A JUDGE in a drugs trial yesterday urged the jury to ignore reports in the media about Jamaican Yardies.
Six men have been on trial since January 9 at Teesside Crown Court denying a conspiracy to supply crack cocaine last year at a house in Walpole Street, Middlesbrough.
Judge John Walford told the jury in a prepared address: "There has recently been a good deal of media coverage of a report which has highlighted the presence on Teesside of Jamaican Yardies, as they are called, and their association with drugs and prostitution.
"This media coverage, I must stress, has nothing to do with this case or with these defendants."
He told jury members: "You should ignore anything you have read or heard or seen in the media entirely.
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