A COLOURFUL ex-lawyer who stood trial for "kidnapping" a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece has suffered a setback in his attempt to sue a Scottish aristocrat.
Marshall Ronald, 56, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, claims he is owed £4.25 million for his part in safely restoring the world-famous painting to its rightful owner, the Duke of Buccleuch.
His action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh also blames the then Dumfries and Galloway police force for going back on a deal to pay him a reward.
Yesterday, judge Lord Doherty heard that Mr Ronald's attempt to get legal aid to fund his case had been turned down.
But Mr Ronald is not ready to give up yet. Maria McGuire, QC, for the police, confirmed a report on a complaint Mr Ronald made against the force, now part of Police Scotland, was imminent.
Mr Ronald hopes that report will help him overturn the decision to refuse him legal aid.
The sides are due back in court next month. If Mr Ronald goes ahead he will face a demand to put up cash to pay the lawyers for the duke and the police if his action fails.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article