Beckham libel case dropped

US judge throws footballer's £15.5m lawsuit out of court...

11:46 15 February 2011

David Beckham's £15.5million libel case against a US magazine has been thrown out of court by an American judge.

The footballer was suing In Touch magazine after they published an article last year claiming that he had paid prostitute Irma Nici for sex.

Beckham's case was thrown out because his lawyers failed to claim that the publisher had "acted with malice".

The judge said 35-year-old Beckham was in the public eye and there was a public interest in his personal life and that it was NiciÂ’s constitutional right to say what she wanted.

A spokesperson for Beckham said

"Bauer do not dispute for purposes of this motion that their story is false. They have not provided one shred of evidence to support the claim this story is true.

"We have already won a court ruling in Germany and are awaiting damages. Unfortunately, the U.S. legal system requires us to show the magazine acted maliciously."

However, Nici's lawyer, Paul Jensen, said he planned to counter-sue Beckham for harassing his client.