This article originally appeared on Vice News.

Follow us on Twitter at @ViceNews and like us on Facebook.

Read more articles by Patrick Stuckey, editorTheresa May is the first UK Prime Minister to be convicted of contempt of parliament, after her legal team claimed she was trying to “sabotage” the investigation into her email scandal.

A High Court judge rejected her defence, saying that Ms May’s office was “acting as a conduit for the prosecution”.

The case is one of a series of cases brought against the Government, including over alleged attempts to block a parliamentary inquiry into a possible leak of emails.

Ms May has also been criticised for the way she handled the death of Jeremy Clarkson, a former Top Gear presenter, in January, when she said he had been “overwhelmed” by her call for more “courage”.

The Prime Minister is also facing an inquiry into her handling of the Grenfell Tower fire, in which at least 84 people died.

Her office has defended her handling, saying she did not believe she had committed an offence by talking to the BBC, despite the inquiry finding that she did.

The High Court said that, despite her assertion, the BBC could not be “held to the same standard” as the Crown Prosecution Service, which it said had evidence that Ms Cameron had spoken to the corporation on behalf of the Government.

A Crown Prosecutions spokesman said the Crown was seeking to show that Ms Gove had acted outside the normal legal channels, and was therefore guilty of contempt.

In a statement to the High Court, Ms Goyal’s lawyers said they were “very disappointed” with the verdict, saying it would have meant “the destruction of the evidence the Crown used to justify its charges”.

“The High Council of the Church of England will now be forced to take further action in accordance with its statutes,” the statement read.

“

We will not rest until the crown has had the opportunity to prove its case and we hope that the High Council will now act to have it vindicated.”Read more