Police can no longer bug clients

A ruling by the Lord Chief Justice said the monitoring of such conversations will be unlawful, unless it is authorised by an independent person.

A solicitor is awaiting trial on charges of attempting to incite murder and pervert the course of justice.

The allegations, which he denies, are based on conversations he had with clients at Antrim police station.

They were secretly recorded last year.

Until now, such surveillance could be authorised by a deputy chief constable.

However, on Friday Lord Chief Justice Sir Brian Kerr said that would no longer be the case.

He made the ruling in a case brought by five applicants who sought assurances from the police and the Prison Service that consultations with their legal advisers or doctors were not being monitored.

Sir Brian said that in future, conversations between clients and their solicitors or doctors cannot be monitored unless "it has been shown to the satisfaction of an independent person to be strictly necessary".

"The need for a legal adviser and his client to be secure in the knowledge that what passes between them is and will remain confidential is both obvious and incontestable," said the Lord Chief Justice.

He added: "It appears to me to be self evident that interference with the fundamentally important right arising under Article 8 to consult a legal adviser or a medical adviser privately will be more readily justified where there is a demonstrable measure of independence on the part of the authorising agency."

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