Barrister receives £1m for legal aid

A barrister was given more than £1 million in legal aid last year, it was revealed.

Ministry of Justice figures showed that Balbir Singh, head of Birmingham’s Equity Chambers, was paid £1,116,000 in 2005-06. Because he is not among the elite 10 per cent with Queen’s Counsel status, Mr Singh is technically known as a junior. The second-highest paid was Nigel Lithman, QC, who received £978,000 in legal aid.

The sums do not represent the barristers’ personal earnings in any one year because the work may have taken place over a number of years and they have to pay VAT and overheads.

Cessna crash kills two

Two people were killed when a small plane crashed near an airfield, fire services said last night. It is believed that the dead were the pilot and a teenage boy. Their bodies were recovered from the cockpit of the burning Cessna, which was privately owned and crash-landed near Clutton, Somerset, in the afternoon. The Air Accident Investigation Board launched an investigation.

Robbers had Bentley

Two armed robbers responsible for a £10 million jewellery heist in Knightsbridge, Central London, last Thursday posed as customers by arriving in a rare Bentley driven by a chauffeur. The two men, aged between 40 and 55, were let into Graff Diamonds after being dropped off in the £120,000 Bentley Continental Flying Spur. They then drew guns, seized the gems and fled on foot.

Tiger fur seller fined

A fur trader who sold coats made of tiger, leopard and ocelot skins has been fined. Michael Moosah, 66, was arrested after police raided his shop, Gale Furs in North London. He admitted three counts of keeping for sale specimens of animals listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Westminster magistrates fined him £900.

Councils pay dispute

Local government workers will lobby Parliament today to call for equal pay for female staff. Unions claim that councils have been too slow in achieving parity. Many town halls are in dispute over backdated claims to put female workers on the same pay as male workers. Council chiefs estimate that there may be a cost of £3 billion to £5 billion to implement an EU directive allowing for six years’ back pay.

Parkinson’s research

Smokers are less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease, research suggests. Researchers also found that those who smoked more seemed to have greater protection. Smoking may delay rather than prevent the onset of Parkinson’s, but that would have to be confirmed by a larger study. The research, published in Archives of Neurology, pooled data on 11,809 individuals.

Diana coroner bars royal interrogations

Lawyers representing Mohamed Al Fayed will not be allowed to question the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh over the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the new coroner in charge of her inquest has ruled.

Lord Justice Scott Baker told a preinquest hearing at the High Court that any further approaches to Buckingham Palace were neither necessary nor appropriate. The hearing was told that the Duke refused to speak to an investigating team about unfriendly letters he is alleged to have written to the Princess. The inquest will open on October 2.

Madeleine assurance

Gordon Brown raised concerns about the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann with the Portuguese Prime Minister. The Prime Minister said he had been told by José Sócrates during talks at No 10 that everything was being done to find the missing girl. Mr Socrates said: “It’s important for Portugal. Everyone in Portugal and the family knows we are doing our best.”

Exorcism ‘prescribed’

A family planning doctor prescribed an exorcism and holy water to a patient who was seeking contraceptive advice, a medical tribunal was told. Joyce Pratt, 44, is said to have told the woman, known as Mrs K, that she was possessed by an evil spirit, the General Medical Council’s fitness-to-practise panel was told. Dr Pratt did not attend, but denies the charges. The hearing continues.

Third body exhumed

The body of a retired crane driver who died in January last year aged 81 is to be exhumed today by detectives investigating suspicious deaths at an old people’s home. Fred Green is the third former resident of the Parkfields Residential Home in Butleigh, Somerset, to be exhumed after the arrest of Rachel and Leigh Baker, its former managers. They have been released on police bail.

Babysitter cleared

A babysitter has been cleared of murdering an 11-month-old girl. Courtney Ann Shailes, of Nelson, Lancashire, died from multiple skull fractures consistent with being thrown against a wall, Preston Crown Court was told. But the jury cleared Lynn Jeffrey, 37, also from Nelson, who claimed that Andrew Elliott, her fellow babysitter and former boyfriend, inflicted the fatal injuries on August 23 last year.

Haymarket season

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is forming a company to present its own productions, with a first season of works directed by Jonathan Kent, the former Almeida artistic director. Starting in September, it will feature Edward Bond’s The Sea, William Wycherley’s The Country Wife and Marguerite, a new musical by Michel Legrand, Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the team behind Les Misérables.

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