I will be buying myself a rather large cupcake when that revolting human right lawyer Phil Shiner finally get his comeuppance and is jailed for anywhere between 10 and 15 years (I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this).
Shiner was a special kind of s**t. His crime was to obtain taxpayer funds to bring bogus claims of murder and torture of Iraqi prisoners against British soldiers following the invasion of 2003. The serious allegations against our troops were ALL lies as a massive public inquiry proved
In total his firm, Public Interest Lawyers, received £3million in public funds for his Iraqi clients. Of course, all the Labour lot loved what he was doing.
He worked alongside Sir Keir Starmer at one stage and our old chum Baroness Chakrabarti was his greatest fan saying, when the police were closing in, that he was the victim of a witch-hunt.
Rather than apologise she simply said that Shiner had ‘’lost his way’’. The legal profession loved him too. Back in 2007 he was named Solicitor of the Year by the Law Society, the solicitor’s professional body. S**t of the Year more appropriate.
Shiner, 67, admitted three counts of fraud at Southwark Crown Court. Among his tricks that he had an agent in the Middle East who was cold calling potential clients in Iraq.
The claims, had there been an ounce of truth in them, would have led to many British soldiers going to jail for many, many years.
Finally, a public inquiry, costing £24million concluded that all the allegations of wrong doing against the soldiers were ‘’wholly without foundation and entirely the product of deliberate lies.’’
During the inquiry, 200 soldiers were questioned about murders and the alleged mutilation of Iraq prisoners. Imagine what Shiner had done to their lives. It emerged that those Iraqis bringing the claims had been linked to the Mahdi army, a Shia militia.
So, come December 2 Shiner will be sentenced. I can’t remember a more serious case. I am looking forward to – as I imagine so will the soldiers be – a really lengthy sentence.
I wonder how many other crooked lawyers are out there like Shiner?
Here was a solicitor touting for business, allowing or possibly encouraging, Iraqis to make up stories knowing the bigger the lie the bigger the legal aid.
He got away with stories which would have put the fear of God among totally innocent soldiers. A number of people on the Labour side always want to see the worst of our troops and weep buckets for ‘’innocent’’ locals in the war zone.
We are seeing it right now with SAS soldiers alleged to have killed Afghans. I so hope they are exonerated.
Baroness Chakrabarti is quoted as saying, in defence of her friend Shiner: “I know the danger of governments threatening human rights lawyers for their work. It happens in dark parts of the world.’’
Well, in this case, the dark parts of the world was Birmingham where Shiner ran his law firm.
As he faces his long sentence, the darkest part will be his cell at night. Good. For his sake, let’s hope there aren’t any ex-soldiers in the prison with him.