Jackson seeking legal costs after his acquittal
Court application as rugby star faces lawyer fees of over €115,000
IRELAND rugby player Paddy Jackson is attempting to recover legal costs from his rape trial, it has emerged.
The 26-year-old was unanimously acquitted of rape and sexual assault last month.
He is now seeking to retrieve all or some of the money spent on lawyers during the almost tenweek high-profile trial at Belfast Crown Court.
A hearing on the matter is expected to take place before trial judge Patricia Smyth next month. Mr Jackson had privately funded his case and was represented in court by two defence counsel and a solicitor, which included the defendant’s barrister, Brendan Kelly QC.
Mr Jackson’s legal costs are estimated to be well in excess of £100,000 (€115,000).
Lawyers will make an application to recover the costs from the Public Prosecution Service.
The hearing on costs for Mr Jackson is due to take place at Belfast Crown Court on May 18.
Mr Jackson and Ireland and Ulster team-mate, Stuart Olding, 25, were found not guilty of raping the same woman in June 2016 by a jury which deliberated for three hours and 45 minutes.
Jackson was also found not guilty of sexual assault.
Blane McIlroy, 26, was found not guilty of exposure and Rory Harrison, 25, was acquitted of perverting the course of justice and withholding information.
Mr Olding was granted legal aid about half-way through proceedings. Until then, he had been funding the case personally and with financial assistance from family and friends, the court was told.
Judge Smyth lifted a reporting restriction on the fact that Mr Olding applied for and received legal aid during week six of the trial.
She lifted further reporting restrictions on the trial on Wednesday, allowing media to reveal what was said in legal arguments in the absence of the jury.
It emerged this week that Mr Harrison, who was hailed by the young woman at the centre of the rape trial as a ‘gentleman’, sent a pornographic video to Stuart Olding just hours after the alleged attack. The short, explicit video of a so-called ‘spit roast’ was sent by Rory Harrison to Mr Olding two hours after they ate lunch at a café the day after the incident at Mr Jackson’s Belfast home.
It was also revealed that bloodstains on Mr Jackson’s bedsheets that did not belong to the complainant were airbrushed from pictures shown to the jury.
The source of the other bloodstains was never explained in court, with Mr Kelly saying he had ‘no intention of saying where this blood came from’.
Prosecution barrister Toby Hedworth, during legal argument in the jury’s absence, said it was important for the jury to see what the bedroom looked like on the night in question.
As a solution, Judge Smyth suggested ‘airbrushing’ out the bloodstains that did not relate to the woman.
Also, while jurors were told semen from Mr Olding was found on the woman’s jeans, they were not told it was found on the crotch area of her jeans.
Mr Olding had originally been charged with vaginal rape, but this was dropped before Christmas, leaving one count of oral rape, of which he was acquitted.
Mr Olding’s lawyer, Frank O’Donoghue QC, argued that if the jury was told the specific area, it might create an ‘unfair suspicion’ in their minds.
Stuart Olding was granted legal aid