A former north laird convicted of twice plotting to kill his former girlfriend is locked in a new legal battle – to contact his daughter.
Malcolm Potier was jailed for six years in Australia in 2002 for soliciting a hit man to murder Linda Oswald, his former girlfriend and mother of his daughter.
The 64-year-old paid a fellow detention centre inmate £4,600 to kill Ms Oswald and her new boyfriend, but would-be assassin Alessandro Basso fled to his native Italy with the money.
Potier’s sentence was extended by 12 years in 2006 when he again plotted to kill her while he was in prison in Long Bay, New South Wales.
The plots were motivated by a custody battle over his young daughter.
And now the former property magnate – who beat off Rolling Stone Mick Jagger to buy Gigha, just off the Mull of Kintyre for £5.4million in 1989 – is again fighting to see his child.
Following his release from jail, Potier flew to London in December and was made the subject of a “violent offender order complaint” brought by the Metropolitan Police.
The order reads: “His ex-partner now lives in fear of her life and her family and friends have been subjected to threats and she has now been placed under protective services worldwide to protect her identity.”
An interim order preventing Potier from making contact with his ex and her family was imposed on the day he landed in the UK.
But the former baron is now challenging it, and appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
Potier, originally from Sevenoaks, Kent, claimed district judge Howard Riddle was unqualified to perform legal duties because of bias and challenged his decision to impose the interim order.
Dismissing the application, the judge said: ‘I’m satisfied that the test for actual and perceived bias is not made out.
The case was adjourned until next month to allow witness statements to be served and for Mr Potier to get legal representation.