Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns's defence at his perjury trial closed their case on Friday after three days of evidence at London's Southwark crown court
Chris Cairns
London: Former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Cairns's defence at his perjury trial closed their case on Friday after three days of evidence at London's Southwark crown court.
Chris Cairns. Pic/Getty Images
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His legal team then gave way for the defence lawyers representing Cairns's co-defendant, Andrew Fitch-Holland.
Cairns himself gave evidence over two days and often faced detailed cross-examination.
His first day in the witness box saw Cairns reduced to tears while he spoke about his family, living in Australia. Cairns's Australian wife, Mel Cairns, was a witness via video-link from Canberra on Thursday. She denied she heard her husband discussing match-fixing.
When accused of lying on behalf of her husband both during the present trial and in his 2012 libel action with former senior Indian cricket administrator Lalit Modi, Mel Cairns replied "absolutely not".
'Never told a lie'
"I would never lie to help my husband, especially in a court of law," she said. Fitch-Holland, a barrister and friend of Cairns, denied the prosecution's description of him as a "cricket groupie".
Chris Harris, another former New Zealand cricketer, previously gave evidence about an occasion at an exhibition match in 2010 when Fitch-Holland came up to him and a group of others.
On Friday, Fitch-Holland said he was drunk at the time and did not remember the conversation. Cairns faces a charge of perjury, and faces a joint charge with Fitch-Holland of perverting the course of justice by trying to get Vincent to provide a false statement.
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