BT/1017

Orlando bloomed in high-profile career at the London bar
JONATHAN McCAMBRIDGE
Crime Correspondent
profiles the lawyer whose illness delayed the biggest mass murder trial in British legal history

WHEN 40 journalists packed into a Belfast courtroom last week they had no idea that what they would end up writing about would not be 29 murders but one sick lawyer.
- It was meant to be a day for the families of the Omagh victims. They packed into Belfast Crown Court to see Sean Hoey finally in the dock accused of the worst single act of terrorism in the history of The Troubles. Instead it was a London-based barrister who stole the headlines.
Orlando Pownall QC is not unfamiliar with media attention or high-profile cases. Born in 1952, he is one of the most sought-after barristers in the UK and famously prosecuted the murderer of TV personality Jill Dando.
The Chambers & Partners Guide describes Pownall as "exceptionally gifted" and said he "finds favour for his seemingly laid-back but ultimately muscular style".
However, his muscular style did not endear him to local Crown Court judge Reg Weir last week. During terse exchanges the judge made known his annoyance at the lack of notice he had been given about Pownall's illness which delayed the beginning of the trial. Judge Weir told the barrister that he did not know how affairs are conducted in London, but that in our jurisdiction there are certain ways of doing things.
Of course Pownall also left his own mark on the court. His first action was to declare dramatically that he had come to Northern Ireland against doctor's advice. He went on to state intriguingly that his doctor at St Anthony's Hospital in London told him he had never encountered such symptoms in 37 years of medical practice.
This week it was revealed that his mystery illness was, in fact, a viral infection.
Furthermore it subsequently emerged that Pownall had appeared in court despite not having a practising certificate for Northern Ireland. Although this situation was subsequently rectified it brought another rebuke form Mr Justice Weir.
It is not clear why an English barrister has been recruited for the Hoey case although it is understood that there was no rash among senior defence counsels in Ulster to take on a case as complex and massive as Omagh.
Despite defending Sean Hoey on multiple murder and Real IRA terrorist charges, Orlando Pownall QC is better known as a prosecutor. As First Senior Treasury Counsel he led the prosecution at many major trials - including the Dando case which led to the conviction of Barry George.
Pownall also should have some experience of the Real IRA because in 2003 he prosecuted three Irish terrorists in the Old Bailey for a bombing campaign.
The Real IRA bombing cell was responsible for car bomb attacks in London and Birmingham in 2001.
One of the targets was the BBC Television Centre.
During the successful prosecution Pownall told the court: "It was nothing short of a miracle that no pedestrians or others in clubs and pubs nearby did not suffer fatal injuries." However, there were multiple injuries and millions of pounds of damage caused.
Pownall also successfully convinced the jury that the same Real IRA team were behind a number of explosions. He said: "There can be no doubt the same group of people was involved and responsible for each device. They were all placed in motor vehicles, they incorporated home-made explosive mixture and similar timing mechanisms. The same code word was used."
Brothers Robert Hulme and Aiden Hulme, together with Noel Maguire, were handed down substantial custodial sentences on charges of conspiracy to cause explosions.
Pownall also prosecuted in a controversial court martial this year when four British soldiers were accused of forcing an Iraqi teenager into a river in Basra at gunpoint and watching him drown.
He told the court martial the incident was "a common design or plan to force alleged looters into the water to teach them a lesson".
However, the soldiers were found not guilty of manslaughter by a court martial panel and their solicitor later described it as "an ill-conceived case which should never have been prosecuted".
Orlando Pownall also played a part in one of the most notorious celebrity court cases of recent times. In 2003 he prosecuted Nadine Milroy-Sloan after the trainee college lecturer had made up a story that she had been sexually assaulted by former Tory MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine. Milroy-Sloan was sentenced to three years in jail for perverting the course of justice.
For the past two years Pownall has concentrated mainly on his defence practice but his profile has rarely dropped. Late in 2004 he defended a group of footballers who were accused of rape by a 15-year-old girl. The players, who included ex-QPR player Terrell Forbes, were cleared.
This year he also successfully defended a youth who had been accused of the murder of black schoolboy Damilola Taylor.
However, the most bizarre episode surrounding the name of Orlando Pownall occurred outside a courtroom and he was not even involved.
Scot Paul Bint is known in the tabloid Press as 'King Con'. In his long career as a conman he has posed as an aristocrat, a barrister, a doctor, an hotelier and a playboy. Once when posing as a doctor he told the mother and father of a terminally ill child that their daughter would live only hours before she died.
In 2003 Bint tricked a hospital consultant into believing that he was Orlando Pownall - whose fame had spread following the prosecution of Barry George.
He befriended the doctor after telling her he was the barrister when he arrived in the A&E department at University College Hospital and told staff he had crashed his Aston Martin.
Taking pity on him, the doctor allowed him to stay at her house, whereupon he stole £60 and her credit cards.
When he was arrested police found he had in his possession Crown Prosecution Service papers relating to the Jeremy Bamber murder trial - and a wig belonging to Alan Pardoe QC.
The Omagh families are now waiting to learn if Orlando Pownall's health enables the trial to start, on Monday week. If it does not then a new barrister will have to be selected and the waiting will go on.