Joey Barton apologises to Jeremy Vine and agrees to pay him huge sum after branding TV star ‘bike nonce’
JOEY Barton has apologised to Jeremy Vine and agreed to pay him £75,000 after branding the star a “bike nonce”.
BBC Radio 2 host Vine had sued ex-Man City, Newcastle and QPR midfielder Barton for libel and harassment over the slew of vile posts.
The pair had been set for a High Court showdown but Barton today revealed he has agreed to pay Vine £75,000 in damages and costs to settle the case.
He also apologised to the broadcaster for the “untrue” posts, which also included branding Vine a “paedo defender”.
Barton said: “I have agreed not to make the same allegations again about Mr Vine and I apologise to him for the distress he has suffered.”
The ex-footballer compared Vine, 58, to “bogeymen” paedophiles Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris in a string of posts.
One of the posts featured an image of the presenter edited next to disgraced TV star Harris and referred to him as a “big bike nonce”.
Barton, 41, later retweeted a picture of Vine cycling, writing: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999.”
The High Court last month found 11 of the 12 posts had a defamatory meaning.
Vine’s lawyer Gervase de Wilde previously argued the posts wrongly suggest the broadcaster has a “sexual interest in children”.
But Barton, who has 2.8million Twitter followers, claimed his opinions were not defamatory and instead “vulgar abuse”.
William McCormick, representing Barton, claimed the ex-footballer was responding in a “Twitter spat” in the “same way anyone who remembers him will remember he used to tackle”.
Ex-Bristol Rovers manager Barton raised £15,959 through a GoFundMe page to support his costly legal battle with Vine.
Barton claimed “all proceeds gained” if he won would be donated to the Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool.
He is also being sued by retired Lioness Eni Aluko after the ITV pundit and her family were targeted on social media.
Barton's apology post in full
“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.”