If you're anything like me, you view legal proceedings as clearly as if they were undertaken within a pool of lentil soup. For the following Evertonians, we should all be grateful. They have simplified a very complex affair.
In an attempt to help to clear the mud for the [intellectually-speaking] 'Average Joe's' amongst us, regular viewer and contributor,
Colin Wilkes has collated the information available, in order to create a clear record of proceedings.
At the end of Colin's article there is a page break and then a link to a site that, in many ways, expands upon and continues, where Colin's piece leaves-off.
I regard ToffeeBlog/Web as being the definitive resources in relation to this affair. In conjunction with Colin's post, for me, this trio, just about sum the whole business up.
Is it any surprise that Proactive have recently changed their name?
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Without prejudice.
Based upon information freely available in the
public domain.
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THE BLACKMAIL TRIAL
THE FIRST 7 DAYS; PIECING THE JIGSAW TOGETHER
In an attempt to clarify some of the events, of the trial, I have copied and pasted the reported proceedings from; The BBC website, The Liverpool Echo, The Guardian, The Independent and The Scotsman. Links to all the articles can be found on the
TOFFEEBLOG site and The
TOFFEEWEB site. Thanks to those two sites for keeping those links live.
Boxing promoter, John Hyland and brothers Christopher and Anthony Bacon deny demanding money with menaces from Mr Stretford, in June 2003. The three defendants are alleged to have tried to force Mr Stretford into signing a contract in which he would pay over a large cut of his future Rooney earnings.
DAY 5
Mr Rooney had been a client of the Proform agency, run by the Liverpool agent Peter McIntosh. In June 2002, the Rooneys decided Wayne should join Mr Stretford's Proactive agency when his contract expired at the end of that year.
Pro-Form, which had since been merged with the X8 sports agency, objected. Mr Stretford said he had offered to buy out their interest in Rooney for £5,000 but the offer was rejected.
Mr Stretford told the court that from November 2002 until June 2003, he attended meetings with Mr Hyland and Dave Lockwood, whose X8 sports agency had bought Proform.
Similar meetings with John Hyland and others followed, in which Mr Stretford upped his offer of buying out X8's interest in Rooney to £25,000, plus a cut of his commissions
ON DAY 1
The trial, in Warrington Crown Court, was adjourned after a new witness, William Lindfield, came forward as late as Monday morning. Lord Carlile QC, representing Mr Hyland, said Mr Lindfield would testify that he drove Mr Stretford to the meeting in November 2002, during which he stayed in the car to look after the cash. Lord Carlile said Mr Lindfield's evidence was that he had been hired to drive Paul Stretford to the meeting with Mr Hyland at the Moss Nook restaurant, near Manchester Airport, on 4 November 2002, and Mr Stretford had £250,000 cash with him in a bag.
"Paul Stretford said he hoped to use this money as a pay off to John Hyland,"
Lord Carlile went on:
"Mr Lindfield sat in the car looking after the cash throughout the assignation."
Lord Carlile told the judge, His Honour David Hale, that Rooney had signed a two-year contract with Mr McIntosh in December 2000. He said:
"It is part of our case that Paul Stretford offered cash to John Hyland [in November 2002, during this period] but the money did not change hands.
ON DAY 5
By December 12, 2002, Mr Stretford said he had agreed to a 50-50 split of his net profits on Rooney for three years but still his offer was refused.
ON DAY 3
The court today heard evidence from Wayne Rooney's father, Thomas.
He said he had been happy with the work of Proform in representing his son but had decided to switch to Stretford's company.
He said:
"We decided Wayne would be better off in their hands. They seemed a more professional company."
He wrote to Proform in June 2002 declaring his intention not to renew Wayne's two-year contract with them from December 2002
Under cross-examination by Hyland's barrister, Lord Carlile QC, Mr Rooney confirmed that Wayne's original agent Peter McIntosh had seen the young star on an almost weekly basis to check on his needs.
He also denied that the legendary Liverpool footballer Kenny Dalglish had played any part in persuading them to join Proactive.
Mr Rooney said he was not aware that Dalglish had two million shares in Proactive and insisted the former Scottish international had never visited Rooney's Croxteth home to talk to them.
He said Dalglish had telephoned him once and suggested joining a new agency but had not mentioned Proactive.
Asked by Lord Carlile if he and Mr Stretford had deliberately decided to keep Dalglish's name out of the case, Mr Rooney said:
"No."
ON DAY 4
Mr Rooney said he had not been recommended to see Mr Dooley by Mr Stretford or anyone else at Proactive.
ON DAY 7
Lord Carlile also grilled Mr Stretford on why he had recommended that the Rooney family take legal advice from a Liverpool solicitor called Kevin Dooley, who at that time was under investigation for defrauding his clients and was later struck off.
Mr Stretford insisted he had not known that Kevin Dooley had been under investigation and that he had not seen media reports on the matter.
He said he had chosen to recommend Mr Dooley after discussions with Kenny Dalglish, and told the jury that he did not regret that choice.
ON DAY 5
From November, 2002 until June, 2003, he attended a series of meetings with Dave Lockwood and John Hyland, of X8, to try to negotiate a settlement.
The court heard that the first meeting, in a hotel near Heathrow Airport, was arranged by Liverpool FC legend and Proactive shareholder Kenny Dalglish.
Mr Stretford attended and was immediately introduced to Tommy Adams, a man he told the jury he understood to be a "London villain".
He was then ushered into a club room, where John Hyland, Dave Lockwood and Peter McIntosh were waiting.
Mr Dalglish, one of Liverpool's finest former players, asked London man
[with a criminal conviction], Tommy Adams, to help the football agent Paul Stretford deal with demands for a share of profits from Rooney's former agent, Peter McIntosh and associates.
But Mr Stretford felt "let down" by Mr Dalglish's offer
During cross-examination, Mr Hyland's barrister, Lord Carlisle, said Dalglish had invited Mr Adams. He said:
"You felt let down by him [Dalglish] because he arranged to bring to the meeting a notorious gangster who had recently finished a sentence of seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment for importing cannabis, and who takes an interest in sport."
Mr Hyland and others became angry that Mr Stretford would not agree to a deal on their terms.
Lord Carlisle told the jury that the police had asked Dalglish to provide a statement about the meeting and he had refused. He asked Mr Stretford:
"Do you feel let down by him?"
"Of course." replied Mr Stretford.
On day 7
Lord Carlile said:
"You knew full well that Kenny Dalglish had engineered for one of his unsavoury friends to come and facilitate this meeting. It was you who brought in the heavy mob, wasn't it?"
Mr Stretford replied:
"Absolutely not."
Mr Stretford told the jury that "fear and confusion" prevented him from leaving the meeting when he saw who was present.
Mr Stretford had told police that Tommy Adams had said to him that 'he understood there was a problem, a matter that needed to be sorted out for everyone's benefit and that he had been brought in merely to arbitrate'.
Lord Carlile asked him why he did not use a formal sporting tribunal, which is staffed by legal professionals, rather than "people who have just emerged from seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment imposed by the Old Bailey and have reputations as one of London's leading gangsters".
Mr Stretford repeated that he had not known who would be present at the meeting.
He told the jury that he did not ask Mr Dalglish why it was to be held in London or who would be attending.
-------end of Colin Wilkes article----------------------
The following link will tke you to
ToffeBlog, where you will be able to read postings relating to all stages of the trial, including the most recent postings from today.
Thanks to Colin, ToffeeWeb and ToffeeBlog, we should all be a lot clearer about this important matter.
