THE AGE – Criminal solicitor Alex Lewenberg has been banned from practising law for 15 months after telling a Jewish sexual abuse victim not to help police prosecute Yeshivah College paedophile David Cyprys.
The lawyer, who has represented a string of notorious clients including Billy “The Texan” Longley and Boris “The Black Diamond” Beljajev, must also take an ethics course before being reinstated.
The 74-year-old was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal last month after the Legal Services Commissioner took action over two comments he admitted making in 2011.
On two occasions, once while in court for a bail hearing for Cyprys and later in a secretly recorded telephone conversation, Mr Lewenberg said that Jews shouldn’t help prosecute fellow Jews.
At the time Mr Lewenberg, a Russian-born Jew, was representing Cyprys, who was later jailed for the rape and sexual assault of young boys at Yeshivah College.
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