TONY Blair kept his composure today during his appearance at a high-profile inquiry into media ethics when a man interrupted the hearing in London to accuse the former British prime minister of being a war criminal. In what was described a "major breach of security" at the Royal Courts of Justice, 49-year-old documentary filmmaker David Lawley-Wakelin burst into the Leveson Inquiry and shouted, "The man is a war criminal" at Blair as the shocked courtroom looked on. Gripping onto a bench just metres away from the former prime minister, Lawley-Wakelin, dressed in cream pants and a white shirt, continued his speech as he was forcibly removed by guards. "Excuse me, this man should be arrested for war crimes," he shouted. "JP Morgan paid him off for the Iraq War. Three months after he invaded Iraq, he held up the Iraq bank for 20 billion, he was then paid $6 million every year, and still is, from JP Morgan - the man is a war criminal." The filmmaker, who made a documentary entitled The Alternative Iraq Enquiry, fell upstairs as he was bundled out of the hearing by three members of security staff, while Lord Justice Leveson stood up from his seat in shock. He questioned how the intruder was able to access the hearing through "what was supposed to be a secure corridor" reserved for the judge and ordered an immediate inquiry into the security breach. Leveson apologised to Blair for the interruption and told him he was not obliged to respond to Lawley-Wakelin's accusations after the former leader calmly described the man's claims as "completely and totally untrue". Blair said such things had a tendency to "dominate the news agenda" and continued with the matter of giving evidence. Lawley-Wakelin, who confirmed his identity to reporters outside court, was arrested on suspicion of causing a breach of the peace. He was released by police this afternoon without any further action, Sky News sources claimed. A spokesperson for Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service said, "Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service take security very seriously at all of their venues. An investigation has been ordered into an incident at the Leveson inquiry, Royal Courts of Justice today." "It would be inappropriate to pre-empt the findings on this investigation," the spokesperson added. The Leveson Inquiry was set up in July 2011 to investigate allegations of phone hacking by British newspapers. Both victims of hacking and newspaper executives, as well as politicians and their advisers, have given evidence to the inquiry.
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