The Bermuda lawyer on trial for allegedly stealing more than $500,000 from a mentally ill widowed client has admitted to taking $68,100 to pay his debts.

Julian Ernest Sinclair Hall told the Supreme Court yesterday that he used the money to pay child support arrears, hospital bills, his ex-wife and payroll tax.

Hall, who is representing himself in Supreme Court, is accused of stealing a total of $551,044 from the widow, Betty Lorraine McMahon between 1995 and 1996.

In the unexpected move yesterday, Hall stood up and made formal admissions to taking $68,100.

This came less than ten minutes after an officer from Child Support Services, Sharon Michael, took the stand and confirmed that the cheque her department had received from Hall for $13,000 was the same manager?s cheque issued by Bermuda Commercial Bank from the Woodley account on November 9 1995.

In his formal admission Hall admitted to Chief Justice Richard Ground that he had used this manager?s cheque to pay the arrears.

Hall also admitted that another manager?s cheque for $5,100, issued on the same day and made out to Gibbons Deposit Company was in fact paid into his ex-wife?s account.

Hall also made a formal admission that he used a $50,000 manager?s cheque issued from the Woodley account on 14 November 1995 to pay $30,000 in respect of ?hospital living? incurred by Hall and Associates and $20,000 towards payroll tax.

Earlier in the day, Mrs. McMahon?s psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Tennant testified as to the ?mental condition? of the elderly woman he helped for more than a year.

Dr. Tennant worked at St. Brendan?s Hospital from 1991 to 1996 and treated Mrs. McMahon from 1995 until he returned to England in January 1996.

He told the court that Mrs. McMahon was considered clinically depressed, a situation made worse over time by the emotional and at times ?tense? relationship between her and her two daughters ? Bettina and Francine.

?She lived to a degree in complete isolation and had a lot of anxiety about her daughters. She was fond of them, but was worried about their lifestyles,? he said.

He said her condition deteriorated following visits by her daughter, Bettina and telephone calls and often she would sit in the cellar laundry in a ?dark corner rocking for hours? in a chair.

Dr. Tennant said he was concerned about her mental capacity to make decisions, especially about financial matters, because her mood and capacity varied so much.

?One minute she was quite perceptive and the next she was over-anxious,? he said.

He said Mrs. McMahon would agree with anything anyone said during this anxious moments just so that she could escape.

Dr. Tennant said he did discuss these problems with her lawyer at the time, John Campbell and discussed the possibility of placing her under court of protection ? an idea that was not favoured by her daughters.

He said he was concerned about the effect on Mrs. McMahon?s mental state following visits by Bettina which culminated one night when she was found wondering along Harbour Road.

Dr. Tennant suggested a live-in companion as opposed to the high costs of 24-hour nursing care and advised this live-in companion not to let Bettina into the house because of the effect she had on her mother.

He told the court it was shortly after this, in July 1995, that he received a call from Hall, claiming to be Bettina?s lawyer, demanding to know why he (Dr. Tennant) was preventing Bettina from seeing her mother.

?Rightly so... I told him I was concerned about Bettina?s influence on Bettie?s mental state and also that Bettina got her mother to sign documents,? he said.

He said this followed conversations with Mrs. McMahon who said Bettina had ?made? her sign documents.

It was at this point, he said, that he advised lawyers that he be present at the signing of all documents to make sure she was ?lucid? enough to understand what the documents were and why she was signing them.

On August 9,1995 Mrs. McMahon told the doctor that she believed Hall was now her lawyer.

?She told me she had met him once and he gave her some papers to sign ? she didn?t know what ? but showed surprise that Bettina?s lawyer was now looking into her affairs,? he said.

Dr. Tennant said he confirmed that Hall was in fact now her lawyer.

According to evidence presented by the Crown, a document giving Hall the Power of Attorney was signed on 1 November 1995.

However, Dr. Tennant said he met with Mrs. McMahon that day and she did not mention that she had signed a document ? as she normally did ? especially not one giving Hall the Power of Attorney.

?If she had signed a Power of Attorney document, knowing what it was, she would have told me and would have been very upset,? he said.

He said Mrs. McMahon didn?t understand too much about her finances, or how much money she had.

During his last meeting with Mrs. McMahon before he returned to England, Dr. Tennant said the elderly widow asked him to write a letter to her daughters? lawyers telling them they had no right to her ?financial state of affairs?.

Kulandra Ratneser from the Public Prosecution?s office represented the Crown in yesterday?s trial, which continues on Monday morning.