A British businessman who masterminded a bomb plot against two National Crime Agency attorneys while being sought for assets worth £1.4 million has been sent to prison.
Jonathan Nuttall will be imprisoned for more than eight years for the unsuccessful scheme he devised with his driver, Michael Sode, and ex-marine Michael Broddle.
The three intended to target NCA lawyers Andrew Sutcliffe KC and Anne Jeavons, with Broddle installing the devices at Gray’s Inn as the culmination.
Nuttall was found guilty after a four-month trial at the Old Bailey, during which it was revealed that he used driver Sode, 59, as a “middle man” to recruit ex-Royal Marine Broddle.
Jonathan Nuttall, 50, pursued a vendetta against two barristers representing Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) in the Agency’s attempt to recover assets from him.
Broddle planted the two fake bombs in Gray’s Inn, one of the historic four Inns of Court in central London, and left another outside Sutcliffe and Jeavons’ chambers offices from which barristers work in September 2021.
Both devices “had the name of Andrew Sutcliffe marked on them“, prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told jurors during a trial at London’s Old Bailey.
Broddle had previously conducted a six-month surveillance operation against Sutcliffe, Jeavons and their families, she said.
Nuttall and Sode were both convicted of two counts of conspiracy to plant the devices and conspiracy to transfer criminal property, relating to payments made to Broddle.
Broddle previously pled guilty to two counts of conspiracy to install explosive devices and two counts of possessing an explosive material.
The trio appeared in court at the Old Bailey, where Judge Simon Mayo stated that they were all participating in a “malicious, bold, and extremely serious attack on those involved in the administration of justice.”
Nuttall was sentenced to eight years and two months in prison, Sode to six and a half years, and Broddle to seven years.
