Perth lawyer, Tom Percy QC. Credit:6pr Justice Hall described the woman's actions as "inappropriate" and "foolish", telling her she had disrespected the legal process. "[I can't] be confident you will be a fair juror," he said. "[You have] prejudged the matter... it's fortunate this was discovered early." The woman, looking sheepish, told the court she had not discussed her post of shared her views on the case with any other jurors.

"I don't know any of them," she said. Justice Hall then dismissed the woman from the jury and advised her not to post anything further about the case online. Jurors, as part of their duties, must only consider the evidence presented during the trial, and not seek out additional information from other sources that could prejudice their decision. Perth lawyer and president of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, Tom Percy QC, said the "alarming" number of jurors accessing the internet to comment on or research a trial was becoming "all too regular" and was potentially denying defendants a fair trial. Nobody, I can assure you at the moment, is more angry in the entire state than me. Justice Michael Corboy

He has called for new laws to be introduced that would allow accused people to be able to choose between a trial by judge-alone, or a trial by jury. Current laws allow an accused person to apply to be trialled by a judge-alone, but this application can be knocked back by a judge. "The day of the jury may very well be nearly over," Mr Percy said. "It's too seductive for a [juror] to go home at night and go, 'geez what about this bloke, Bill Smith, I'll just go and Google him'. "They find out about him and what he does, they go on Facebook and look him up there and if they don't disclose that... they are armed with knowledge that's not in evidence at the trial that may well be considerable prejudice to the accused."

In 2014, the Perth trial of Ronald Pennington, 85, who was accused of killing a woman in 1992 and burying her in his backyard, was aborted after a jury member's girlfriend looked up details of the defendant's past trials and disclosed these to her partner. At the time, Justice Michael Corboy said "Nobody, I can assure you at the moment, is more angry in the entire state than me". In another example, WAtoday understands a jury member deciding on a drug-related trial in WA was recently questioned after revealing to other jury members he had researched methamphetamine production online. Despite the breaches, WA Attorney General Michael Mischin said the state government had no plans to change its justice laws. "Although the availability of sources of information is greater than in the past, and there is always the risk of aberrations, there is no reason to suppose that jurors take their responsibilities less seriously now than they have done in the past," he said.

But Mr Percy claimed the ability to secretly research a trial should give rise for a defendant to be able to forego their right to a trial by jury. "Lloyd Rayney got [a judge-only] trial because there was excess publicity [around his case]," he said. "It just made it unfair for him to be trialled by a jury, sometimes that sort of thing will incline a judge to do it, but there is no right to trial by judge alone, you have to convince a judge that is would be appropriate. "We want it to be an unrestricted right – the option of the person charged." Loading

A person found to breach their duties as a jury member, could be charged with contempt of court. Mr Percy said he was yet to see a prosecution of that nature, but believed it was "not far away" with some judge's considering referring serious jury misdemeanours to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Follow WAtoday on Twitter