London: Former New Zealand cricket captain Chris Cairns’ lawyer has denied asking his ex-teammate Lou Vincent (right) to lie for him in court.
Cairns sued Lalit Modi, chairman of the Indian Premier League, for £90,000 in damages after he accused him of match fixing on Twitter in January 2010.
Cairns, 45, allegedly lied during the case when he told the libel trial that he had never cheated. Vincent previously claimed that his fellow Lions player had promised him cash if he deliberately played badly.
Cairns’ co-defendant and barrister Andrew Fitch-Holland allegedly approached Vincent for a false witness statement supporting the cricketer. Giving evidence at Southwark crown court yesterday, Fitch-Holland was questioned by prosecutor Sasha Wass QC about a Skype call with Vincent which he secretly recorded.
“You knew Mr Vincent was part of Chris Cairns’ match-fixing posse,” Ms Wass said. “No, that’s not right,” Fitch-Holland replied. Ms Wass insisted he knew the allegations about Cairns match-fixing were true. “What you were saying there is you’re sharing with Mr Vincent that both of you accept that some of what Mr Modi was saying was true,” she told the jury.
Fitch-Holland answered: “I said some of what he said was true but a lot of it made no f*****g sense at all and was bullshit.” Ms Wass accused him of putting “an elaborate explanation forward” to the jury. “I’m not lying about this or any other matter in this case,” Fitch-Holland insisted.
Ms Wass continued: “This couldn’t be clearer, you’re asking again (for Vincent) to say ‘from where you were standing everything seemed OK’.
“It was described by Mr Vincent as a big ask and he makes it plain to you that ‘from where I was standing everything was not OK’.”
Fitch-Holland said: “I took that to mean that Lou was agreeing that the games themselves were questionable. I wasn’t asking Mr Vincent to make a false statement at all.”
Fitch-Holland described Vincent as a “self-confessed liar and a cheat” and added: “I hope I would be believed over him.”
He repeatedly insisted he had no idea about Cairns’s alleged match-fixing. Cairns is accused of perjury and perverting the course of justice, while Fitch-Holland is alleged to have sought a false statement to support him in his 2012 libel case.
They both deny the charges against them. The trial continues.
