A multi-millionaire Irish businessman, who converted to Judaism and is at the centre of an "Indecent Proposal" legal action in London, won a courtroom ruling yesterday over reporting restrictions in the case.
Mr Brian Maccaba, a 45-year-old married father who is suing a rabbi over an allegation that he offered a man $1 million for his wife, successfully persuaded a High Court judge to lift a reporting ban on a pre-trial ruling made in the case in December.
Mr Maccaba, Hendon, north London, the chief executive officer and founder of the international technology company Cognotec, is seeking damages against Rabbi Dayan Yaakov Lichtenstein in a slander case.
The action brought by the businessman, who was present in court for the all-day hearing before Mr Justice Eady in London, centres on claims that Rabbi Lichtenstein spread sexual smears about him after he allegedly offered Mr Alan Attar one million dollars to let his wife Nathalie spend the rest of her life with him.
The case has already been described in newspaper reports as a "real-life" version of the 1993 Hollywood film Indecent Proposal, starring Demi Moore and Robert Redford, in which Redford offers a couple a million dollars for the wife to spend a night with him.
Mr Clive Freedman QC, counsel for Mr Maccaba, had argued that it would be "harmful" for the embargo on a ruling by High Court judge, Mr Justice Morland, to continue as it "encouraged a distortion in the press coverage of the matter".
This was a distortion, he said, "which ends up with our case being reported in a rather one-sided manner".
If Mr Justice Morland's ruling was before the newspapers they would see there were other issues in the case about the "fitness or otherwise" of the defendant to hold office.
But solicitor Mr Martin Cruddace, for the rabbi, argued that allowing reporting of Mr Justice Morland's judgment could enable the press to be "fed" with matters from it "that could rubbish my client".
Mr Freedman said the action had already already attracted "world-wide" publicity. He told the judge: "You will have seen from the evidence how the story has travelled to New York, Israel, India, Australia and throughout Europe."
Rabbi Lichtenstein, who is the senior judge in the Beth Din, or rabbinical court, of the Federation of Synagogues, denies making slanderous comments.
Lifting the ban, Mr Justice Eady said that it was unrealistic to suppose that reporting of the proceedings before Mr Justice Morland would add significantly to the prejudice engendered by earlier publicity in the media.
He was satisfied that any jury would focus on the totality of the evidence and not on any inaccurate or incomplete reporting.
He pointed out that the trial was unlikely to come on before March next year and it had not yet been determined whether it would involve a jury.
"Judges will only take such a step [continuing a reporting ban] when they are persuaded it is necessary to protect the administration of justice and in particular the important right to a fair trial. Here, I am not persuaded of any such necessity."
He said that lifting the restriction in no way provided a licence for either side to ignore the general principles which applied to all court proceedings.
During the hearing, Mr Freedman claimed Mr Maccaba was the victim of a "campaign of slander" by the rabbi.