General News of Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Source: www.mirror.co.uk

Eboue offered legal advice to help overturn court ruling

Eboue is seeking help to fund an appeal against the ruling that could leave him homeless Eboue is seeking help to fund an appeal against the ruling that could leave him homeless

Emmanuel Eboue has received offers of legal advice in his bid to overturn a court ruling set to leave him homeless in the wake of his bitter divorce.

The ex-Arsenal defender, 34, has spoken to the Mirror of his fears for the future following his acrimonious split from wife Aurelie.

He is still upset that the district judge in the case, Edward Cross, ruled against him in his absence at the Central Family Court in London - and insists his ill-health prevented him from engaging in the process.

Court documents suggest he did not fill in a Form E which sets all of his assets and liabilities - and that he failed to comply with a number of orders.

Eboue contends that he was kicked out of the matrimonial home and unable to gain access to retrieve such documents requested by the court.

The subsequent information provided to the court by Eboue was said to have been “highly deficient”. A senior barrister was briefly engaged to try to try and delay the final hearing but was unsuccessful.

Broke Eboue, who has struggled with long-term depression, says he found himself further disadvantaged as he could not afford to retain his legal representation.

He maintains hospital letters, from doctors treating him for illness, were submitted in mitigation.

They explained his absence from hearings and suggested Eboue was not fit enough to attend. Also those proceedings should have been adjourned as they would have been detrimental to his health and wellbeing.

Eboue was left stunned when the judge still chose to make an order in his absence -the former Gunner was in hospital at the time - without hearing his side of the story.

The Ivory Coast defender claims his limited education saw him hand over the responsibility for the couple’s financial affairs to his wife. Their joint assets - a matrimonial home and a second property in north London - will go to her.

Previously-owned apartments in the Ivory Coast were sold two years ago.

It means his wife is entitled to their joint assets and that an order for Eboue to leave their north London home will be signed by the judge if he does not do so. The deadline expired three weeks ago on December 6.

Eboue has already had an avalanche of goodwill via social media. He has also had offers via The Mirror both of legal assistance but is still seeking help to fund an appeal.

He said: “That divorce killed me a lot. I am not happy about the law in England because it is so biased. I want God to use me to change that. I want to be able to say that what this judge has done is not fair.”