London, Dec 21 (ANI): Nancy Dell'Olio has lost a High Court defamation action over a newspaper article that referred to her as a "man eater".
The ex-girlfriend of former England football coach Sven-Goran Eriksson objected to the description claiming that it implied she was a "serial gold-digger".
According to the 50-year-old property lawyer, the article suggested she began a relationship with Sir Trevor Nunn, a theatre director, on the grounds that he was a rich man who could support her lavish way of life.
William Bennett, Dell'Olio's counsel, told the court that the article portrayed her as a predator.
"A man eater is an animal which hunts and kills human prey," the Telegraph quoted Bennett as saying.
"In the context of the words complained of, it means a woman who hunts men but, rather than kill and eat them, uses them for her own selfish ends.
"The use of the words 'man eater' excludes the possibility of romantic love or the possibility of a genuine emotional draw to another human being.
"Just as the lion hunts the deer for food, Nancy Dell'Olio hunts the millionaire for his money," he said.
Justice Tugendhat struck out the claim against Associated Newspapers, publishers of the Daily Mail, in which the article appeared in April.
In his ruling, he said he accepted that the article headline, "Return of the man eater", was "unflattering", but it was not the same as being defamatory.
"The references to lifestyle, money and wealth in the words complained of, insulting though they may be, do not elevate the matter to the level of seriousness required if a publication is to be capable of being defamatory," Tugendhat said.
Bennett claimed that the predator metaphor was fleshed out when the article questioned what could attract an "alluring" woman to a man who was two decades older and "looks like a scruffy geography teacher" who wore "battered plimsolls".
He also said that Dell'Olio was not presented as having an interest in theatre, nor as the sort of intellectual with whom Nunn normally associated.
However, Mark Warby QC, for Associated Newspapers, said that Dell'Olio was at no point called a gold-digger, and that the article could not reasonably be read as implying that her sole motivation was money.
The article made clear that the director was the initiator of the relationship and explicitly reflected the genuine emotional commitment involved on both sides.
Warby accepted that the term "man eater" was capable of suggesting predatory behaviour, but said that was not the same thing as being a "serial gold-digger".
Tugendhat added that the question in claim was whether the words were capable of substantially adversely affecting the attitude of other people towards Dell'Olio.
He also said that she was very well known and had been for a number of years, and that the public position or character of a claimant was relevant. The words of which she complained carried an assumption that the reader would already know who she was. (ANI)
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