Journalist Krystal Johnson and her employer, news website Yahoo7, have been found guilty of contempt of court, it can now be revealed, after publishing an online article that forced a Melbourne murder trial to be aborted.

Johnson this year bypassed sub-editors and published an article about Mataio Aleluia's murder trial, but the report contained material that had not been put to the jury, which left Justice Lex Lasry no option than to abort the trial and order a retrial.

Yahoo7 reporter Krystal Johnson escaped with a good behaviour bond. Credit:Justin McManus

Aleluia was on Thursday found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, Brittany Harvie, which now allows media to publish details about Johnson's case.

The Supreme Court was this year told Johnson was not in court when she wrote the article about the trial, and instead included details she had lifted from an accurate report from an earlier hearing.