Angry jurors of the Civil Law Court Wednesday descended on a reporter of this paper with blows, injuring him and tearing-off his clothes, minutes after they reached a unanimous guilty verdict in a US$1.3m libel case filed by one of Charles Taylor's left-over companies, the Consolidated Group Ltd.

Court officers, claiming to follow the judge's orders, physically forced handcuffs on reporter Boima J.V. Boima's hands, leaving him with bloody bruises as they dragged him before the judge.

Immediately following the assault that left the paper's camera damaged, the Court's Judge, Judge Yusuf Kabbah, slapped the paper's News Editor, Mr. Festus Poquie, with the charge of 'Contempt of Court' for instructing his reporter not to accept the damaged camera since the judge had promised an investigation, which the damaged camera would form a part.

The assault occurred after the jurors were leaving the court, with some of them covering their faces with plastic bags to avoid being photographed.

Prior to the verdict, the reporter reported to the court what he said was the plaintiff sending text messages, presumably to jurors, via his mobile phone. The judge then ordered the jurors to hand over their mobile phones. Court rules forbid contacts between jurors and parties in the case, but with the advent of mobile phones and other factors, enforcing such are rules is questionable.

The verdict followed arguments from defense and prosecution lawyers. Cllr. Marcus Jones, pleading for Consolidated Group Ltd., accused this paper of receiving bribes from angry workers of the Ministry of public works who sparked the publication of a story on how road-building equipment purchased from the company had never worked as expected. He claimed the workers, unpaid during the tenure of now sacked Minister Lusinee Dunzo, bribed this paper to have their grievances published.

Defense lawyers, Cllrs. Beyan Howard and Kanie Wesso, argued that the facts in the case were evident since the equipment, pre-financed and costing over US$807,000 remained idle from 2007. The jury was taken to several spots around Monrovia where the equipment are. Defence lawyers urged the jurors to discount other considerations and render judgment in accordance with their conscience, pleading that corruption in the society was endemic and that their action would help to curtail it.

The story began in 2007 when angry workers besieged the ministry. This paper reported the standoff, with workers pointing to idle equipment that stood in the ministry's yard without being used despite the government spending over US$800,000 on them. The workers accused their bosses for bringing in useless equipment after the government pre-financed the deal with Consolidated Group- a company known for satellite television services.

The then Minister's office was contacted for comments but his office staff said he was out. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf immediately ordered a forensic audit into the matter and promised to take action against those involved in the deal.

That Audit has been concluded with findings indicating that the purchased equipment were indeed unless.

Following the publication Consolidated Group wrote this paper claiming it has been libelled and demanded a retraction, but the paper rejected the claims and the group opted for legal action.

During the trial, jurors were taken to view the equipment, which remain idle, but prosecution lawyer Jones told them in his closing argument that workers had stolen useful parts from them, thus rendering them useless. He claimed the equipment have been in use since they were brought into the country despite the General Auditing Commission (where Jones serves as lawyer) and Ministry of public works testimonies to the contrary.