Flatley allowed to take blackmail case to trial

Riverdance star Michael Flatley’s £55.5m (€81m) extortion and defamation case against a woman who claimed he had raped her can proceed to trial, the California Supreme Court has ruled.

Flatley’s lawsuit against Tyna Marie Robertson was triggered by a January 2003 letter he received from the woman’s lawyer claiming he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel the year before.