Rugby stars cleared of raping woman at party ‘hounded by social media’, claim lawyers

LAWYERS for two Irish rugby players cleared of rape have attacked “trial by Twitter” as they say the social media hounding of the defendants threatened to collapse the case.

Paddy Jackson, 26, and team-mate Stuart Olding, 25, had always denied raping the same woman at a house in Belfast in June 2016.

Joe Mcveigh, Jackson’s solicitor, said “an onslaught of toxic contempt, particularly on Twitter” had caused problems for the case.

“Vile commentary expressed on social media going well beyond fair comment has polluted the sphere of public discourse and raised real concerns about the integrity of the trial process,” he said. “Several days of this trial were lost due to problems thrown up by the intrusive infection of the process by social media.

“All the lawyers have been distracted by having to man the barriers against the flood of misinformed, misconceived and malicious content on the internet, particularly during the last phase of this trial, and worryingly even at the hands of public servants who should have known better.”

He said the judiciary should “look at more robust mechanisms that can strike an effective balance between everyone’s rights, but that properly secure the integrity of our criminal justice system”.

Blane Mcilroy, 26, was also found not guilty of exposure, while Rory Harrison, 25, was acquitted of perverting the course of justice and withholding information. All four defendants consistently denied all the charges against them. The incident was alleged to have happened during a party at Jackson’s home in south Belfast on June 28, 2016.

The woman, 19 at the time, told the court she was attacked after going upstairs to retrieve a clutch bag. Sport, page 14