Aid withdrawn days before trial (From Stroud News and Journal)

Aid withdrawn days before trial

A STROUD man whose father was shot dead 11 years ago has had the chance of a civil hearing into the incident whipped from under his feet just days before the case was due to be heard.

Leigh Alliss was only 14 in 1990 when his father Tony was killed in a shooting incident which followed a lengthy boundary dispute with neighbours.

Leigh, now 26, was shot in the arm less than half an hour after his father died in woods near their home in Middleyard, King's Stanley.

At a murder trial at Bristol Crown Court in June 1991, father and son Terence and Graig Maule, whose land neighboured the Alliss's, were acquitted after the judge ruled that there was unsufficient evidence for a conviction.

For the past seven and a half years Leigh and his family have been fighting for compensation for Leigh for personal injuries claimed to have arisen from the incident.

In June last year a hearing date for Bristol Crown Court was set for yesterday, November 13, but just last week Leigh's uncle, Bob Alliss, 54, of Rodborough heard that legal aid to cover the costs of the case had been stopped.

*For full story see this week's SNJ