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Joey Barton pays £75k and apologises as judge rules he made defamatory comment to Jeremy Vine

Joey Barton pays £75k in damages and apologises as a judge rules he made a defamatory comment to broadcaster Jeremy Vine.

On Tuesday (18 June) afternoon, Joey Barton said sorry to Jeremy Vine “for the distress” and agreed to compensate him with £75,000 in damages for the defamatory remarks he made on social media.

Last month, a High Court judge determined that the comments made Barton about Vine on Twitter were found to be defamatory.

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In the statement, Joey said: “Between 8 and 12 January 2024 I published 11 posts which accused Jeremy Vine of having a sexual interest in children, and created a hashtag which made the same allegations, which were viewed millions of times.

“I recognise that this is a very serious allegation. It is untrue. I do not believe that Mr Vine has a sexual interest in children, and I wish to set the record straight.

“I also published posts during the same period in which I referred to Mr Vine having advocated forced vaccination during the Covid 19 pandemic, based upon a video clip of his TV programme.

“I accept that he did not advocate this policy and that the video clip has been edited to give a misleading impression of what he was in fact saying.

“I then taunted and abused Mr Vine for bringing a legal complaint against me. I have agreed not to make the same allegations again about Mr Vine and I apologise to him for the distress he has suffered.

“To resolve his claims against me in defamation and harassment, I have agreed to pay Mr Vine £75,000 in damages and his legal costs.”

Jeremy Vine said: “STATEMENT REGARDING JOEY BARTON:

“The news of Joey Barton’s apology and commitment to pay damages and costs is not the final outcome of this case.

“After five defamatory tweets, my lawyer offered Barton a chance to settle: pay £75k, plus my costs, and make an apology.

“He ignored that offer and posted more disgusting tweets about me, even publishing my home address to his followers.

“When I then took my case to the High Court, a judge ruled that TEN of the tweets I complained of were defamatory. Having lost, Barton has returned to the offer we made after tweet 5.

“There has therefore been a parallel action on tweets 6-10 and Barton will pay further damages for these. A number of other steps — including statements made in Court by way of apology — are still to be taken, and Barton has agreed to pay my legal costs of all of the claims.”

Vine was suing Barton for libel and harassment over 14 online posts, including where he called Vine a “big bike nonce” and a “pedo defender” on Twitter.

At a preliminary hearing, Mrs Justice Steyn was asked to decide several early issues in the case, including the “natural and ordinary” meanings of the posts and whether they were statements of fact or opinion.

The judge ruled 11 of the posts could defame Jeremy Vine. She said: “The strong impression gained by the assertion the claimant is known as ‘aka’ ‘bike nonce’, followed immediately by the further assertion that he is known as, again, ‘aka’ ‘pedo defender’, is that the term ‘nonce’ was being used in its primary meaning to allege the claimant has a sexual interest in children.

“While I do not consider that the hypothetical reader, who would read the post quickly and move on, would infer a causative link, ie that the claimant defends paedophiles because he shares the same propensity, the juxtaposition of the words ‘nonce’ and ‘pedo’ is striking and would reinforce the impression that the former was used in the sense of ‘paedophile’.

“The reader would have understood that the word ‘bike’ was a meaningless aspect of the accusation, serving only as an indication that this was a label attached to the claimant, who was known as a cyclist, without detracting from the operative word ‘nonce’.”

Jeremy Vine’s barrister, Gervase de Wilde, said that the hearing in London last month that the abuse started after Joey Barton made comments on women involved in football and in the media from the end of 2023, in which he compared female pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West. See more on that HERE.

Jeremy Vine questioned the remarks and whether Joey Barton had a brain injury.

Joey went on a “calculated and sustained attack on Mr Vine” in early January this year, Jeremy Vine’s barrister said.

Joey Barton posted a number of posts across the next few days using “#bikenonce” on X, which led to it trending on the platform, the court was told, as per Gloucestershire Live.

Jeremy Vine’s barrister said that the posts contained “clear references to (Mr Vine) having a sexual interest in children” and that the word “nonce” had “an irreducible, defamatory meaning”.

William McCormick KC, for Joey Barton, said the posts contained “vulgar abuse” did not libel Vine and represented libel Jeremy Vine, that it “someone who is posting in the heat of the moment”.

Discussing one post published on January 8, which said Mr Vine was “aka bike nonce”, Mr McCormick said in written submissions that the term was an “obvious attempt at humorous abuse of Mr Vine”.

But discussing another post which included the phrase “bike nonce”, Mrs Justice Steyn said: “In my judgment, the hypothetical ordinary reasonable reader would understand the post as taunting, scorning and ridiculing the claimant for his alleged proclivity. “The jocular tone might be seen by the ordinary reasonable reader as in bad taste, given the subject matter, but it would not lead them to understand that no allegation of having a sexual interest in children was seriously being made.

“Nor would the reader perceive it as meaningless abuse ‘shouted’ in the heat of the moment, as there is nothing in the post that would give that impression.”

Twitter users reacted as Joey Barton pays £75k and apologises as a judge rules he made a defamatory comment to Jeremy Vine…

@oxfordtoafrica: Painful but the right thing to do. You were out of order and this was obvious form the start but you doubled down. I’m sure that the financial settlement isn’t a disaster for you. But hopefully a lesson learned. Time to focus on football again!

@nocontextfm1: Lmao

@JustTalkWrestle:
People told you this would happen.
You thought you knew better.
You fucked around and you found out.

@MattSibson:
Leaving the quotation marks in 😂
– Just post this Joey and be done with it.
– FFS. Fine. Whatever.

@CFCupNorf: Bet that hurt didn’t it… stay of the sauce late at night in future…

@GTH88: Learn ya lesson Joey…. you can slander people without actually slandering if you concentrate on not ‘ranting’ but wording diplomatically.

@Crouchy_4: Perhaps you should also apologise to all the female football players and pundits that you ridicule on the daily?

@JC_GreenArrow: Having completed the fuck around part of proceedings, Joey Barton is clearly in the midst of the find out section and it’s going well for him, you have to say

@Elemjay1: Well, the lawyers definitely wrote those post. 🤣

@TheExiledRobin: Hahaha what a vile, horrible piece of work and now he’s had to publicly apologise. How embarrassing for him. And to all you mugs who paid his legal fees for a bit of attention from your hero, get a grip

@jamiebennett92: Can’t stand Jeremy Vine but he’s had Barton here. Posting this must’ve been so painful for him to do… especially when you look back at some of the things he’s tweeted about it being an easy win in court.

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