Man tells court he was 'helping' to return stolen painting

Published on Tuesday 9 March 2010 20:38

A "LOVEABLE rogue" claimed he was acting out of decency in helping secure the return of a stolen £20 million painting, a court heard yesterday.

Robert Graham, 57, of Ormskirk, Lancashire, is accused of being part of a conspiracy to extort 4.25 million for the safe return of Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder which had been stolen from the Duke of Buccleuch's Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfries and Galloway in 2003.

The High Court in Edinburgh has been told that in 2007 negotiations had taken place in phone calls between an undercover policeman, "John Craig", posing as the duke's representative, and Graham's solicitor, Marshall Ronald, 53, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

A face-to-face meeting was arranged in a pub at Euston Station, London, so Graham could satisfy himself that "Mr Craig" was not "the chief of police".

"Mr Craig" told the jury that Graham had said he owned pubs on Merseyside and was nicknamed "the silver fox".

"Through his background and ownership of these pubs, he learned a lot about what was going on in criminal circles. He found out that he could retrieve this painting," said "Mr Craig".

"He said everything he was doing, he was doing out of a sense of decency," said the undercover police officer.

In a later conversation with Ronald about their meeting, "Mr Craig" had described Graham as "a very decent, loveable rogue."

Graham and Ronald deny the extortion plot along with John Doyle, 61, of Ormskirk, and Glasgow-based solicitors Calum Jones, 45, and David Boyce, 63.

The trial continues.