Web Summit chief executive Paddy Cosgrave instrumentalised a harassment complaint against his former business partner Daire Hickey, the High Court heard on Wednesday, in a bid to “blackmail” and “intimidate him” into giving up his shareholding in the tech conference business.
Mr Hickey, who resigned as an employee of Web Summit in 2017 and as a director in 2019, was the subject of the complaint by an employee relating to an incident that took place at a 2016 event the company had organised in New Orleans.
The businessman, who is suing Mr Cosgrave for alleged shareholder oppression and breaches of profit-share agreement, denies any wrongdoing and was never given a chance to respond to the claims, the court heard. Moreover, a barrister who investigated the issue in 2021 said the issue should have been handled differently by the company at the time.
In a formal written complaint, of which Mr Hickey was not aware until later, the complainant said Mr Hickey had told him that an attendee of the event had “taken an interest” in him and “wanted to know about [his] sexuality”.
The complainant alleged in the letter, which was shown to the court by Mr Hickey’s lawyers on Wednesday, that Mr Hickey “ended up with his arm around me and then rested his hand on my buttocks”.
He said he reminded Mr Hickey that he had a “long-term boyfriend of almost six years and I was not interested”.
“Daire proceeded to tell me that this shouldn’t be a problem and that ‘these things happen’, implying that it was more than acceptable to be unfaithful to my boyfriend, even encouraging it,” the complainant claimed.
The complainant said that initially, he “moved on” from the incident but in the days afterwards, thought of it as “deeply upsetting and humiliating”, believing he had been “marginalised for my sexuality”.
Barrister Eoin McCullough SC, for Mr Hickey, said his client believed the remarks were made in jest but understands that they were wrong. However, he said Mr Hickey “does not agree that the events as described by the employee occurred in the manner set out in the letter”.
In 2016, Mr Hickey was told that the issue had been resolved informally with the complainant and was relieved at the time, believing it had been brought to a conclusion. Crucially, he did not understand that the employee had formalised the complaint in a letter.
Mr Hickey will testify that Mr Cosgrave knew about the issue in 2016.
The issue was brought to his attention again in 2021 after his relationship with Mr Cosgrave had soured. Mr Cosgrave became “annoyed” by a profile of him that appeared in the Irish Independent and came to the view that Hickey was the source of this, Mr McCullough said.
Mr Cosgrave then told David Kelly, another minority shareholder and former director of Web Summit, of his intention to raise the 2016 complaint again and disseminate it to journalists to damage Mr Hickey.
In a text to Kelly, seen by the court, Mr Cosgrave said he was going to “put together a dossier” and that it would take him three months.
“To shore up his campaign,” Mr McCullough said, Mr Cosgrave convened “a belated formal investigation into the complaint”, involving a barrister who was brought into review the matter.
That barrister “took the view that the complaint should have been handled in a different way by an independent party,” Mr McCullough said. He also said he could not draw any factual conclusions because he had not heard from any of the parties and noted he was relying on information provided by Web Summit.
Still, Mr Cosgrave hinted at the investigation in posts on social media, intimating that Mr Hickey was a “sexual predator” without naming his former college friend.
Mr McCullough said it was “reprehensible” that Mr Cosgrave had used his position in the company to “suggest the truth of the allegations against Mr Hickey”. He said Mr Cosgrave saw the incident as “a means of intimidating and blackmailing Mr Hickey into giving up his shareholding”.
The case continues on Thursday when Michael Cush SC, for Mr Kelly, will give his opening statements.
