The jury has been discharged only hours into a trial over an alleged bashing murder in Newcastle, after it came to light that one of the jurors regularly attended a social line-dancing gathering with the mother of the accused.
The court heard that the juror, who was not identified, was picked on Tuesday when the mother of 45-year-old Shane Holmes was not in the courtroom.
Mr Holmes is standing trial in the Supreme Court at Newcastle over the 2018 death of his longtime mate Chad Hadden.
Mr Hadden was allegedly struck several times by Mr Holmes after the pair spent an afternoon socialising and drinking beer together at Queens Wharf Hotel on January 14, 2018.
Mr Hadden died in June that year, having never fully regained consciousness in the five-and-a-half months after the incident.
A serious assault charge was initially leveled at Mr Holmes, but this was upgraded to manslaughter and later to a charge of murder following Mr Hadden's death.
On Wednesday morning - the first day of the trial - Crown Prosecutor Lee Carr and public defender Peter Krisenthal made their opening submissions to the 12-person jury, who had been selected from a pool of about 60 candidates.
The detective in charge of the police investigation then began to give evidence.
But during the morning break Mr Holmes' mother, who was not in court when the jury was impaneled, informed her son's legal representatives that she had a social link with one of the jurors - they had both been part of a twice-a-week line-dancing group for the past two years.
Mr Carr and Mr Krisenthal made submissions to Justice Stephen Campbell, who formally discharged the jury.
Justice Campbell said his decision was based on the potential that a reasonable member of the public could possibly perceive a bias because of the link, which could undermine the jury's verdict.
He said he had considered disqualifying the lone juror in question, but he decided against that course of action because the trial was in its first day and the accused had a right to be judged by a jury of 12 peers if the "balance of justice" allowed.
A new jury will be impaneled on Monday and the trial will re-start.
Justice Campbell told the jury before he discharged them on Wednesday he believed that beginning the trial again would "give everyone confidence that justice is being done and being seen to be done".
"It's not about actuality, it's about the appearance of justice [being done]," he said.
"It's not as if anyone has done anything wrong.
"It's not a very legal way of putting it, but it's just one of those things."
