Ex-royal butler victim of phone terror campaign

Chester Crown Court was told Mr Burrell had been the victim of threatening phone calls to his business, in which the caller also threatened to place an “incendiary device” at his flower shop.

A jury of seven men and five women took just 22 minutes to find in favour of the prosecution case against Bulgarian Slav Mitev, 50, who harassed and placed Mr Burrell in fear of violence.

At the start of the one-day trial Judge Elgin Edwards, Recorder of Chester, ruled that Mitev, of Wood Green, London, was not fit to enter a plea to the charges due to his mental state.

Judge Edwards told the jury they simply had to come to a unanimous decision about whether they believed he had committed the acts.

Taking to the witness stand, Mr Burrell, wearing a pin-striped suit, blue shirt and yellow tie, re-lived a number of phone calls which were made to Paul Burrell Flowers in Farndon, near Chester, in June and July last year.

In one call, the person on the other end of the phone made threats to set his shop – where he was living at the time – on fire.

At another point he asked: “How much money did you extort from the royals?” and if he still kept his “photographs from Hyde Park”.

Mr Burrell said his impression was of a “mature man” in his 50s with an “Asian sounding voice.”

Mr Burrell described the moment he confronted the caller after he made threats about his two sons and about “blowing up a plane” which his brother was travelling on.

Following the jury’s verdict, Judge Edwards said: “It’s a very sad case, and has had a very upsetting effect upon Mr Burrell.

“The defendant quite irrationally seems to blame Mr Burrell for various matters which are not his fault.” The case was adjourned for sentence and further psychiatric reports. Mitev was granted conditional bail.