Unexpected development – 10,000 deleted emails with possible relevance to Frampton McGuigan legal battle discovered

Over 10,000 emails that could be relevant to legal proceedings taken by Carl Frampton against his former manager Barry McGuigan have been found, the High Court was informed today.

The court was previously told that thousands of emails, some relevant to Frampton’s career and a lot more not, were deleted by Cyclone Promotions.

Blain McGuigan, a Cyclone Promotions director and promoter of some of the Belfast fighters biggest fights, told the court they were advised delete emails for space and memory purposes amidst changing computer systems.

The migration process, he informed, meant emails not relevant to any future business were discarded and could no longer be retrieved.

However on day 20 of the trail the court heard archived emails were retrieved from Cyclones system.

With thousands of newly located mails to be read and studied the court proceedings were adjourned today.

The court heard that 2,600 emails were located in Blain McGuigan archives; around 1,000 in Barry McGuigan’s; 5,000 in his wife Sandra’s; and a potentially higher figure in the account of another son, Jake McGuigan.

Counsel for Frampton, Gavin Millar argued there was no need to disclose all the documents, suggesting it would prove timely.

“The predicament we face at the moment is what appears to us to be an example of document dumping,” he said.

The development led to evidence being put on hold so that lawyers can examine all of the newly discovered material.

Responding to the suggestion that everything was “dumped” on the other side, Counsel for McGuigan Liam McCollum QC, insisted all documents were relevant to the case.

“Part of my learned friend’s case is that we are hiding material,” he said.

“Therefore we have to say you are entitled to see it all, to prove that we are not hiding anything.”

“Anything that is relevant to a Mr Frampton fight or Mr Frampton’s sponsorship is included in the overall mass of emails that are all in the cloud.

“What we are trying to do is look to see which ones have been emerging in evidence during the trial and isolating those out.

“Some of them are banal, but they are banal ones that have been touched upon by the evidence.”

Adjourning the hearing the Judge said: “I will require an affidavit as to how all of this came about.”

Frampton is suing fellow Irish boxing legend and former manager Barry McGuigan for withheld earnings up to £6m. McGuigan has a separate counter claim for breach of contract.

Both parties deny any wrong doing.