Lawyer Julian Hall was yesterday found not guilty of all five charges of stealing half a million dollars from a mentally ill client. The unanimous verdict was greeted in the Supreme Court with an outburst of sobbing and hymns.

Mr. Hall, 55, of, Southampton was tried before Chief Justice Richard Ground with charges of using a power of attorney over an elderly client, Betty Lorraine McMahon, to steal a total of $551,044 between November 1995 and February 1996.

Consultant counsel to Department of Public Prosecution's office Kulandra Ratneser represented the Crown along with Crown Counsel Wayne Caines and pupil barrister Nicole Smith.

After roughly four hours of deliberation the eight woman four man jury came back with the unanimous verdict of not guilty on all charges. As the counts were read out Mr. Hall's mother, sister Judith Hall Bean and other friends and relatives in the court burst into tears. Mr. Hall, who took the verdict from the dock, began to sing "Amazing Grace".

Kim Wilson the lawyer who has been assisting Mr. Hall made frantic phone calls gleefully announcing it was unanimous.

The Chief Justice thanked the jury for their efforts. The jury asked to be dismissed from duty but were told they had to serve three more weeks and then would be discharged for life from ever having to serve jury duty again.

"I am thankful to the almighty God for the support he has given me," Mr. Hall told the Royal Gazette.

"The judge handled the case with scrupulous fairness."

Before a verdict was reached, members of the Crown team also told the Royal Gazette that Chief Justice Ground had used "scrupulous fairness" in the case.

Hall said it was ironic that he was praising the Chief Justice since in newspaper columns he had criticised his appointment.

"While it is not normal for me to say such things, the Chief Justice has been imminently fair in his approach to this case," said Mr. Hall. "I was one of the more vociferous opponents to his appointment."

In a column in the Mid Ocean News on December 5, 2003, Mr. Hall wrote that it was not Richard Ground the man that he opposed being appointed as Chief Justice.

"It is about the fact that our Chief Justice should, unless unavailability is clearly and undeniably demonstrated, be Bermudian," Mr. Hall wrote. "It is time for Bermudians who want to assume real control and responsibility for our national destiny to stop apologising for this view and to stand up and respond on rational grounds to those who would have it otherwise. Ultimately we, and we alone, have responsibility for our direction and for our actions."

After the trial was over on Friday, Mr. Hall said he was headed for New York. "I really want to thank lawyer Kim Wilson and Charles Richardson who will soon be called to the bar," said Mr. Hall.

Ms Wilson said it was always an honour to work with Mr. Hall.

"I have really enjoyed being back in court again," said Mr. Hall. "I didn't realise how much I missed it."

He said he would be looking at various ways to clear the bankruptcy that is preventing him from practising law in Bermuda.

For Kulandra Ratneser the Hall case will be his second to last in Bermuda. He plans to leave Bermuda in November. When contacted by the Royal Gazette, Mr. Ratneser was philosophical about the loss of the case.

"The jury is the jury," he said. "We have to accept that. I am a strong believer in the jury system. You win some you lose some."

Mr. Ratneser was assisted by pupil barrister Nicole Smith and Crown counsel Wayne Caines.

Before the verdict was read Mr. Ratneser and Mr. Caines said they were confident that they had done the best job possible.

The jury were sent out at 9.45 a.m. The Chief Justice said that if they did not come to a verdict before lunch he would tell them they would not need to come to a unanimous verdict. He would allow them to rule by majority. Normally he would have told them they could come up with a majority decision after an hour, but he gave them more time because of the complexity of the case.

However, at 2.15 p.m. the jury was ready and did not need the majority decision. During their deliberations they only came back into the court with one question, the definition of incompetence.

Mr. Hall admitted to using $288,000 of Mrs. McMahon's money to pay back his debts. In 1995 he was headed for a second bankruptcy, a condition that would prevent him from practising law in Bermuda.

The Crown accused Mr. Hall of using his power of attorney over Mrs. McMahon to transfer sums of money from her Bank of Butterfield account to Hall's own Bermuda Commercial Bank account called Woodleigh. Mr. Hall said that some of the money transferred was for Mrs. McMahon's benefit.

According to one witness in the case, accountant Paul Hubbard who took over the power of attorney from Mr. Hall in May 1996, a faulty microfilm machine at the Bermuda Commercial Bank meant that they could not prove where all of Mrs. McMahon's money went after it was transferred to the Woodleigh account. There were no cancelled cheques from the Woodleigh account entered as evidence.

This was a major weakness in the prosecution's case.

Mr. Hall claimed that Mrs. McMahon made a short-term loan to him that was a private arrangement between the two of them without a promissory note or documentation.

In May 1996 Mrs. McMahon was ruled incompetent under the mental health act and was not allowed to stand as a witness in her own trial. During his instructions to the jury on Thursday, the Chief Justice said the jury had a particularly difficult task since Mrs. McMahon could not be asked to give evidence.

On Friday the jury only came back into the court room with one question. They asked the Chief Justice to define incompetence. The Chief Justice said there was no real legal definition and it was up to them to decide what it meant in this case.

During the case, in an unusual move, Mr. Hall took the stand in his own defence.