Judge frees murder suspects after their conversations were 'bugged'

Five men involved in a murder trial walked free from court yesterday after police were found to have bugged conversations with their solicitors.

The judge said senior detectives who approved using listening devices to collect extra evidence had made a mockery of the justice system and denied the men a fair trial.

Robert Sutherland, who was accused of murder, was released while the friends and relatives of his alleged victim looked on in angry disbelief. Four men said to have conspired with him to arrange the murder of Mark Corley, 23, also walked free from Nottingham Crown Court.

Mr Justice Newman said all five had been denied their right to silence after being secretly recorded while they were held at two police stations. Officers placed listening devices in cell passages and exercise yards in Grantham and Sleaford, Lincolnshire, to gather evidence.

But the hidden microphones recorded confidential and legally privileged discussions between the men and their solicitors. Even when detectives realised what they were listening to they made no attempt to stop the recordings, the court heard.

Dismissing the case and discharging the men, the judge said: "This case gives rise to difficulties which have never been encountered before."

He added that the police had "compromised the whole trial process" and "made a mockery of the police caution. They undermined and infringed the statutory right of a defendant to confer with a solicitor in private."

The judge warned: "The court will not countenance flagrant breaches of the law. I am satisfied there cannot be a fair trial. Justice has been affronted in a grave way."

Mr Corley, a convicted robber from Grantham, was last seen on 7 July 2000, five months before his remains were found on remote farmland near Darlington. He had been shot in the head in what detectives believed was a contract-style killing.

Mr Sutherland, 35, from Bathgate in West Lothian, was accused of his murder. The other four men, all from Grantham, were charged with conspiring with each other and Mr Sutherland to carry out the murder. They were John Smith, 26, Gary Self, 36, Danny Gray, 21, and John Toseland, 58.

The cost to the taxpayer of the hearing, which involved a number of QCs, is thought to have run into tens of thousands of pounds. Lincolnshire Police said they would study the judge's criticisms.