Top lawyer Sir Desmond de Silva's book to reveal 50 years of secrets from trials including John Terry, Lee Bowyer and an African warlord

Desmond De Silva QC became known as football's greatest defender after representing John Terry, Lee Bowyer and Ron Atkinson
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Rashid Razaq20 September 2017

One of Britain’s most successful QCs is to reveal secrets from his career at the heart of some of the most colourful cases of the past 50 years.

Sir Desmond de Silva was dubbed the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Bar for saving so many defendants from the noose in murder and treason trials in Commonwealth countries.

He also became known as football’s greatest defender after representing players such as John Terry, Lee Bowyer and Hans Segers, and former Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson.

Now Sir Desmond, 77, has written his memoirs, Madam, Where Are Your Mangoes? In the book, he lays out the steps in his tactical battle to bring former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor to justice in The Hague — the first conviction of a former head of state for war crimes since 1946 during the Nuremberg trials.

John Terry hired the QC for his racism trial in 2012
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Sir Desmond has survived several attempts on his life. An IRA bomb blast in the Seventies might not have been targeted at him personally but, he complains, it blew the chocolate pudding off his spoon. On another occasion, his brandy was poisoned during a trial in Africa.

Former England footballer Lee Bowyer was also defended by the top lawyer
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The book also reveals his part in a Cold War spy trial at the Old Bailey which might have been rigged to fool the Russian KGB. Canadian academic Professor Hugh Hambleton was jailed in 1982 for spying after a confession in the witness box, but was released a few years later, raising the question of whether the trial had been a plot to convince the Russians the secrets he had passed them were genuine.

In another case Sir Desmond persuaded an Old Bailey judge that his client should be cleared as he was a victim of witchcraft organised by a client of the late George Carmen QC.

Sir Desmond helped bring former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor to justice
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The book also describes how he teased the Pope in the Vatican and innocently asked Lord Archer in an Old Bailey lift whether the author, on trial for perjury, was “going down”.

Sir Desmond was knighted by the Blair government and made a privy councillor by David Cameron when he headed the inquiry into alleged links between the security services and assassinations in Ulster during the Troubles.

The book’s title refers to a misunderstanding by one of the QC’s colleagues when the hotel they thought they were staying in during a trial in Sierra Leone turned out to be a brothel.

Published by Quartet Books on Thursday, it also features accounts of his trials by former Evening Standard courts correspondent Paul Cheston.

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