Christopher Ponting (Image: South Wales Police)
Last Updated: 1 minute ago
A Swansea man has been sent to prison after recording footage inside a courtroom – an offence that stopped a murder trial in its tracks and forced the whole case to be heard again.
How the trial came undone
Christopher Ponting, 37, was sitting in the public gallery of Swansea Crown Court last year while a man he knew stood trial accused of murder. Instead of simply watching proceedings, he began filming inside the room, capturing both the jury and the judge presiding over the case. Using a camera in a courtroom is a serious breach of the Contempt of Court Act 1981, and the fallout was immediate – the murder trial collapsed and had to be restarted from scratch.
A connection formed behind bars
The two men were known to one another from prison, having previously been held on the same wing. Monday’s hearing also heard that Ponting had shown an interest in one of the witnesses lined up to give evidence for the prosecution.
Mitigation
Barrister Ryan Bowen, for Ponting, told the court his client was “under no illusion about the seriousness of the situation”. He said Ponting, of Heol Calfin, Ravenhill, Swansea, is “genuinely remorseful” after he “behaved in a way that he now bitterly regrets”.
Sentencing
Ponting admitted a contempt of court that Judge Geraint Walters described as “gross”. Addressing him from the bench, the judge said: “You have admitted being in contempt of court.
“You decided to attend, as a member of the public, a murder case being tried by me of somebody that you had been in prison with.
“You decided it was a good idea to film the courtroom which involved the jury and the judge.
“It is a criminal offence to use a camera inside the courtroom. You managed to derail a murder trial.
“Those who disrupt criminal proceedings must accept that a prison sentence is called for. It was a gross contempt.”
Ponting was jailed for eight months.
