John Higgins case - part two
It seems that nothing is easy these days, but if I’m to think about it…when are things easy, huh?
Anyway, a couple of days ago I was telling you about the refuse of News of the World (NOTW) in giving the full package of evidence to the authorities and moreover that they made an offer that sounded more like “we’ll give you the evidence set, but you`ll have to promise not to take legal actions against us in the future”.
But yesterday the bombe exploded, when the boys from guardian.co.uk said that NOTW “handed over to investigators all the video tapes shot during its sting operation on snooker player John Higgins”. And like a bonus, it seems that NOTW categorically denied to have made such an offer to Higgins and Mooney’s legal team and they added: “We stand by our revelations published in May this year and have made all of our evidence available to the authorities”.
guardian.co.uk also says that the evidence pack was first handed to David Douglas (who was in charge of the preliminary investigation and is a member of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association – WPBSA), who handed them over to the independent dispute resolution service for sport, also known as Sport Resolutions (UK).
The reverse of the medal is that sportingintelligence.com says that until now they have no confirmation or denial from NOTW that they indeed handed their evidence to the authorities. Moreover, the web-site understands that David Douglas “has now indeed had access to footage shot during the NOTW investigation, but it is understood that he had conditional access (possibly on NOTW premises), meaning he had to agree to some kind of indemnity waiver about the use of the footage”. Also in this case, Douglas has not yet confirmed or denied this information for legal reasons.
So, if you are now more confused than you were at the beginning of this article, then let me tell you that you’re not the only one. Contradictories information and speculation are in order, that’s why Higgins’s spokesman said they would rather stay out of any speculation or conjecture, for they may interfere with the legal terms or even more since this is a “quasi-judicial procedure on going is would be wrong to comment”.
Seems like a long way until September (when Higgins and Mooney’s case will face the tribunal hearing) and I have the feeling that is more to this story. The guys from sportingintelligence.com have promise to keep us updated with this situation and I promise you to keep you inform as soon as I find new and interesting stuff on this matter. :P
To be continued… ;)
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