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Ex-United director's threat to have Ken Bates killed, High Court told
Former Leeds United director Melvyn Levi has been "persecuted" after chairman Ken Bates launched a defamatory "campaign" against him, London's High Court heard.
Mr Levi is also expected to tell Mr Justice Gray that he believes some of Mr Bates' comments are anti-Semitic, although the Jewish businessman's lawyers are not making that claim part of the libel battle.
However, Mr Bates vigorously denies any wrongdoing and has vowed to fight the two-week hearing tooth and nail, with his lawyers counter-alleging that Mr Levi at one point threatened to have him killed.
Opening Mr Levi's case, barrister Simon Myerson QC told Mr Justice Gray that the alleged defamatory comments were made in a number of Leeds United programmes and a letter Mr Bates sent to fans.
They were made in the wake of Mr Bates' takeover of Leeds United Football Club and his subsequent falling out with Mr Levi, who was a director under the previous regime.
Mr Myerson said that Mr Levi had been "seriously injured in his reputation and has suffered embarrassment and upset" by what Mr Bates had said, adding that Mr Bates' conduct had amounted to a "campaign" and Mr Levi felt "persecuted".
The barrister added that Mr Levi's wife had been "frightened witless" after Mr Bates included the couple's address in Leeds in his column for the programme.
On another occasion, the whereabouts of Mr Levi's phone number was also published, and although it had black felt tip pen put through it in an attempt to make it unreadable, Mr Myerson said it was still legible.
Among statements made by Mr Bates which are complained of, Mr Levi has taken issue with two which he says are anti-Semitic.
One referred to him as a "shyster", and the other was entitled "The Enemy Within", which Mr Myerson said was the title of one of the chapters of Hitler's Mein Kampf.
"It isn't part of this claim that Mr Bates is an anti-Semite, it doesn't arise for determination," said the barrister.
But earlier he had said: "Mr Levi will say that he does believe 'shyster' to be anti-Semitic."
In written papers drafted by Mr Levi's legal team, it was said that on October 17, 2006, Mr Bates published an article in the Leeds United programme entitled "Just to bring you up to speed..."
The article followed a disagreement between Mr Bates and Mr Levi, which evolved against the back-drop of complex business dealings surrounding Mr Bates' takeover of the club.
Mr Bates alleges that Mr Levi was wrong to block the sale of a number of shares after an option to buy them was exercised.
In the October 17 article, the papers alleged, Mr Bates had wrongly given the impression that Mr Levi was a "shyster trying to blackmail Leeds United into paying him money to buy him off for not honouring his obligation".
A second article, with the controversial headline "The Enemy Within", was published on March 3, 2007.
The papers alleged that the article wrongly gave the impression that Mr Levi was "trying to blackmail Mr Bates", had engaged in "scurrilous telephone calls and conversations which deterred two would-be serious investors in the club and were criminal", and Mr Levi was "dishonourable" and "his unscrupulous attempts to obtain money had deterred investors".
The following week, an article entitled "Why, Mr Levi, why?" was published in the programme.
It is alleged that the article wrongly gave the impression that "Mr Levi frightened off investors and tried to blackmail the club into paying him money, and excused his actions by accusing Mr Bates of being anti-Semitic".
It was also alleged that the article wrongly suggested that "Mr Levi deterred Alamo Rent a Car from investing in the club", and Mr Levi "closed down Bramley Rugby League Club so as to redevelop the pitch for housing".
In August 2007, Mr Bates published to Leeds Club Members a letter which Mr Levi says wrongly suggested that he had "frustrated efforts to strengthen Leeds United's finances by deterring participants in a rights issue and putting off would-be investors".
Asking Mr Justice Gray to award Mr Levi aggravated damages, lawyers said Mr Bates has "published and continues to publish serious and offensive libels and has denied him an apology or any amends".
The papers added that Mr Bates had published Mr Levi's address, and "it is to be inferred he did so hoping that Mr Levi or his family would be harmed", and had also informed readers where his telephone number was located.
The papers also alleged: "Mr Bates has sought to blame Mr Levi, amongst others, for the misfortunes of Leeds United in the hope of deflecting attention from its financial position and relegation to the First Division of the Football League."
However, Ronald Thwaites QC, for Bates, has put forward a number of lines of defence, and says that Mr Levi is not entitled to a penny in damages.
Mr Thwaites says that Mr Bates was protected by "qualified privilege" as the allegations he made were in the public interest.
The barrister also says that the statements Mr Bates made were "justified" and "fair comment", and expressly denied that he was anti-Semitic or had ever "used language that the Nazis would use".
In written papers composed by Mr Thwaites' junior barrister, Jacob Dean, it was alleged that Mr Levi's behaviour in not agreeing to the sale of the shares could be "fairly described" as "dishonourable, unscrupulous and disgraceful", adding that his demands in the autumn of 2005 "amounted to blackmail".
He added that, during a conversation with a potential Irish investor, on December 13, 2006, Mr Levi tried to deter him from putting money into the club, and then said Mr Bates could be shot.
"Mr Levi made the shocking and deeply disturbing comment that people can get shot over matters like this and that he, Mr Levi, was owed money and he would have no problem going to prison about it," said Mr Dean.
"This scurrilous and disgraceful remark by Mr Levi, reasonably interpreted as a threat on the life of Mr Bates, was reported to the police."
The case continues.
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