Lottery winner’s husband found guilty of bomb plot over a £1.4m legal battle

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A man found guilty of being part of a plan to detonate explosives outside the chambers of two legal professionals is the husband of a lottery winner.

Wealthy businessman Jonathan Nuttall, 50, has been convicted of being part of a conspiracy to leave bomb-like devices outside the chambers of Andrew Sutcliffe KC and Anne Jeavons at Gray's Inn, in London.

Nuttall is said to have held a deep resentment of the pair for their parts in an investigation into his wife.

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The Old Bailey heard how he harboured a “deep-seated grudge” at the pair for working with law enforcement in the case.

His wife Amanda Nuttall had been at the centre of a money laundering probe led by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in 2011.

Mr Sutcliffe had been leading legal proceedings, with Mrs Jeavons brought onto the case to help him six years later.

The court heard how £1.4million in assets was ordered to be claimed from Mrs Nuttall to settle with the agency in April 2019 and she took out a loan from an Australian firm to cover the payments.

George Carter-Stephenson KC, Mr Nuttall’s barrister, said the settlement was completed on a “commercial basis without admitting the NCA was right about anything”.

But fears the cash had come from illegal means saw it rejected, and instead the repayments were sought by the repossession of the Nuttall’s home, Embley Manor, in Romsey, Hampshire.

He had now been found guilty of coming up with the scheme to set off the explosive devices.

He is thought to have employed the help of Michael Broddle, 46, and sons Charlie, 18, and Joshua, 20, but the latter two were acquitted after a 25-hour jury deliberations.

He is also reported by Metro to have recruited the help of his driver, Michael Sode, 58.

Six months of surveillance on the two lawyers followed and Sode is said to have left the devices outside the chambers on September 14, 2021.

Prosecutors have now said that the devices were intended to cause Sutcliffe, “alarm, distress and public and professional embarrassment”.

Speaking in court on Thursday (August 17) Mr Sutcliffe noted Mr Nuttall was likely to hold a grievance against him.

He told jurors: “In that meeting, Mr Nuttall said it would be a red line if the NCA sought to recover his home”.

He continued: “The NCA was seeking to repossess his home.

“I was being asked a couple of months after the Zoom meeting who might have a reason to be very, very angry and feel it might assist them to intimidate counsel, and that’s why Mr Nuttall’s name came forward."

Broddle admitted two counts of placing an article with intent and possession of an explosive substance.

Nuttall and Sode denied but were convicted of two counts of conspiracy to place an article with intent to induce the belief it would explode or ignite.

Nuttall, Broddle and Sode denied but were convicted of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

Joshua and another son of Broddle, 25-year-old George Gray, denied and were cleared of conspiracy to transfer criminal property.

Nuttall, Broddle and Sode will be sentenced on a date to be fixed.

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