Abused solicitor wished death on young Jewish man

MARK LEWIS, the solicitor who was ordered to pay £12,500 for sending abusive social media messages to far-right trolls, also told a young Jewish man he hoped his father “would sit shiva for you soon”, the JC can reveal.

Mr Lewis was fined and ordered to pay thousands in legal costs for “wishing death” on people on social media, many of whom had sent him antisemitic abuse or wished similar on him.

The decision sparked outrage in the Jewish community and several crowdfunders raised the money for him.

But the JC has seen Facebook posts Mr Lewis wrote to an 18-year-old who was supporting the Labour Party during the 2017 general election, telling him to “f**k off you stupid c**t”, adding that his father “should have worn a condom”.

The exchange was one of the allegations that was the subject of a formal complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), which has still not published its full judgment.

Mr Lewis claims that, while he accepted wrongdoing in his actions towards the 18-year-old, his case was taken to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal because he refused to do so in the second complaint relating to the trolls.

Last month the tribunal found that he had sent “offensive and profane messages”, including a number of “deathwishes”, and he was ordered to pay a fine of £2,500 and £10,000 in costs.

Mr Lewis responded that the SRA was “faced with a choice between Holocaust denying neo-Nazis and a Jewish lawyer… It chose to side with the neo-Nazis”.

The father of Mr Lewis’s victim told the JC he came forward because the “record needs to be set straight”.

He said he was frustrated Mr Lewis, who made aliyah last week, was “being treated like a hero” in the wake of the judgment.

The father added: “It was inappropriate behaviour from a solicitor. It was inappropriate for an adult, especially because it was directed towards someone who was only a few days away from legally being a child.”

The lawyer, who made his name representing Milly Dowler’s family against the News of the World over phone hacking, blamed his outburst on Clonazepam, a sedative he was given during a medical trial for multiple sclerosis, side-effects of which include aggression and hallucinations.

Mr Lewis claimed that, after regaining consciousness, he was “horrified to see what I had done”, and deleted the posts. He said: “I posted a… horrible thing. I don’t try to excuse it all. What I said was completely wrong. I apologise fully. I cannot say sorry enough.

“The SRA indicated that there could be a resolution by an acceptance and apology for my actions. Whilst I accepted the wrongdoing [in the case of the Facebook comments], I explained that I would never apologise to neo-Nazis.

“If the case had just been about [the Facebook posts], it would have been resolved at that stage, without significant financial penalty or cost.”