Da Vinci accused makes conspiracy claim

A court has heard claims a private investigator accused of holding a stolen Leonardo da Vinci to ransom was the victim of a conspiracy.

The High Court in Edinburgh was told Robert Graham had been deceived by both his lawyer and an undercover policeman.

Solicitor advocate John Keenan said his client had only ever believed he was acting within the law.

Mr Graham is one of five men who deny conspiring to extort £4.25m to bring back the Madonna of the Yarnwinder.

The painting was stolen from the Duke of Buccleuch’s Drumlanrig Castle in 2003.

The jury at the extortion trial has been hearing the closing speech from Mr Keenan.

He reminded them that when Mr Graham came by information about how the painting might be acquired and returned he sought legal advice from his lawyer Marshall Ronald.

Mr Ronald, in turn, went to two Scottish lawyers.

That led eventually to him negotiating reward money with a man called John Craig who he believed to be an agent of the duke but who was actually an undercover policeman.

Mr Ronald kept Mr Graham in the dark about the detail of that, said Mr Keenan and, later, had actively deceived him.

Mr Keenan said Mr Ronald and the policeman had conspired to lie to his client by telling him there was a signed contract – lodged with lawyers – which stated he was acting on behalf of the duke in getting the painting back.

"There was certainly no conspiracy to extort money by the five men sitting in the dock," said Mr Keenan.

"The only true conspiracy was between Marshall Ronald and John Craig to deceive Robert Graham."

Later, the jury was told that Mr Graham’s private-eye colleague John Doyle was just as much a victim.

In his closing speech, his defence agent, solicitor advocate Maurice Smythe, said John Craig had been like a "circus ringmaster". The undercover officer had taken charge and was "pressing the buttons".

‘Real agenda’

He reminded the jury that Mr Graham had been heard to offer to Mr Craig that he would take the painting straight to a police station but Mr Craig had told him not to.

"That offer was a contradiction of extortion," he said, but Mr Craig rejected it because it "interfered with his real agenda".

"He wanted not only the painting," said Mr Smythe. "He wanted bodies. He wanted arrests."

Mr Smythe said both Mr Doyle and Mr Graham "believed in their heart and soul" that they were doing an honest thing. When they took the painting to Glasgow they were "full of pride – bursting with it".

"Their intentions were entirely pure. They were giving it back to the duke. They were delighted to do so," he said.

He dismissed the Crown’s suggestion that they were involved in a criminal conspiracy as "a mad idea".

On trial with Mr Graham, 57, Mr Ronald, 53, and Mr Doyle, 61, all from Lancashire, are Calum Jones, 45, of Renfrewshire, and David Boyce, 63, of Lanarkshire.

They deny conspiring to extort £4.25m between July and October 2007. The trial continues.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Artwork ‘handed over in car park’

A stolen Leonardo Da Vinci painting was handed over to a private investigator in a pub car park, a court has heard.

The Madonna of the Yarnwinder began its journey back to Scotland in 2007, four years after it was stolen from Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire.

Robert Graham, 57, of Lancashire, told Edinburgh High Court he met an underworld figure in a Liverpool car park and paid £350,000 for the canvas.

Mr Graham is one of five men who deny trying to extort £4.25m for the canvas.

The private eye was giving evidence as the trial moved into its sixth week.

He insisted that everything he did was "legal and lawful" and denied that anyone had ever threatened the safety of the painting.

He described how his partner in Crown Private Investigations, John Doyle, had been the first to hear about the possibility of being involved in the return of the artwork.

The pair went to solicitor Marshall Ronald for advice and learned there was supposed to be a reward or finder’s fee of £1m.

"We thought we could live with that," Mr Graham told the court.

Mr Ronald met a man he believed was acting for the Duke – but was really part of a police sting operation – and came back to say £2m was on offer.

"I thought it was fantastic. It was twice as much as my highest hope," Mr Graham said.

He told defence solicitor John Keenan: "We thought that if we were very lucky and everything went well we would end up with £50,000 each which was fantastic wages."

Mr Graham said he had hoped to go to Drumlanrig Castle to personally hand over the Madonna painting to its owner, the Duke of Buccleuch, in a blaze of publicity.

Both he and Mr Doyle had insisted on publicity as part of the deal, as it could have revived the fortunes of "Stolen Stuff Re-united", a loss-making website they ran together.

"We just thought it would be the best advert," Mr Graham told the court.

"You couldn’t buy an advert like that. If you could get a Da Vinci back, you could get anything back."

The arrangement led to him travelling to the pub car park in Hale with £350,000 in the boot of his Jaguar to hand to an underworld figure who was in touch with the people who had the painting.

Some hours later the man known to the trial only as Karl returned with the painting, covered by a white sheet, in a sponge-lined container.

‘On her way’

After a phone call to Mr Ronald to say "The Lady is on her way home" Mr Graham and Mr Doyle drove north, but rain and traffic problems forced them to pull into the Lockerbie Manor Hotel.

The following morning they took photos of the painting with throwaway cameras bought from the local Tesco.

The painting was later delivered the the Glasgow offices of law firm HBJ Gateley Wareing where it was seized during a police raid.

On trial alongside Mr Graham are Marshall Ronald, 53, and John Doyle, 61, also from Lancashire, and Calum Jones, 45 from Renfrewshire and David Boyce, 63, from Lanarkshire.

They are not accused of the robbery.

The trial continues.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.