Wild Justice working with law firm that represented ‘murderous Shia militias’ in Iraq

Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay’s Wild Justice working with law firm that represented ‘murderous Shia militias’ to pursue cases against British soldiers

This week we saw over 1,000 war crime accusations tabled against British soldiers in Iraq quite rightly thrown out after independent investigators found a lack of credible evidence.

The prosecuting lawyer, Phil Shiner, and his firm were reported to have earned millions of pounds in legal fees from bringing the prosecution and the cases ultimately cost the public purse £31million to investigate.

Ultimately Phil Shiner was found to have undertaken ‘bogus damage claims’ against the Ministry of Defence and former soldiers, resulting in him having to re-pay nearly £500,000 and his house being sold.

It was reported in court in 2017 that Phil Shiner took on clients for a public inquiry into alleged abuses, and cut a ‘lucrative deal’ with Leigh Day, the law firm which pursued compensation claims.

A senior partner at Leigh Day, Martyn Day, admitted to the House of Commons Defence Committee last year that his firm had been paid £11m in legal costs by the Ministry of Defence. This led some MPs, including former soldier Johnny Mercer, to describe Martyn Day as 'absolutely deluded'. Another MP questioned how Martyn Day could sleep at night?

It was revealed in court in 2017 by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) that Leigh Day’s clients pursuing claims against British soldiers were in fact members of a “murderous” Shia militia, rather than ‘innocent Iraqi civilians’.

The latest development this week of the 1,000 war crime accusations against soldiers will likely bring the focus back on the law firm, who profited significantly from the vexatious charges against British soldiers, who were hounded and suffered greatly from the witch hunt.

Why is this relevant for our moorland communities? Well, apart from the fact many soldiers come from moorland communities and you’ll find plenty of retired soldiers working across moorland estates, Leigh Day is the firm hired by Mark Avery, Chris Packham and Ruth Tingay in their deluded battle against general licenses.

Make no mistake, as a direct result of the actions of Avery, Packham and Tingay, thousands of endangered chicks have been destroyed across the country. Footage of Gulls destroying nests across have been circulating across the internet in recent weeks, with gamekeepers reporting many of their lapwing nests being decimated. The whole utterly pointless fiasco of general licenses has already likely wasted millions of public funds and working hours from already overstretched government officials and civil servants.

The fact that Avery, Packham and Tingay are working with Leigh Day says a lot about their approach and ethics, then again that shouldn’t be a surprise given the countless vexatious claims thrown at moorland communities.