1977 there was broadcast, transmitted and published in Scotland, and throughout the United Kingdom, a television programme entitled "Weekend World". It was prepared, published and provided for transmission by London Weekend Television Limited. Approximately half of the programme consisted of a feature entitled "The Living Dead". This feature was described at the start of the programme as one which would discuss a highly sensitive issue which was beginning to divide the medical world, namely, whether treatment should be withdrawn from certain accident victims who are unlikely to recover consciousness so as to allow them to die.
The feature itself opened with the following narrative: "Tomorrow morning Margaret “Ginny” Atkins, an Edinburgh nurse goes on trial. She's accused of assault, endangering the life of one of her patients. A jury at the Sheriff's (sic) Court in the city will be told that Nurse Atkins tried twice to block the air supply to a 13-year-old girl in her care. The girl, Elizabeth Semple, was in the intensive care unit of the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary. She was suffering from severe brain damage. Nurse Atkins will plead not guilty to the charges, but by the middle of the week the whole country will be talking about the issues raised in this case."While this was being said, photographs of the petitioner, taken without her knowledge and consent, were shown twice. The film also showed a number of pictures of Elizabeth Semple, and inter alia, views of the Edinburgh Sheriff Court House. The feature continued in sound as follows with accompanying film: "Last month this girl, 20-year-old Carol Wilkinson, was brutally attacked in a Bradford Street on her way to work. After fighting for her life for three days doctors decided to switch off her breathing machine. They insisted Carol was already clinically dead. But if her attacker is caught lawyers believe he may well say it's the doctors who should answer for her death. In America the case of Karen Quinlan is still causing a sensation. Twenty-three-year-old Karen has been at the centre of a macabre legal battle over whether or not her parents had the right to turn off the machine they believed was keeping her alive. She was taken off the machine, but she lives on as a human vegetable. These three cases have been thrown up by a peculiarly modern phenomenon. We're now keeping alive more and more people every year who can't talk, walk, or respond in any way to the world around them. These people pose an urgent question for us all. Has the time now come to start letting them die?"Thereafter the feature discussed in a number of interviews the problem posed by victims of accidents who have suffered severe brain damage and who may fall into a persistent vegetative state. Amongst those interviewed were distinguished brain...
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