The boxing promoter, Mr Barry Hearn, was described as a perjurer in the High Court yesterday, on the final day of his action against the Dublin boxer Steve Collins.
Judgment was reserved by Mr Justice O'Sullivan in the action taken by Mr Hearn and his company Matchroom Boxing Ltd against Mr Collins for alleged breach of contract. Mr Collins denies the claim.
Closing the case yesterday, Mr Colm Allen SC, counsel for Mr Collins, said Mr Hearn had been shown in the witness box to have lied and perjured himself. It was the defence case that he also procured the perjury of the "appalling Mr Freddie King".
Mr Paul Gallagher SC, for Mr Hearn, said he took strenuous objection to the outrageous suggestion that his client had procured the perjury of Freddie King - former trainer to Mr Collins.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan said to say a witness had perjured himself, much less that he procured the perjury of another, was of no assistance to the court. Quite the reverse was the case. The evidence tendered did not amount to anything approaching perjury.
Mr Allen said he felt it was legitimate for him as counsel to say that Barry Hearn had given false evidence. The evidence given by both Hearn and King was demonstrably untrue and this had been shown to be the case.
It was a brutal fact that Hearn had deliberately misled the court. Only two days ago, there had been an example of him knowingly and deliberately lying to the court, counsel claimed.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan asked if there was room for him as a Judge to accept the core evidence of Mr Lipton, the referee in the Millstreet fight between Collins and Chris Eubank, while acknowledging Mr Lipton may have been inaccurate in many respects.
Mr Gallagher said it was it was not just a question of Mr Lipton being wrong in detail. There was the extraordinary fact that no complaint of any improper approaches were made by the referee to either John Montano, the fight supervisor, or to Mel Christle of the Boxing Union of Ireland.
Mr Lipton's claim that he mentioned Mr Hearn's approaches in a phone call with Steve Collins in April 1995 was not credible, counsel said. Mr Gallagher said the plaintiff's argument was that Mr Lipton's evidence was unreliable in detail as well as in substance.
Mr Allen said it was strange to suggest that Mr Collins should be grateful to Mr Hearn.
What had been achieved by his client had been achieved despite the best efforts of Mr Hearn who had a higher and bigger interest in protecting Chris Eubank to whom he was bonded by filthy lucre, counsel said.
Mr Justice O'Sullivan thanked counsel for their efforts in what he said was a very heavy case.
He was reserving his judgment but said he would deliver it as soon as possible without doing any injustice to the submissions made.