Disgraced lawyer appeals sentence

Sandhu admitted incitement to murder

A solicitor who admitted inciting suspected loyalist paramilitaries to murder is to challenge his 10-year prison sentence, it has emerged.

Manmohan 'Johnny' Sandhu, 44, was jailed earlier this year after his interviews with clients inside a police station were secretly recorded.

The lawyer admitted incitement to murder and four charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

However, he is now set to contest the severity of the sentence.

The date of the hearing has been set for December.

Judges in the Court of Appeal also ordered transcripts of defence pleas made during the original trial to be disclosed to Sandhu's legal team.

'Wicked'

Sandhu, who practised out of offices in Limavady, was arrested in January 2006 after police taped his conversations with suspected loyalist paramilitaries at Antrim police station.

The charges against Sandhu, formerly of Colby Avenue in Londonderry, arose from the attempted assassination of a taxi driver and two killings during a power struggle between the Ulster Volunteer Force and rival Loyalist Volunteer Force in 2005.

As well as incitement to murder, he was accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice over the UVF murders of Jameson Lockhart and Andrew Cully.

Jailing Sandhu in June, the judge told him: "It was a wicked thing to incite men of violence."

Mr Justice Deeny continued: "This was all the more so when you were a solicitor.

"Such conduct must be deserving of a severe sentence."