Jurors' deliberations go on in Redknapp trial
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Your support makes all the difference.The Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknapp's trial for tax evasion will go into a 13th day today – the jury failed to reach a verdict following three hours and 50 minutes of deliberations yesterday.
The 12 jurors will return this morning at 10am, having spent last night in a hotel near the court, and will be sent away by the judge, Anthony Leonard, to continue their considerations. Redknapp and his co-defendant, Milan Mandaric, were summoned back to courtroom one yesterday at 4.15pm, to be told by Mr Leonard that the jury had not yet returned a verdict.
The courtroom was at its fullest with media since the trial began. Earlier, the judge had given his summing-up of the case, telling the jury that they must put aside any feelings they might have about the Tottenham manager or Mandaric, his former chairman at Portsmouth, as public figures.
"You [the jury] will try them [the defendants] on the evidence presented here in court and the arguments presented to you on the same precepts of law that would be applied to any individuals in a criminal case."
The judge said that the jury should ignore the profile Redknapp and Mandaric enjoyed in British public life. "There are no special rules you will attach to them as a result," he said.
Redknapp and Mandaric were described by Mr Leonard as men of "good character". He did remind the jury, though, that every person is considered of good character until they commit their first criminal act.
The jury can reach a verdict in which Mandaric is found guilty but Redknapp is acquitted. However, they cannot arrive at a verdict in which Mandaric is acquitted and Redknapp is found guilty. The charges relate to payments totalling £189,000 by Mandaric into Redknapp's "Rosie47" Monaco bank account that the crown submits were off-the-record bonuses paid offshore to evade tax. Both men deny the charges.
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