TV presenter Jeremy Vine came close to breaking down in court today as he described fearing for his own daughters’ safety after Joey Barton posted a ‘cloud of filth’ about him on social media.
Mr Vine described how Barton repeatedly claimed he was a paedophile, published his address on social media and encouraged his three million Twitter/X followers to send him incriminating ‘dirt’ to support his allegation when the presenter sued him for libel.
His voice breaking as he addressed the jury, Mr Vine, 60, told Liverpool Crown Court: ‘I’m a law-abiding father of two and a good husband and these were disgusting allegations.
‘I was particularly concerned about my young daughters but I didn’t want to communicate to them – the youngest in particular would get upset. I felt I had to explain this cloud of filth to them and where it came from.’
The jury heard the attack on him began when the TV and radio presenter responded on Twitter/X to a tweet in which Barton compared football analysts Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to the child serial killers Fred and Rose West. Mr Vine asked his followers if Barton’s ‘disgusting’ claim was the product of him suffering from a brain injury.
Though Mr Vine quickly modified the tweet, which some people told him was disrespectful of people with brain injuries, his response unleashed a series of tweets in which Barton labelled Mr Vine a ‘bike nonce’ and said police should be called if he was found near a primary school.
Barton’s tweets, viewed millions of times, also associated him with child abusers Rolf Harris and Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Vine told the court: ‘I felt I was wantonly being torn down for no reason. It was like a violent assault on me – that’s how I felt.
‘I made my initial comment, tried to modify it and then just tried to leave it alone. I could see Mr Barton wanted some kind of push-back. He had obviously decided to go all in on abusing me and I was beginning to become very worried.
‘This was a despicable thing to say. It gravely, gravely upset me and I had sleepless nights.
‘Mr Barton has thrown out this hugely damaging phrase and his followers have miked up that phrase. He has seen their replies and amplified them with comments and out it through his own megaphone. I didn’t want to inflame it any more. Maybe he wanted to get it out of his system but I didn’t want to get into any combat with him on social media.
‘The whole thing was driving towards one destination. I was beginning to become very worried that Barton had got this obsession. I was very alarmed. I just had a sense he was not going to stop.’
Mr Vine decided to mount a libel case against Barton – the quickest means of getting him to stop making the allegations, he said. But Barton then asked his followers if anyone had ‘anything’ on Mr Vine to help him mount a legal fight. He tweeted: ‘Pictures, screenshots, anything that will help us, please send it to me.’
The presenter was astonished by this. He told the jury: ‘I thought, “This is incredible.” I could not believe I was seeing it.’
When the libel case came to court, Barton was ordered to pay sums of £75,000 and £35,000 plus legal costs to Mr Vine and issue an apology which was pinned to his Twitter/X account. This included an apology for a doctored clip which wrongly implied that Mr Vine had supported forced vaccination.
Barton, 43, denies 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The case continues.
