Neil Lennon bomb plot trial: Legal aid bill hit £10,500 before trial

ONE of the men convicted of sending parcel bombs to Celtic FC manager Neil Lennon, and other prominent fans of the club, notched up more than £10,000 in legal aid fees before the trial even started.

Neil McKenzie, 42, and Trevor Muirhead, 44, were found guilty last month of conspiring to assault Lennon, former Labour MSP Trish Godman and the late Paul McBride MSP, as well as people at the republican organisation Cairde Na hEireann, by sending devices they believed were capable of exploding and causing severe injury.

McKenzie was also convicted of a separate charge of sending a hoax device to Lennon in order to scare him. Both men are due to be sentenced this week.

A freedom of information request to the Scottish Legal Aid Board (Slab) revealed that McKenzie, who changed his instructing solicitor during proceedings, cost £10,529.05 before the case went to trial, and the figure is expected to rise.

At a preliminary hearing in October last year, Donald Findlay QC, representing McKenzie, said his client wanted solicitor Matthew Berlow to act on his behalf instead of Brian McCluskey.

He said: “Mr McCluskey has legal aid and no instructions, and Mr Berlow has instructions and no legal aid.”

Accounts have not yet been submitted by his defence team, headed up by Mr Findlay, or by the team led by Gordon Jackson QC, who represented Muirhead, for the duration of the five-week trial.

A Slab statement said: “The full costs of a case cannot be assessed immediately after the trial.

“It will take some time for all claims to be submitted by the defence legal representatives, who have four months from the conclusion of proceedings to submit their accounts.”

Emma Boon, campaign director at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Legal aid is there to ensure that everyone has equal access to justice, no matter how rich or poor they are.

“It is incredibly frustrating for taxpayers to see cases like this, where it seems that legal bills have spiralled out of control.”

Eben Wilson, director of TaxpayerScotland, added: “This case is going to cost the public a great deal of money.

“One hopes that all the legal teams involved will be sensitive to the fact that the legal aid bills involved are likely to be very large.”

McKenzie, from Saltcoats, and Muirhead, from Kilwinning, both Ayrshire, originally faced a charge of conspiring to murder their targets.

However, a day before the trial concluded, judge Lord Turnbull ruled there was insufficient evidence to convict them of it.

Human rights lawyer John Scott QC said: “It is difficult to make a meaningful assessment of the value of legal work done when looking only at the cost to the taxpayer.

“Legal aid is a vital protection for our most vulnerable citizens, especially when faced with the full resources of the state.”