BBC presenter Jeremy Vine says he was wrongly branded a paedophile and linked to Rolf Harris and Jeffrey Epstein after ex-footballer Joey Barton dubbed him a “bike nonce” in a “calculated and sustained” social media attack.
Vine is suing Barton for libel at the High Court over a string of posts on X, formerly Twitter, starting in January this year.
The BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 host says he was deluged with paedophile slurs by social media users after Barton repeatedly used the ‘bike nonce’ term in posts to his 2.5 million followers.
Barton, the former Man City, QPR, and Newcastle midfielder, argues he was “making fun” of Vine in the posts with “vulgar abuse”, and insists no one would genuinely think he was calling the TV presenter a paedophile.
Barton, who is fighting the libel claim, says his posts were “combative and irreverent” and would not have been taken seriously or literally.
Vine attended the High Court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing, when Mrs Justice Steyn is due to assess the meaning of each of Barton’s posts to the ordinary reader. Barton is absent from court.
Gervase de Wilde, representing Vine, argue Barton should be held responsible for a “calculated and sustained attack” which led to Vine’s name and the slur trending on X.
“The ongoing attacks by Mr Barton and for which he is responsible are on a very significant scale”, he said.
“Three of the posts complained of in defamation have each been published to more than 2.5m readers.
“Some individual replies and reposts repeating Mr Barton’s allegations or their substance, even by accounts which themselves had relatively low numbers of followers, are published to tens of thousands of readers.”
One of Barton’s posts featured an image of 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!”
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The following day, Barton retweeted a post featuring a picture of Vine cycling which dubbed him a “bike nonce”, and he added his own comment: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999.”
“Mr Vine was branded a ‘nonce’ and a ‘paedo’, and compared to, or associated with Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris, Gary Glitter, and Jeffrey Epstein”, said Mr de Wilde, describing the impact of the posts.
“Many of those who republished the paedophile allegation focused, as Mr Barton did, on Mr Vine’s status as a television personality and BBC presenter, suggesting that this was a factor in the truth of him being a ‘nonce’.”
Vine is also complaining about a post which featured legal papers and the TV presenter’s home address, alleging misuse of private information.
The incident began after Barton had made a series of online posts criticising female footballers and pundits.
TV pundit and ex-footballer Eni Aluko is separately suing Barton after an online attack about her family.
William McCormick KC, for Barton, said the ex-footballer is putting forward “alternative meanings for ‘nonce’” in his defence of Vine’s libel case.
He will also argue that the term is unrelated to paedophilia in his posts, thanks to the surrounding context and tone of the messages.
“The word ‘nonce’ within the term ‘bike nonce’ would not have been understood to bear any literal meaning of the kind relied on by the claimant”, Mr McCormick told the court.
“‘Nonce’ would have been recognised as the defendant abusing the claimant and/or making fun of him.”
He added that the first post aimed at Vine “would obviously not be taken as making an allegation that (he) is a paedophile.
“Nobody would consider this to be what (Barton) was intending to convey by giving (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.”
Twelve posts by Barton, as well as a GoFundMe page about the libel claim, are at the heart of the case.
Mr de Wilde said the “use of the word ‘bike’ makes no difference”, and he argued Barton had many options for an insulting term like ‘plonker’ or ‘pillock’, but settled instead on ‘nonce’.
“The word nonce is not in the same category as those insults”, he said. “He chose the one toxic word...which means paedophile.”
Ahead of the court hearing, Barton posted online with a football clip: “This week I’m in the high court, fighting for the right amongst other things, to say that this is proper shite football.”
Mr de Wilde started his submissions on Thursday by accusing Barton of “inaccurate” public comments about the case.
“Mr Vine is claiming for defamation and harassment over publications by Mr Barton that we say alleged to millions of readers that he has a sexual interest in children and caused others to make that same allegation on a vast scale.”
He said that Barton is also accused of spreading a conspiracy theory that Vine “supported Covid vaccinations being administered by force”.
The hearing continues.
