This is the lady defending suspect bomber Osman Hussain as he attempts to avoid extradition from Italy to the UK to face terrorism charges. Her name is Antonietta Sonnessa and she is a court-appointed lawyer for Mr Hussain. I’m sure he can’t thank the court enough.

Seems Ms Sonnessa’s previous work centred around more mundane cases - illegal building for example. This is her first high-profile case and she’s getting to it with gusto. Last night she launched into a defence of her client:

“My client says his action was purely demonstrative. In fact, all four attempts did not result in any injury or damage at all. Moreover, he maintains that he was nothing to do with the events of July 7.

“He has justified his actions as a form of protest against the fact that civilians are suffering in wars at the present time. He has taken part in many peace marches and has never had any contact whatsoever with any terrorist organisation,” she continued.

“He is not at all a violent person and made sure he would not cause any damage, injuries or deaths. There wasn’t a very clearly defined plan, the whole thing was set the day before, in a meeting with this group of friends.”

Such undiluted nonsense providing proof, then, of the wisdom of not judging a book by its cover.

Actually, I hope Mr Hussain is going to do the decent thing and object to having a revealingly dressed member of the opposite sex defending him. God would be pleased with him - as would the next prisoner who ends up with Ms Sonnessa as a result of Mr Hussain’s principled stand.