Blain McGuigan denies Cyclone deleted thousands of emails that may have aided Frampton’s case

Blain McGuigan denied thousands of emails, that would have helped Carl Frampton’s case against former manager Barry McGuigan and Cyclone promotions, were deliberately deleted by the promotional outfit.

Blain McGuigan, son of former world champion Barry McGuigan and Cyclone Promotions director, claimed the emails were deleted as part of a move by Cyclone Promotions to free up space on their system.

Under cross examination McGuigan was pressed on ‘tens of thousands of emails’ deleted in June 2017.

The musician turned promoter told the court the company decided to switch it’s online systems and as a result were advised to delete emails no longer relevant to future events.

McGuigan told the court it involved getting rid of huge amounts of correspondence from previous shows to free up space.

“I think I had tens of thousands of emails at that point,” he said.

He also confirmed it included emails with reference to eight Frampton fights going back to 2013 because they were “not relevant moving forward”.

Challenged by Gavin Millar QC, for Mr Frampton, about the consequences for dealing with any subsequent commercial disagreement, he replied: “I wasn’t anticipating a dispute in June 2017.”

QC for Frampton questioned how true the evidence was, prompting McGuigan to declare: “It’s absolutely true.”

Frampton’s legal team went to query why Barry McGuigan didn’t explain the migration and deletion of mails when he was cross examined last month. McGuigan told the court his father wasn’t technically literate and pointed to some personal family issues when responding.

However, Frampton’s legal team argued: “What you have done since that earlier testimony and cross-examination in the case, is come up with an account of why there’s been no disclosure of any emails relating to my client’s fights from your side in the case.

“It avoids the problem that the migration exercise didn’t result in any irretrievable emails. You have come up with a different account, haven’t you?”

McGuigan responded: “No, that’s not true.” He added: “There was a process, it was not just a simple transfer of emails, it was the process around it.”

The barrister put it to him: “The reason those emails haven’t been disclosed is because they would assist our case, isn’t it?”

Again, however, McGuigan maintained: “No, that’s not true.”

The eldest of three brothers who were involved in Frampton’s career before a 2017 split, Blain McGuigan, was also questioned with regard to £220,000 he earned as director of Cyclone Promotions.

He confirmed that, in 2014 he was paid over £41,000 by the company.

“Some of it was income from the company and some of it was directors loans which would’ve remained payable until a point when they would’ve been written off. I would’ve paid tax on those personally,” he said.

Asked if he regarded the payments as salary, he replied: “I didn’t necessarily see it as salary. I saw it as my payment for working for the company.”

Frampton is suing former manager Barry McGuigan for withheld earnings of up to £6m.

McGuigan has a separate counter claim.

Both men deny any wrong doing.