Man charged over collapse of school stabbing trial

Dan Moffat
BBC News
PA Media A police cordon at the school. Two officers are walking away from the camera, one wearing a fluorescent jacket and hat and the second wearing a fluorescent vest. More officers can be seen at the top of a flight of stairs by the school entrance. There is police tape across the top of the stairs, and also at the entrance to covered walkway to the left hand side. PA Media
A 14-year-old girl who stabbed two teachers and a pupil while screaming "I'm going to kill you" was sentenced to 15 years in detention on 28 April

A man has been charged in relation to the collapse of the first Ammanford school stabbing trial.

Last week, a 14-year-old girl, who cannot be named, was sentenced to 15 years at Swansea Crown Court for the attempted murder of two teachers and a pupil, following the second trial that began in January.

Christopher Elias, 45, from Waunceirch, Neath Port Talbot, has been charged with the offence of refusing to answer a question relating to the qualification to serve on a jury.

Mr Elias appeared at Swansea Magistrates' Court on 23 April, and will appear at the court again on 14 May.

Fiona Elias, Liz Hopkin and a pupil who cannot be named for legal reasons were stabbed by the teenager at Ysgol Dyffryn Aman in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, last April.

The first trial involving the girl collapsed last October, because of what the judge described as a "great irregularity in the jury".

The charge on Mr Elias falls under the Juries Act 1974, which sets out requirements as to who is eligible for jury service in Wales and England, and permits court officers to put questions to potential jurors to establish whether or not they are qualified to form part of a jury.