Ken Bates should be locked up, says ex-Leeds director’s wife

Mr Bates was accused of waging a campaign of “calculated persecution” against Yorkshire businessman Melvyn Levi, who successfully sued him for libel damages in 2009.

Leeds County Court heard that Mr Levi and his wife Carole became ill after Mr Bates “ruined their lives” by making disparaging remarks about them in the club’s matchday programme.

They were also forced to carry personal alarms and bolster security at their Leeds home after the programme published their address and invited supporters to look up their telephone number, the hearing was told.

The couple are seeking damages for harassment from Mr Bates, Leeds United and Yorkshire Radio, a radio station which broadcasts live commentary of the club’s matches.

They have also applied for an injunction against Mr Bates to prevent further harassment.

Mr Levi, whose business interests have included ownership of the Queen’s official florist, told the court: “I don’t want to be insulted. I don’t want to be attacked.

“I don’t want my wife and myself to be living in fear and be worried all the time.”

Mr Levi was awarded £50,000 in damages in 2009 after a High Court judge ruled that he had been libelled by Mr Bates in articles published in the programme.

The Leeds chairman had alleged Mr Levi was a “shyster” who tried to blackmail the club over money.

In a witness statement handed to the court, Mr Levi said Mr Bates’s harassment began in 2006 and stopped in July 2009 following the libel case.

But he said it resumed on Boxing Day in 2010, when Yorkshire Radio broadcast an announcement during Leeds United’s home match against Leicester City, asking anyone who knew his whereabouts to contact the club.

Mr Levi said he understood a similar announcement was made during or before the club’s match against Middlesbrough at Elland Road on New Year’s Day in 2011.

Listeners who heard the announcement “assumed I was some sort of fugitive”, Mr Levi added.

The court heard that Mr Bates had been seeking to serve Mr Levi with papers about separate legal proceedings.

A man had visited the couple’s home shortly before Christmas to present the papers, but Mr Levi was not in.

The hearing was told Mr Bates used his matchday notes for the Middlesbrough game to speculate about why Mr Levi was not there and to imply the couple had spent Christmas apart.

Mr Levi said: “A number of people have since asked me if we are having marital problems and that is also very upsetting.”

He later added: “It is not an exaggeration that since Mr Bates recommenced his acts of harassment against us, it has completely ruined our lives.”

Giving evidence, Mrs Levi told the court: “Mr Bates has stolen six and a half years of our lives – six and a half precious years.

“We are well into our sixties now. We should be having a good time, not sitting in court, boring everybody to pieces. We are very small fry. I would have thought that he would have taken on somebody on a much larger scale than us.”

She went on: “Really, he should be locked up. If this is all he can do with his life, he should be locked up. It’s terrible.”

Mr Bates is defending the action on grounds of reasonableness and freedom of expression.

It was suggested in court that his legal team would argue that public figures should have “broad shoulders” and be prepared for criticism.

But the Levis’ barrister, Simon Myerson QC, told the hearing: “There is a big difference between having broad shoulders and being made to be ill.

“This was calculated persecution with an effect.”

The dispute began after Mr Bates’s acquired the club from the Yorkshire Consortium, of which Mr Levi was a member, in 2005.

The case continues.