David Beckham's libel case against an American magazine has been thrown out of court by a US judge.
The allegations - which Beckham denies strenuously - included claims that Beckham had paid the 26-year-old $5,000 for a threesome in 2007. The player has proven that he was elsewhere at the time, however, with one of the alleged meetings said to have taken place while he was visiting his father in hospital and another during a football match that he attended.
Yet US district judge Manuel Real threw out Beckham's case at a hearing in Los Angeles, deciding that the magazine's publishers had not acted with malice when they published the story, and upholding Nici's "right to free speech".
Real said that the magazine's failure to check their facts properly "doesn't establish malice" - a key component of US libel law.
"The statement in the article concerned a person in the public eye," Real added, adding that the report had been published "in the public interest".
"The plaintiff is a world-renowned soccer star who puts himself in the public spotlight, " he added.
Beckham's legal team have insisted that they will continue to fight the case - despite Nici's representatives suggesting that she will now counter-sue Beckham for harassment.
"Bauer do not dispute for purposes of this motion that their story is false," a spokesman for the LA Galaxy player said.
"They have not provided one shred of evidence to support the claim this story is true. David Beckham's clear evidence proved that this is without foundation.
"We have already won a court ruling in Germany and are awaiting damages. Unfortunately, the US legal system requires us to show that the magazine acted maliciously.
"Any knowledgeable person knows this story not to be true. We will continue to fight this in court and the decision will be appealed."
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