Gray's Inn 'hoax bomb' accused wrote letter about 'gravy train' probe

A businessman accused of being involved in a ‘hoax bomb’ at Gray’s Inn wrote a letter to the National Crime Agency and the barristers working for the authority expressing his wish to discuss the case, the Central Criminal Court has heard. 

Jonathan Nuttall wrote to the director of the NCA, Andrew Sutcliffe KC, Anne Jeavons and a third barrister who was also involved in the NCA proceedings. 

Nuttall, his wife Amanda and others were being investigated by the NCA over alleged money laundering and other offences. 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, including one outside chambers 3 Verulam Buildings, where Sutcliffe works, on 14 September 2021, causing building evacuations and road closures. The prosecution alleges Nuttall was behind the incident.

Nuttall, giving evidence in the Old Bailey trial, said: ‘I did not have a particular wish other than to be able to discuss the problems that I was seeing by which I mean the cases I felt from the beginning were based on absolutely nothing apart from the vindicative allegations of my brother.

‘I was hoping the director general would assess what I put down in this letter, investigate it and address it. I was not making any demands in the letter at all. I was simply wanting to sit with somebody at the top of the NCA [about] abuse carried out by the agency and counsel.’

Reading from Nuttall’s letter, George Carter-Stephenson, defending Nuttall, quoted: ‘I do not wish to treat the NCA as an enemy but I must do everything in my power to defend myself and my family.' Carter-Stephenson asked: 'What are you talking about there?’

Nuttall replied: ‘That I would see things through and unearth the corruption I was alleging.’

Carter-Stephenson asked: ‘You make a comment [in the letter], "my case is an extraordinary gravy train for counsel, I can see why they would like it to continue".’

Nuttall said: ‘These are very long proceedings, starting in 2011 and we’re now in 2023, I would say it has been long. It [the phrase gravy train] is a colloquial use of language. If [counsel] are charging fees for a case that settles very quickly, the financial award is limited. [If it] goes on for a very long time it becomes what I would describe as a gravy train.’

Nuttall described an NCA press release about the recovery order as ‘factually incorrect’ and ‘giving very false impressions on what they were describing as a successful outcome’.

The letter, the court heard, was dated 22 January 2022.

Nuttall said he felt ‘shocked and utter disbelief’ when he was arrested. Asked what he thought his arrest was related to, Nuttall said: ‘I knew Mr Sutcliffe and the NCA were involved because I was accused of intimidating and some form of hoax bomb at Gray’s Inn, a chambers I recognised to be those of Mr Sutcliffe.

‘It was far more serious than I originally realised and [I thought] I am being implicated in something I know absolutely nothing about.’

Asked about pin codes and passwords to USBs and phones, Nuttall said he did not know if the USBs were PIN protected and told the court he had forgotten the ‘complex’ password to the phone taken by police.

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 any involvement.

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

Nuttall, Michael Sode (Nutall’s driver and an associate of Michael Broddle) and Broddle’s sons Charlie and Joshua are accused of being involved. 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.