Limavady based solicitor banned from practising law

Manmohan 'Johnny' Sandhu who pleaded guilty to inciting loyalist paramilitaries to murder was struck off the solicitors' roll following a disciplinary tribunal.

The 44-year-old was convicted at Belfast crown Court in 2009 and imprisoned for 10 years.

The charges were brought against Sandhu after police secretly recorded his interviews with clients at Antrim police station.

During his trial he also pleaded guilty to four charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The charges against the Londonderry solicitor from Colby Avenue on the Culmore Road area of the city, arose out of the attempted murder of Jonathan Hillier in Newtonards in August 2005 and the murders of Jameson Lockhart and Andrew Cully.

An earlier court hearing was told that Sandhu incited members of the UVF to murder Mr Hillier as he recovered in hospital in 2005 from a failed attempt on his life.

The prosecution said Sandhu phoned an unknown person from Antrim PSNI Station and indicated that Hillier "should be taken out."

The former lawyer also attempted to pervert the course of justice surrounding the investigation into a shooting.

In another secret recording, he was overheard coaching his client, Christopher Dinsmore, who was accused of murdering Jameson Lockhart.

Mr Lockhart was shot as he sat in a lorry on the Lower Newtonards Road in Belfast in July 2005 during a feud between the UVF and LVF.

Sandhu told his client how to explain how gloves with cartridge residue came to be seized from the house.

When Sandhu was originally charged his professional body, the Law Society, criticised the police for recording his conversations.

Sandhu was later suspended by the society.