Millionaire loses 'indecent proposal' case

A tycoon made a one million dollar "indecent proposal" for another man's wife, a jury ruled this afternoon.

Brian Maccaba's claims of slander over what he said were sexual slurs were rejected after an epic High Court battle.

Mr Maccaba, 46, wrote a poem offering the money to the husband of 35-year-old Nathalie Attar, the court heard.

She in turn confided in her rabbi, a senior figure in London's Orthodox Jewish community. Mr Maccaba accused the rabbi, Dayan Yaakov Lichtenstein, of spreading "poisonous" slurs that he was a serial adulterer who pursued married Jewish women. Dayan Lichtenstein denied slander.

Mr Maccaba sat with his head bowed beside his wife Ruth as the 10 to one majority verdicts were returned after 31 hours deliberation. The jury decided comments made by the rabbi were "substantially true," that he was not motivated by malice and had not conducted a campaign of harassment against the businessman.

Dayan Lichtenstein was expressionless as the verdicts were returned but when Mr Justice Gray praised jurors for their "most exemplary" efforts he clapped his hands with glee.

Irish-born Mr Maccaba, 46, who converted to Judaism from Catholicism 15 years ago, now faces a £2million legal bill and ostracism from the community he had tried so hard to enter. Mr Maccaba's lawyers said they were considering an appeal. Mrs Attar was told news of the court victory in Jerusalem. She said: "At last I have been vindicated." The eight-week trial, the longest slander case in English legal history, mirrored the Hollywood film in which the Robert Redford character offers a newlywed played by Demi Moore one million dollars to sleep with him.

Mr Maccaba, a twice married father of six, was accused of offering the money to Alain Attar to release his wife from their marriage.

He allegedly said his relationship with Mrs Attar was "ordained by God" and offered her husband the cash so he could "live the life of a playboy" in France. The court heard that Mrs Attar turned to her rabbi, Dayan Lichtenstein, one of the most senior members of the Jewish community - the word Dayan means senior judge in the Beth Din, or rabbinical court

The case arose when Mr Maccaba sued the rabbi for conducting what he claimed was "a poisonous campaign" of slander. Dayan Lichtenstein denied he had called him "a noef," meaning an adulterer with married Jewish women - a term of contempt in Orthodox Jewish circles. But the rabbi refused to apologise for what he did say.

During the trial French-born Mrs Attar, 35, who is expecting her fourth child, wept as she told the jury Mr Maccaba had offered the money "to buy her freedom".

Staring defiantly from the witness box at Mr Maccaba she said: "Look at me and face me in my eyes and say you did not do that to me. You have lied to everybody here. You did that to me." She said Mr Maccaba had tried to destabilise her marriage by showering her with gifts, letters and cards. The poem called Knocking On Heaven's Door referred to the money as "cash, in the bank, taxfree". Clive Freedman, QC, representing Mr Maccaba, described the reference to the million dollars as a "poetic metaphor".

During the hearing Mrs Attar claimed Mr Maccaba assaulted her in a car. "He pushed himself towards me, my head banged the window and his hand touched my breast. I was scared. I could feel parts of his body," she told the jury.

Later he turned his attentions to her 19-year-old sister Daniella and asked her to marry him, Mrs Attar claimed. The trial has been extremely upsetting for the Jewish community. "The whole case has been deeply embarrassing - like having to watch the Queen sing Humpty Dumpty," said one leading member of the faith.