After sentencing The Pirate Bay Four the District Court has now asked the police to investigate their own people, as the verdict in the case leaked to the public hours before it was officially announced. Whether or not the leak will have implications for the sentence is unknown.

Several hours before the verdict was read out in court, a journalist had already informed one of the defendants that they would be found guilty. The source of the leak will now be investigated upon request from Stockholm’s District Court.

“It is extremely serious,” District Court’s chief Lena Berke said in a comment. “This is a breach of confidentiality, and therefore, we intend to notify the police,” she added, noting that it hasn’t influenced the court’s ruling in any way.

Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde believes that there might have been more people who knew about the outcome beforehand. Just 10 minutes after the verdict was announced, movie industry lawyer Monique Wadsted told a Swedish newspaper that the 107 was very well written, and that it would hold up all the way to the Supreme Court. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she wrote the verdict,” Peter said.

Peter Sunde’s lawyer Peter Althin was unpleasantly surprised and said he found it totally unacceptable that a verdict could be released in advance like this. He said that he is unaware of any previous cases where this has happened before. Sunde himself was not that bothered and joked about the leak. “Really, it’s a bit LOL,” he wrote on Twitter. “It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.”

The Pirate Bay crew had anticipated a defeat in the case, but the jail time was unexpected. Nevertheless, Peter is still positive about the outcome of the appeal and he’s going to wrap up the tumultuous day with a party in his hometown Malmo. “I’m gonna play some techno,” he said.