Richard RamptonKC (8 January 1941 – 23 December 2023) was aBritish libel lawyer. He was involved in several high-profile cases includingIrving v. Penguin Books and Lipstadt, where he defendedDeborah Lipstadt andPenguin Books againstDavid Irving.[1]
Rampton was born inNorwich on 8 January 1941, the eldest son of businessman and philanthropistTony Rampton and his wife Joan (nee Shanks). He was educated atBryanston School and readClassics atThe Queen's College, Oxford.
Richard Rampton wascalled to the Bar in November 1965 (Inner Temple) and was appointed a QC (Queen's Counsel) in 1987.
InIrving v. Penguin Books and Lipstadt, he represented Deborah Lipstadt and her publisher against false accusations oflibel after she said that Irving was aHolocaust denier in her bookDenying the Holocaust (1993). The trial was dramatised in the filmDenial in which Rampton was played byTom Wilkinson.
Rampton also representedMcDonald's in theMcLibel case, where the company sued two members of theLondon Greenpeace environmental campaigning group.[2]
Rampton's earlier cases includeAndrew Neil (editor ofThe Sunday Times) vsPeregrine Worsthorne,Lord Aldington vsCount Nikolai Tolstoy andGillian Taylforth vsNews of the World. He also successfully represented politicianGeorge Galloway againstThe Daily Telegraph over allegations that he took £375,000 fromSaddam Hussein's Iraqi regime. He representedAssociated Newspapers Group plc in Lucas-Box v News Group Newspapers Ltd; Lucas-Box v Associated Newspapers Group plc and others. This case produced the "Lucas-Box meaning" whereby under modern libel practice a defendant must set out in his/her statement of case the defamatory meaning that he/she seeks to prove to be essentially orsubstantially true.[3][4]
Rampton married his childhood sweetheart Carolyn Clarke in 1963. They had two sons and one daughter.[5]
Rampton died on 23 December 2023, at the age of 82.[6]