THE father of a Worcestershire schoolgirl who sued him over her tuition fees will have to foot the legal bill as well.

Callum Lavelle was yesterday ordered to pay for the two-day civil trial in which his daughter Nicole sued him for money to attend The King's School in Worcester.

The legal bill for the landmark judgement will run to £7,000, on top of the £6,000 school fees.

Lavelle's solicitor, Tom Williamson, urged Stirling Sheriff Court in Scotland not to order costs.

He claimed reports that Lavelle was set to become a millionaire from the sale of an American computer firm were false.

Mr Williamson said Lavelle had no shares in Highground Systems, though he currently earns £112,000 a year as its vice-president.

"Ordering my client to pay expenses will simply reduce his free income and his ability to implement the decree," Mr Williamson warned.

But Sheriff Wyllie Robertson, who presided over the trial in November, rejected the request.

He said there was no reason to depart from the normal principle that losers in civil actions pay the costs.

Nicole, aged 17, made legal history last month when she became the first child to take a case over school fees all the way to court, using Scottish law.

She sued her father when he refused to pay her school fees, threatening to cut her off if she did not attend Harrogate Ladies College.

She chose King's so she could attend as a day pupil and remain with her mother, Linda and sister, Stephanie, after they moved to Peopleton, near Pershore, in 1996.

Mrs Lavelle, 43, is now facing a bankruptcy order in fresh wrangle with her ex-husband over the bankruptcy of a computer consultancy firm they ran together in Dunblane.

The Evening News was unable to contact Mrs Lavelle before going to press.