The first bribery trial to be heard in the Manx courts has been halted.

Retired chartered accountant Gordon John Mundy had been standing trial accused of agreeing the payment of a bribe to a Ugandan public official to make two companies ‘disappear’.

As well as being the island’s first bribery trial, it was also the first case to be put before a jury since majority verdicts were introduced in the Isle of Man.

Previously, a jury had to reach a unanimous verdict if a defendant was set to be convicted following a trial in the Court of General Gaol Delivery.

On the second day of Mr Mundy’s trial at the Court of General Gaol Delivery, Deemster Graeme Cook discharged the jury.

He told jurors: ‘Sadly, I’m having to abort this trial. We are going to have to start again on another day. There will be another trial sometime this year.’

Deemster Cook told the seven members of the jury that they could have been potentially prejudiced by what they heard during the defence’s cross-examination of a prosecution witness.

A provisional date for a retrial has been set for June or July and the defendant was released on continuing bail until the next hearing date on April 4 when the trial date will be confirmed.

Mr Mundy, 70, of Selbourne Drive, Douglas, denies a single charge of bribery of a foreign public official contrary to the Corruption Act.

The alleged offence dates back to 2011.

Majority verdicts in the Court of General Gaol Delivery have been introduced under the provisions of the Justice Reform Act.

It means that a jury can return a guilty verdict if in a case where the jury comprises 11 or 12 jurors, at least 10 of them reach agreement, or in a case where the jury comprises seven jurors, six of them agree.

An appointed day order which brought majority verdicts into effect was laid before the January sitting of Tynwald.