Fallon acquitted as trial collapses

Last Modified: 07 Dec 2007
By: Andy Davies

The trial of former champion jockey Kieren Fallon and five other men accused of race-fixing has collapsed.

All six men were acquitted by an Old Bailey jury on the directions of trial judge Mr Justice Forbes.

He said there was no case to answer following defence submissions at the end of two months of prosecution evidence.

Fallon is set to return to the saddle in big races in Britain following a 17-month suspension imposed after his arrest.

Fallon said: "I am of course relieved and delighted, but also outraged. There was never any evidence against me.

"I just want to thank all the trainers who have come to court to support me, Mr (John) Magnier, Mr (Derrick) Smith, Michael Tabor and my whole legal team."

Fallon, fellow jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams, gambler and businessman Miles Rodgers and two other men had been accused of plotting to throw races.

The people who helped bring the men to court were fraud detectives from the City of London police who, in March 2004, were called in to investigate irregular betting patterns on the racing circuit.

For three-and-a-half months they followed suspects, monitored phone contacts, and placed a listening device in the mercedes of the defendant Miles Rodgers, a professional gambler who, the prosecution claimed was the main organiser of their alleged conspiracy.

"I have reached the conclusion that even if it was appropriate to admit Mr Murrihy's expert opinion, very little value can be attached to it."
Mr Justice Forbes

The prosecution claimed Miles Rodgers had conspired to fix horse races, along with jockey Fergal Lynch, his brother Shaun Lynch originally from county Clare in ireland, Philip Shirkle a barman from Tamworth, another jockey Darren Williams and one of the greatest jockeys of his generation Kieren Fallon.

Fallon, a man who has won virtually every major classic in racing, a rider who even on the eve of this trial was scooping his second Prix de L'arc de Triomphe, European racing's blue riband event. The police had taken one of the biggest names in the business.

The prosecution alleged the three jockeys had tried to fix 27 horseraces between December 2002 and September 2004, making their horses lose so that Miles Rodgers could bet thousands on such an outcome with prior knowledge.

One of the races was the 3.30 at Lingfield on the 2 March 2004. The horse was Ballinger Ridge, the jockey Kieren Fallon.

Fallon lost the race, he said, due to an error of judgement but Ray Murrihy, a senior racing official from Australia and the prosecution's key 'expert' witness claimed it was more serious than that.

After viewing videos of all 27 races Murrihy told the jury he had serious concerns about the jockey's actions in 13 of those races.

That evidence was fundamental to the prosecution case.

Mr Justice Forbes decided Mr Murrihy's evidence was insufficient.

He said: "It is abundantly clear that his evidence fell far, far short of establishing a prima facie breach of UK racing rules.

"I have reached the conclusion that even if it was appropriate to admit Mr Murrihy's expert opinion, very little value can be attached to it."

The judge said the rest of the evidence, including mobile phone traffic and evidence of association, could be explained as being consistent with normal social contact and thus the case collapsed.

The City of London Police, the very force which recently arrested the football manager Harry Rednapp in connection with allegations of transfer bungs, declined to take any questions this afternoon.