Mickey Duff gets screwed by BJ...

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Mar 2004, 18:58

MILLIONAIRE businessman and former boxing manager/promoter Barney Eastwood was awarded £145,000 yesterday in settlement of a libel action over a book written by the English boxing promoter Mickey Duff.
The book's publishers HarperCollins Ltd agreed to pay the damages in an out-of-court settlement.
The book, Twenty & Out, has been withdrawn from sale.
In the High Court in Belfast, Mr Eastwood's lawyer, Ben Stephens QC, who appeared with Bernard Fitzpatrick BL, said a term of the settlement was an apology to be read in court.
Gerald Simpson QC, for HarperCollins, said a number of statements in the book suggested that Mr Eastwood was compelled to pay Mr Duff over £100,000 to honour his legal obligations.
Mr Simpson, who appeared with Peter Cush BL, said: "The defendant unreservedly accepts that all such allegations were an unjustified attack on Mr Eastwood's exemplary personal and business integrity and were totally without foundation."
Mr Simpson said HarperCollins wished to apologise to Mr Eastwood and to express their regret for any distress and embarrassment caused to him. "The defendant has also agreed to pay substantial damages to Mr Eastwood, including his legal costs," added Mr Simpson.
Specialist libel lawyer Paul Tweed, a partner in Johnsons, said: "Although it was regrettable that Mr Eastwood was left with no alternative but to issue legal proceedings to vindicate his reputation, he is nonetheless now fully satisfied with the comprehensive and unequivocal retraction and apology, the book having already been withdrawn from sale by the publishers. "However, as one of Ireland's leading businessmen, he obviously would have preferred that these totally false and vindictive assertions had not been published in the first place.
"It is not so much this apology and six-figure settlement sum, but rather Mr Eastwood's extremely successful record as a boxing manager and promoter, which speaks for itself, as well as being the only British and Irish recipient of the prestigious World Boxing Association's Manager of the Year award."

By Ivan Mcmichael

adamiw · Post by **adamiw** » 09 Mar 2004, 19:04

switch the M and D around from Mickey's full name in the topic title and you have a very rude title.

bennie · Post by **bennie** » 09 Mar 2004, 19:06

Mickey Duff did plenty of bragging in the book about how many libel cases he's won, so it's quite funny to read this.
The book incidentally was ghost written by Bob Mee.

Twinkle Toes · Post by **Twinkle Toes** » 10 Mar 2004, 14:16

Didn't Barry Mcguigan have a big fall out with Eastwood?

Loynesy · Post by **Loynesy** » 10 Mar 2004, 14:18

Yes - Barry lost a court case against him and was almost bankrupted.