A High Court judge determined that Joey Barton’s statements on Jeremy Vine on social media were defamatory. The radio and TV broadcaster sued the former player for libel and harassment after 14 tweets on X, formerly known as Twitter.
After being asked to determine on the “natural and ordinary” interpretation of the posts, Mrs Justice Steyn found on Friday that 11 of them potentially slander Mr Vine, a BBC employee. She stated that the statements gave her the “strong impression” that the term was being used in its “primary meaning to allege the claimant has a sexual interest in children”.
Mr Barton, 41, a former Premier League footballer turned manager, had referred to Mr Vine, 59, as a “bike nonce” and a “pedo defender”. The judge stated that: “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’.”
She said a reader would have considered the term “bike” to be a “meaningless aspect of the accusation” used merely to indicate that this was a label linked to Mr Vine, who was known as a biker, “without detracting from the operative word ‘nonce’.” Mr Vine’s counsel, Gervase de Wilde, told the court earlier this month that the abuse started after Mr Vine reacted to a post in which Mr Barton likened football journalists Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West.
That led the broadcaster to inquire whether Mr Barton, who was Bristol Rovers’ manager until October of last year, had a brain damage. According to the court, Mr Barton launched a series of articles attacking women involved in football and football punditry in late 2023. Mr Barton, who also played for Manchester City, Newcastle, and Queens Park Rangers, subsequently shared multiple posts about Mr Vine with his 2.8 million X followers over the next few days in early January.
Mr de Wilde said the court that the word was trending on the site, that the former footballer’s activities were a “calculated and sustained attack on Mr Vine,” and that the tweets contained “clear references to (Mr Vine) having a sexual interest in children.” Mr Barton’s barrister, William McCormick KC, stated that the tweets included “vulgar abuse” but did not defame Mr Vine.
He stated that the posts were made by “someone who is posting in the heat of the moment”. Mr McCormick stated in his comments that allusions to “aka bike nonce” were a “obvious attempt at humorous abuse of Mr Vine”.
