AN ISLE of Wight woman who videoed and live streamed her partner’s crown court trial on social media, was handed a four-month jail term, suspended for two years.

Emma Hamilton-Toogood, who used a mobile phone to record the trial of her partner at the Isle of Wight Crown Court in August 2019, was found to be in contempt of court.

Despite signs outside the courtroom stating it was forbidden to use a mobile phone or any other recording device, Hamilton-Toogood streamed more than an hour's footage of the two-day trial via her Facebook account.

One recording lasted 45 minutes, with others lasting 26 and nine minutes, an in-person hearing at a Divisional Court of the Royal Courts of Justice was told last week.

When the police discovered this the day after the trial, Hamilton-Toogood’s partner had already been convicted on all counts and was remanded in custody, awaiting his sentence.

At a High Court hearing last October, it was told Hamilton-Toogood, 23, immediately apologised for her actions and that she ‘did it for evidence’, unaware she had been in the wrong.

"She made repeated video recordings of the crown court proceedings at some of the most sensitive moments of the trial, as well as the empanelment of the jury, her partner's evidence from the stand and the delivery of the verdicts," the solicitor general said.

"The recordings were available to view live on Facebook and, therefore, available for download. They were downloaded hundreds of times.

"The situation had been aggravated by the fact the defendant and persons in the public gallery, from where Hamilton-Toogood had been recording, had tried to disrupt proceedings."

The judgment added that someone had warned Hamilton-Toogood via Facebook about recording legal proceedings a week before her partner’s trial.

Hamilton-Toogood failed to appear at last week's hearing and was not legally represented.

A friend of Hamilton-Toogood offered evidence by email that she had learning difficulties and would not be able to comprehend legal proceedings against her.

The solicitor general said she had, in her favour, shown remorse by immediately confessing to her actions on her arrest, for which she spent a night in custody.

Alongside the suspended jail term, the court ordered her to pay £500 costs.