A STUDENT who missed the chance of her dream work placement at Disney World in Florida after being jailed for interfering in an assault trial has had her sentence slashed by two thirds by the country’s top judge.

Huddersfield University hospitality management student, Kelly Leanne Cameron, 20, was sentenced to 12 months of youth custody after admitting doing an act tending or intended to pervert the course of justice at Bradford Crown court in August.

Today, that sentence was cut to four months, meaning Cameron will be free from custody imminently – but not soon enough to take up her prestigious placement.

Delivering the court’s judgement today, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, told how Cameron, who lives in Huddersfield, was the only student on her course to be offered such a prized job opportunity.

And, because she now has a criminal record, it is uncertain whether she would ever be allowed into the United States to take up another placement if one became available, he said.

Cameron had been attending the assault trial of a close friend in August when she realised that she recognised one of the jurors as a friend of a friend.

Shortly after the lunchtime adjournment, she sent a text message to her friend, asking her to pass on the message “not guilty” to the woman sitting on the jury.

It was not until the trial Recorder gave the jury directions at the end of the day about what to do if approached by anyone that she realised the seriousness of what she had done.

She immediately tried to stop her friend contacting the juror, but was too late. When the juror had her mobile phone returned to her, she received the message and informed the court the following day.

Cameron, who was due to travel to Orlando within days, was arrested and admitted what she had done, saying she had not realised how serious her actions had been.

Today, her lawyers appeared before Lord Judge, Mr Justice Owen and Mr Justice Sweeney and argued she had been too harshly punished, particularly given the fact that she had lost her placement and had her education interrupted.

Lord Judge said: “A naive and indirect approach to a juror may be just as distressing for the juror as a more calculated one.”

But he added: “The real question on this application is whether, given the exceptional features of the case, the custodial sentence should have been shorter.

“In the end, we are persuaded that it should have been.”