A solicitor who incited suspected loyalist paramilitaries to murder has failed in his bid to have a 10-year jail term reduced.
Judges dismissed an appeal against the sentence imposed on Manmohan 'Johnny' Sandhu, whose interviews with men being held at a police station were secretly recorded.
Speaking on Friday, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan described the challenge brought by the 44-year-old as a "hopeless" case.
He said: "This is not just a breach of trust, it is a breach of privilege given to this honourable profession which is entitled to enter into private and properly privileged legal consultations with their clients."
Sandhu, formerly of Colby Avenue, Londonderry, pleaded guilty earlier this year to incitement to murder and four charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The lawyer, who practised out of offices in Limavady, was arrested in January 2006 after police taped his conversations with suspected terrorist clients at the Serious Crime Suite in Antrim.
The charges against him arose from the attempted assassination of a taxi driver and two killings during a power struggle between the UVF and rival LVF in 2005.
As well as incitement to murder, he was accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice over the UVF murders of Jameson Lockhart and Andrew Cully.
At one stage he was also overheard saying: "Dead men can't talk."
Police used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to record the conversations between him and his clients.
Sandhu's barrister, Alan Kane QC, contended in the Court of Appeal that the 10 year sentence was manifestly excessive.
He said: "We have to acknowledge from a personal point of view this represents a tragic fall from grace for Mr Sandhu."
Mr Kane argued that the solicitors remarks had never "gone beyond the walls of the police station".
He told the court: "There is nothing to suggest any action was carried out pursuant to what was said."
He also based his challenge on sentencing guidelines in English cases, and attempted to distinguish Sandhu's crime from that of soliciting murder.
"To incite is to sow the seed; to solicit is perhaps to tend and cultivate the seed into something more."
But Sir Declan, sitting with Lord Justice Higgins, dismissed the appeal application without any Crown submissions.
He described Sandhu's recorded comments as "shocking" and stressed how lawyers consulting with crime suspects were in a position of trust.
A request for legal aid for the appeal was also rejected.
He said: "This was a hopeless appeal. We do not consider there should be payment out of public funds in relation to it."
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