A barrister who was allegedly targeted by a wealthy businessman when devices designed to resemble explosives were planted at Gray’s Inn said he was ‘surprised’ when police came to see him as he ‘thought he had nothing to tell’, a court heard today.

Andrew Sutcliffe KC was instructed to conduct legal proceedings relating to a National Crime Agency (NCA) investigation into Jonathan Nuttall, his wife, and others over alleged money laundering and other offences which led, the Old Bailey previously heard, to Nuttall ‘harbouring a great deal of animosity’ toward Sutcliffe.

The NCA instructed a second barrister in Sutcliffe’s chambers, Anne Jeavons, to work alongside him. In April 2019, an order was made for the recovery of £1m of assets from Nuttall’s wife.

Two ‘devices’ were placed in Gray’s Inn (pictured above), one beside a bench and the second outside chambers 3 Verulam Buildings, where Sutcliffe works, on 14 September 2021. A smoke grenade, which was part of one of the devices, was also let off.

The incident led to building evacuations and road closures.

Michael Broddle, 46, of Hounslow, London, accepted that he had placed the devices.

Nuttall, 50, of Romsey, Hants, along with co-defendants Joshua Broddle, 20, Charlie Broddle, 18, both of Hounslow, London, Michael Sode, 58, of Lewisham, London, and George Gray, 25, of Wembley, London, all deny being involved.

Giving evidence, Sutcliffe, who was called to the bar in 1983 and sits as a divisional judge of the High Court in the Chancery Division, was in chambers on the day of the incident.

He said: ‘I happened to be in the clerks room when…our chambers administrator came up to tell us and said we had to evacuate the building. I went back to my room, collected my keys and mobile phone and left the building. We were directed to Gray’s Inn Square 100 yards from my chambers. I was there for about three hours, I needed to get back into chambers, I had some work to do so I stayed until I was able to get back.

‘[The next day] I was in my room in chambers, [the] receptionist told me someone wanted to see me and it was DC Rose. I was very surprised because I thought I had nothing to tell. I had simply been in chambers the day before with everyone else. He showed me his laptop which contained a photo of a note and who it was addressed to.’

The court heard the note was addressed to Sutcliffe and included the nickname ‘Sooty’.

Sutcliffe said he had been nicknamed Sooty ‘over 40 years ago’ when he was in the army for ‘a short time’ in the 1970s and ‘for whatever reason my fellow army officers referred to [him] by that nickname’.

He added: ‘I was frankly amazed to see that name being used on this document. My immediate reaction, it was dumbfounded frankly.’

Asked about the allegations, which were not repeated, also included in the note, Sutcliffe said: ‘I was very shocked. I cannot express it anymore than that, I was totally shocked.’

When asked about how he felt after watching the recordings of the notes at different locations, some of which were relevant to Sutcliffe, he said: ‘Obviously there was a sense of shock.

‘I worked out what it [the notes targeting Sutcliffe and Anne Jeavons] must be to do with, a case the two of us had been doing together and so I thought what that might be. The case, although we have done a number of cases for the NCA and at least one case for the SFO, the case involving more work than any was the NCA case of Amanda Nuttall and others.’

Sutcliffe confirmed to the court that the case was still ongoing in September 2021. He added that Jonathan Nuttall had not been a defendant in the recovery order of 2019 as ‘none of the property claimed by the NCA was in his name’.

Sutcliffe had not been aware of the notes until shown them by police following the Gray’s Inn incident. He told the court it ‘came as a complete shock’ when he discovered he was linked to the incident.

Nuttall, Michael Sode (Nutall’s driver and an associate of Michael Broddle) and Broddle’s sons Charlie and Joshua are accused of being involved in the ‘criminal plan’. All four deny all allegations against them.

Nuttall, Sode, and Charlie and Joshua Broddle are charged with conspiracy to place an article with intent with the intention of inducing in another a belief that the said article was likely to explode or ignite and thereby cause personal injury or damage to property; and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

Nuttall and Sode are also charged with failing to comply with a notice when they knowingly failed to disclose the PIN or passcode to a digital storage device.

Charlie Broddle is also charged with possessing an explosive substance.

The trial continues.