Ex-Marine admits planting ‘fake bomb’ outside barrister’s office for cash

Michael Broddle told jurors he would ‘do anything’ for cash but denied he had an issue with the alleged target.

The trial is taking place at the Old Bailey (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Archive)

A former Royal Marine has admitted planting a fake bomb outside a senior barrister’s chambers, telling jurors he would “do anything” to get cash.

Michael Broddle, 46, has accepted he placed two devices around Gray’s Inn in London on September 14 2021.

But he denied he had an issue with the alleged target Andrew Sutcliffe KC, claiming he was under instruction by a “third party”.

The prosecution allege businessman Jonathan Nuttall was behind a campaign against Mr Sutcliffe and his colleague Anne Jeavons because they represented the National Crime Agency in a long-running financial wrangle.

It is claimed Nuttall, 50, recruited his driver, Michael Sode, 58, to act as a “middleman” with Broddle, who in turn roped in his sons Charlie, 18, and Joshua, 20.

Jurors have heard one of the devices at Gray’s Inn was “potentially viable” and the other, which was left outside Mr Sutcliffe’s chambers, spewed smoke for “maximum alarm”.

It was accompanied by a note addressed to Sooty – Mr Sutcliffe’s old Army nickname – and contained false allegations said to have been designed to cause him professional embarrassment.

Giving evidence in his Old Bailey trial on Monday, Michael Broddle told jurors he had been instructed to carry out what he thought was a security test.

At the time, he had hoped that the job might lead to a security contract at Gray’s Inn, the heart of London’s legal district, jurors were told.

The court heard he had been told to do a “penetrative test like he used to do in the Marines” with a “fake bomb” and write a note to Mr Sutcliffe.

Broddle said that at the time he did not question the link between the security test and the lawyer, who had been the subject of a previous research.

He told jurors: “I was in financial difficulty. I would do anything to get the cash.”

Judge Simon Mayo KC asked: “You understood someone had an issue with Mr Sutcliffe and that’s why there was a note addressed to Mr Sutcliffe?”

The defendant agreed.

The judge said: “What about the suggestion the content of the note had been dictated to you. You wrote it without adding anything to it?”

Broddle replied: “That’s true. I had no problem with Mr Sutcliffe. I was acting on instruction.

“The Sooty part was me, I did that. The rest of it is dictated.”

Nuttall, of Romsey, Hampshire, Sode, of Deptford, south-east London, and Charlie and Joshua Broddle, from Hounslow, west London, deny two charges of conspiring with Michael Broddle to place an article with intent on or before September 14 2021.

Charlie Broddle denies possession of an explosive substance in relation to one of the devices.

Michael Broddle, Nuttall, Sode, Joshua Broddle and George Gray, 25, of Hounslow, deny conspiring to transfer criminal property.

Nuttall faces six charges and Sode two charges of failure of comply with a notice.

The Old Bailey trial continues.