Jail looms for camera phone users

A woman who is facing a jail sentence for using a mobile phone camera in court has denied she took any pictures.

Ann Marie McGlacken from Stockport and a teenage girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were caught using the picture phones as Douglas McGlacken was waiting to be sentenced for possessing a key-fob gun at Manchester Crown Court.

The women were arrested and spent three hours in jail before being released on bail.

The BBC reports that Judge Martin Rudland told the women: "You must both understand a custodial sentence is highly likely for what you have done and I give you fair warning now that it is likely to follow."

However, speaking to the Manchester Evening News Ann Marie McGlacken said: "I did not take a picture and I have been done for intending to take a picture."

In November a nineteen year-old was jailed for six months for using his camera phone to take pictures in court. Shaun Nash, who was at a Bristol Crown Court for the robbery trial of a friend, was taking pictures and videoing proceedings from the public gallery. One of the jurors noticed what he was doing, and the trial was abandoned.

In March last year a policeman was sacked after taking photos of two corpses while visiting a hospital mortuary. The probationary Pc - who has not been named - used a camera phone to take the snaps while visiting Derriford Hospital in Plymouth as part of an induction course.

Last week Saudi Arabia jailed three men convicted of organising the rape of a teenage girl and later peddling footage of the assault across mobile networks.

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