Jeremy Vine sues Joey Barton over ‘nonce’ claims as part of ‘sustained attack’ by ex-footballer
9 May 2024, 20:40
Jeremy Vine is suing Joey Barton for calling him a ‘big bike nonce’ in a 'sustained attack' by the former footballer, the High Court has been told.
Joey Barton is facing legal action over 14 posts he made about radio presenter Jeremy Vine, in which he labelled him a “big bike nonce” and “pedo defender”.
Mr Vine, 58, well known for the point-of-view bike videos he posts to Twitter, filed a libel claim at the High Court against the former Manchester City player.
Mr Barton denies any wrongdoing and has argued he was “making fun” of Mr Vine in the posts with “vulgar abuse” but did not libel him.
Lawyers for the radio presenter have alleged that since Mr Barton’s string of posts, Mr Vine has been subjected to “paedopholic slurs” as the ex-footballer's posts contained “clear references to (Mr Vine) having a sexual interest in children”.
Gervase de Wilde, representing Mr Vine, said: “Mr Barton had many options for engaging in the abuse of Mr Vine but he chose the one toxic word to do so, which means paedophile.
"It has moved into common, current use and its meaning would be well understood by the ordinary social media user."
He continued: "There is an irreducible, defamatory meaning of the word nonce, however it is used. That does mean paedophile or child molester."
The lawyer said that Mr Barton’s abuse began after he started posting about women involved in football at the end of 2023.
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In one post, he compared female pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West, Mr Vine then questioned his posts and asked whether Mr Barton had a brain injury, his lawyer said.
This led to Mr Barton launching a "calculated and sustained attack on Mr Vine" on January 6, including by repeating allegations that Mr Vine supported administering Covid-19 vaccinations by force.
In the following days, he shared several posts labelling Mr Vine as a “bike nonce”, a “pedo defender” and a “nonce”, and also associated him with paedophiles including Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Jeffrey Epstein, the court was told.
One of Barton’s posts featured an image of Mr Vine and disgraced TV presenter Rolf Harris together, with the comment: “Oh Jeremy Vine. Did you, Rolf-aroo and Schofield go out on a tandem bike ride? You big bike nonce ya!”
Mr de Wilde said that Mr Barton also began using the term “bikenonce” on X, which led to it trending on the platform.
In written submissions, Mr de Wilde claimed Mr Barton's "ongoing attacks" on Mr Vine were "on a very significant scale", with some posts being seen by more than 2.5 million people.
Mr Barton did not attend Thursday's hearing in London.
His barrister, William McCormick KC, said the posts contained "vulgar abuse" but did not libel Mr Vine.
He said: "This is a classic example of someone who is posting in the heat of the moment to something they don't like from Mr Vine, and it would be seen as such.
"No-one would take that literally. It is a classic statement where someone would say that is just abuse, he does not really mean it."
Discussing one post published on January 8, which said Mr Vine was "aka Bike Nonce", Mr McCormick said in written submissions: "The post would obviously not be taken as making an allegation that Mr Vine is a paedophile.
"Nobody would consider this to be what Mr Barton was intending to convey by giving Mr Vine the supposed alias 'bike nonce'. Regardless of whether there is any link between 'nonce' and 'paedophile', the context in which 'nonce' is used here strips it of any such meaning.
"'Nonce' is used as part of 'aka Bike Nonce' which is an obvious attempt at humorous abuse of Mr Vine based in part upon his cycling activities, which would be known to all reasonable readers."
Mrs Justice Steyn will give her judgment in writing at a later date.