Magnier Told By High Court To Put Away Teleprompter In Barne Estate Case
A HIGH Court judge has politely but firmly requested that racehorse breeder and billionaire land collector John Magnier stop miming witness testimony and, if he wouldn’t mind, please put away the massive teleprompter he’s been using to ‘assist’ proceedings.
Magnier is currently pursuing a High Court case to enforce a €15 million deal he claims was agreed with a Tipperary landowner for a sizeable chunk of land – allegedly earmarked for his ‘little princess’ Katherine and her husband, David Wachman. Wachman previously denied accusations of ‘lowballing’ the vendors of the Barne Estate in what has been described as a ‘deceptive’ and unusually slippery opening bid process.
“John doesn’t even know how much land he owns. He just wants more of it. And whatever John wants, John gets,” said a source close to the Coolmore Stud tycoon.
During cross-examination, the presiding judge had to pause proceedings after noticing Magnier propped up a television-style teleprompter, apparently loaded up with lines for the witness to recite. When asked to stop, the 77-year-old resorted to miming their answers instead – complete with charades-style gestures and enthusiastic lip-syncing.
“Please stop waving around that brown envelope too, Mr. Magnier,” the judge added in a follow-up plea for courtroom decorum.
Earlier in the case, it emerged that Magnier’s son JP had personally delivered two ‘brown envelopes’ containing €50,000 in cash to an estate agent involved in the failed deal. The envelopes were passed along to the estate’s beneficiaries as a show of ‘appreciation’ – and definitely not a bribe.
“Could John just walk away from this costly legal battle? Sure. But right now, he only owns 11,000 acres and Coolmore is worth a measly €4 billion. It’s not enough. It’s never enough,” concluded our source, glancing nervously at a freshly delivered brown envelope marked ‘STFU’.
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