Solicitor ‘tried to have UVF gun victim assassinated’

A court in the North has heard claims that a Co Derry solicitor tried to have a taxi driver who was injured in a shooting last year assassinated before he could speak to the police.

The claims were made today as 41-year-old Manmohan Sandhu was granted bail at the High Court in Belfast.

Mr Sandhu, a solicitor in Limavady, was charged yesterday with four counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of attempting to incite the murder of Jonathan Hillier.

A prosecuting barrister told the High Court today that the accused was suspected of phoning an associate in an effort to have Mr Hillier "taken out" while he was in hospital last year.

Mr Hillier was in hospital after being injured in a UVF gun attack in Newtownards last August that was linked to a feud with the rival LVF.

The barrister said the case was one of a number in which Mr Sandhu allegedly used his mobile phone to pass information from clients at a police holding centre in Antrim to senior UVF representatives.

The case against the solicitor is based on secret recordings of his consultations with his clients at the Antrim Serious Crime Suite, where the 41-year-old was covertly bugged by the police.