THE APPEAL by the loyalist politician Lindsay Robb against his conviction for a gun-running conspiracy ended in Edinburgh yesterday.
Three judges at the Scottish Court of Criminal Appeal, who heard the appeal amid strict security, said they would give their decision in writing at a later date after detailed consideration of the legal arguments.
Robb (29) was convicted of conspiring to smuggle arms to the UVF and jailed for 10 years at the High Court in Glasgow last November. A member of the Progressive Unionist Party, he had participated in peace talks with the British government at Stormont earlier last year.
Armed police officers guarded the courtroom in Parliament House, Edinburgh, as Robb stepped into the dock. After 45 minutes of legal argument, the appeal judges - Lord Ross the Lord Justice Clerk, sitting with Lord Weir and Lord Murray - reserved their ruling.
The hearing was attended by Mr Billy Wright, the Portadown loyalist dissident, who has been threatened with death by the Combined Loyalist Military Command, the umbrella group for loyalist paramilitaries. Members of Robb's family, including his parents, were also in the court.
The appeal had been continued from July when the judges called for extended notes of evidence from the trial.
Mr Donald Findlay QC argued yesterday that Robb's conviction should be overturned. He claimed the trial judge, Lord Sutherland, misdirected the jury on aspects of the evidence. As a result, there had been a miscarriage of justice.
Mr Findlay submitted to the court sheets of recorded phone calls said to relate to calls made at the time of the alleged conspiracy. He argued that the judge should not have directed the jury that they could take into account calls made to a mobile phone said to have been in Robb's possession.
The phone calls, he argued, did not entitle the jury to hold that Robb was a party to the conspiracy. On some key dates the mobile phone was not in Robb's possession.
Mr lain Bonomy QC, for the Crown, asked the court to reject Robb's appeal. "What we are Looking at is evidence as a whole", he said. "Conspirators made a call to a mobile phone and later that day, when things did not work out, there was a series of calls to conspirators."
Mr Bonomy said the jury was entitled to take this into account. He said the Crown regarded Robb as the "organiser" of the conspiracy. "In my submission there is no miscarriage of justice."
He added: "The evidence has to be viewed against a background of conspiracy by a group described as a bunch of amateurs."