IT'S ALL COMING OUT IN THE WASH

The prominent (and recently deceased) corrupt solicitor Kevin Dooley has been implicated in the Wayne Rooney-Paul Stretford extortion trial, currently underway in Warrington.

From the Guardian:

Wayne Rooney's agent cried in court yesterday as he described months of wrangling with a rival agent for control over the footballer.

Paul Stretford, 46, who runs the Proactive agency, says he was blackmailed by three men, boxing promoter John Hyland and brothers Anthony and Christopher Bacon, after Rooney signed to his agency. All three deny the charge of blackmail.

Mr Stretford told Warrington crown court he had offered to buy out their interest in Rooney for £5,000, but this had been rejected. The men met several times over a seven-month period to try to negotiate a settlement.

The agent, who represents 270 of the world's top footballers, said that at a meeting in December 2002 he offered to give 50% of his net profits on Rooney for three years but Mr Hyland refused. Mr Stretford said: "John [Hyland] went ballistic. He was very annoyed and angry."

Earlier Mr Hyland's barrister, Lord Carlile, said Mr Stretford had regarded Rooney, who recently transferred to Manchester United for £27m, as a cash cow and was "desperate" to represent him. Mr Stretford was paid £1.5m from Manchester United for the transfer, Lord Carlile said.

He told Judge David Hale: "It is the defence assertion that Mr Stretford was desperate to get Wayne Rooney as his client because he knew he could milk the cow from both ends. If a solicitor was doing that, he would be struck off without a moment's hesitation.

"There is an issue in this case about Paul Stretford's many interests in Wayne Rooney and the ruthless way in which he approached those interests."

The footballer's father told the court that in summer 2002, six months before his contract with his first agent was to expire, he had been to see the Liverpool-based solicitor Kevin Dooley for advice about changing his son's agent.

Wayne Rooney senior was asked by Lord Carlile if he was aware that Mr Dooley, who has since died, was at the time under investigation for defrauding clients out of thousands of pounds and was later struck off. Mr Rooney said he had not known this.

The prosecutor, Mr Hedgecoe, said the three defendants were "clearly involved in a very intimidating episode of blackmail in a case where the stakes were potentially enormous".

The trial, expected to last at least two weeks, continues.

The Indie also reports:

Mr Rooney Snr told Lord Carlile that he had been to see Kevin Dooley, a Liverpool solicitor, for advice while changing his son's agent. He said that he had not been recommended to see Mr Dooley by Mr Stretford or anyone else at Proactive and that he was unaware that Mr Dooley had represented numerous Liverpool players, including Kenny Dalglish, who, the court has heard, owns two million shares in Proactive.

Information recently received by Red Issue also suggests that the highly corrupt Dooley (who was struck off by the Law Society a few years ago) was also implicated in laundering drug money on a massive scale – primarily the proceeds of heroin importation into Liverpool. There is of course no suggestion that Mr. Stretford had any knowledge of or involvement in such dealings.