Hampshire man targets barrister with a bomb at Gray’s Inn leaving him 'shocked' and 'dumbfounded'

Andrew Sutcliffe KC said he had only recently returned to his chambers in Gray's Inn after the pandemic when two devices were planted on September 14, 2021. One of the devices, left outside his chambers, was accompanied by a note said to contain false allegations designed to cause Mr Sutcliffe ‘maximum humiliation and professional embarrassment’.

It is claimed the attack was directed by wealthy businessman Jonathan Nuttall because of a long-running case Mr Sutcliffe and colleague Anne Jeavons had worked on for the National Crime Agency (NCA). Nuttall had allegedly become unhappy at the prospect of losing his family home, Embley Manor in Romsey, Hampshire, to pay off a £1.4m legal settlement.

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The 50-year-old, who also has a home in Sloane Square, west London, allegedly recruited his driver, Michael Sode, 58, to act as a ‘middleman’ with Michael Broddle, 46, who planted the devices. Broddle had in turn roped in sons Charlie, 18, and Joshua, 20, to the scheme, it was claimed.

On Thursday, Mr Sutcliffe, a senior barrister with expertise in civil recovery in the proceeds of crime, was called to give evidence at their Old Bailey trial. Describing the day of the bomb alert, Mr Sutcliffe said: ‘Because I had spent the pandemic at home, this was my second day back in chambers.

‘I happened to be in what is known as the clerks room when our chambers administrator said we had to evacuate the building and so I went back to my room, collected my keys and mobile phone and left. We were directed in Gray's Inn Square about 100 yards from my chambers and I was there for about three hours. I needed to get back in chambers - I had work to do.’

Mr Sutcliffe, who is also a deputy High Court judge, said he was ‘very surprised’ to be contacted by a police officer the next day. He told jurors: ‘I thought I had nothing to tell. I was simply in chambers the day before with everybody else.’

He was ‘dumbfounded’ when he was shown a note that had been recovered from one of the devices addressed to ‘Sooty’, his old Army nickname. He told jurors: ‘I was in the Army for a short time in the 1970s and for whatever reason my fellow Army officers referred to me by that nickname.

‘It was not a nickname anybody else has given me and that was some 40 years ago so I was frankly amazed to see that name being used on that document because I could not see how anybody in the Army with me could have been a party to this document. My immediate reaction - I was dumbfounded.’

Asked how he felt on reading the serious allegations that it contained, Mr Sutcliffe said: ‘I was obviously very shocked. I was totally shocked.’ Jurors have heard how months before the attack in Gray's Inn, Michael Broddle had visited Mr Sutcliffe's home and recorded the trip on his mobile phone.

A video showed a threatening note being printed out from a hand-held printer and left on the buzzer of the house, the court heard. Addressed to Mr Sutcliffe's daughter, it allegedly stated: ‘Either Sooty QC stops digging his own grave or you will be raped whilst we dig up your brother's grave.’

Police also allegedly recovered video of a note being printed outside an address linked to Ms Jeavons. Mr Sutcliffe told jurors how he felt a ‘sense of shock’ after being shown the note about his daughter and late infant son who died in 1992.

He said that neither he nor his wife had been aware of it before. Jurors were also shown a picture of Mr Sutcliffe posing with prime minister Rishi Sunak in relation to a community event.

On why he and Ms Jeavons might have been targeted, Mr Sutcliffe said: ‘I worked out that it must be to do with a case that the two of us had been doing together so I thought what that might be. A case which involved more work than any of the other cases was the case “NCA against Amanda Nuttall and others” - a civil recovery case that had been ongoing since 2015 in my case, and 2017 in Anne Jeavons' case.’

He explained it involved a claim by the NCA to recover property in the name of Nuttall's wife Amanda and companies connected with the couple. Prosecutor Catherine Farrelly asked: "Was there anything in particular that made you identity that case?"

He replied: ‘A number of matters. I suppose the fact that it was the one that had been ongoing in which Anne Jeavons and I had been most significantly involved.’ Under a settlement in April 2018 there was a court order for the payment of nearly £1.5m in instalments in lieu of the Nuttalls' home and an adjacent property, the court heard.

The deal came with the condition that the money must come from ‘legitimate sources’ and not the proceeds of crime, the witness said. But Mr Sutcliffe added: ‘Anne Jeavons and myself were contacted by the NCA asking for our advice in relation to certain information that the investigator employed by the NCA had discovered about the money that was paid in lieu of the conditional recovery property.’

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Mr Sutcliffe told jurors he was called to the Bar 40 years ago and made Queen's Counsel in 2001. He has sat as a part-time judge since 1999 and in 2004 became a deputy High Court judge sitting in the Chancery Division dealing with commercial cases.

As a barrister, he specialises in commercial law, particularly banking and civil fraud, and has developed expertise in civil recovery in the proceeds of crime over the past 10 years. Mr Sutcliffe told jurors he was mainly instructed by the NCA and Serious Fraud Office.

Nuttall, Sode, of Deptford, south-east London, and Charlie and Joshua Broddle, from Hounslow, west London, deny two charges of conspiring with Michael Broddle to place an article with intent. Charlie Broddle denies possession of an explosive substance in relation to one of the devices. The Old Bailey trial continues.