Barry McGuigan’s son denies emails were wiped to frustrate Carl Frampton’s £6m claim

Blain McGuigan told the High Court that all deletions were simply part of a wider move by Cyclone Promotions to free up space on their systems.

His father is locked in a legal battle with the Belfast fighter he managed to world title glory before their acrimonious split in 2017.

Mr Frampton is suing for alleged withheld purse fees and profit shares, while his ex-manager is counter-claiming for breach of contract over the boxer’s departure from the McGuigan family’s Cyclone organisation.

On day 16 of the case Blain McGuigan was cross-examined about the non-disclosure of emails connected to eight fights under scrutiny.

He told the court how the company decided to switch its online systems from one account provider to another in 2017.

As part of the migration process a “core team” of directors involved in Cyclone operations - Blain, his mother Sandra and brother Jake - were advised to delete surplus emails no longer relevant to future events.

Mr McGuigan told the court it involved getting rid of huge amounts of correspondence from previous shows to free up space.

“I think I had tens of thousands of emails at that point,” he said.

The musician turned promoter confirmed the process included eight of the boxer’s contests going back to 2013 because they were “not relevant moving forward”.

Challenged by Gavin Millar QC, for Mr Frampton, about the consequences for dealing with any subsequent commercial disagreement, he replied: “I wasn’t anticipating a dispute in June 2017.”

During exchanges the barrister questioned the truthfulness of his evidence.

“It’s absolutely true,” Mr McGuigan insisted.

According to counsel there would have been thousands of emails on the accounts of McGuigan family members working on the fight promotions.

Further questions were raised over suggestions that the technical process of switching service providers caused thousands of emails to be lost.

“You heard my cross-examination of your father, when I put to him those emails I have just put to you, showing the migration exercise was successful,” the barrister said.

Referring to the death last year of his actress sister Danika, Mr McGuigan replied: “My father is not technologically minded, and to be perfectly honest with you in the past year he hasn’t been very well minded in general since what’s happened to our family, so I wouldn’t necessarily think my dad would remember exactly what went on at that point.”

But Mr Millar submitted: “What you have done since that earlier testimony and cross-examination in the case, is come up with an account of why there’s been no disclosure of any emails relating to my client’s fights from your side in the case.

“It avoids the problem that the migration exercise didn’t result in any irretrievable emails. You have come up with a different account, haven’t you?”

Mr McGuigan responded: “No, that’s not true.”

He added: “There was a process, it was not just a simple transfer of emails, it was the process around it.”

The barrister put it to him: “The reason those emails haven’t been disclosed is because they would assist our case, isn’t it?”

Again, however, Mr McGuigan maintained: “No, that’s not true.”

The court also heard that before being appointed as a director of a Northern Ireland-based Cyclone Promotions company in 2013 he played in indie rock bands.

“I was a working musician, whichever jobs came up I would do,” he said.

It was then put to Mr McGuigan: “In June 2013, when you became a director of that company you had no actual experience as a boxing promoter, did you?”

He replied: “No, I hadn’t promoted boxing previously.”

The hearing continues.