Former Man City player Joey Barton loses court case to Jeremy Vine as High Court judge slams 'pedo' post

A High Court judge has ruled Joey Barton's 'bike nonce' social media posts about Jeremy Vine were defamatory. The broadcaster is suing the former Manchester City footballer for libel and harassment over 14 online posts.

They include comments on X, formerly Twitter, where he called Mr Vine a "big bike nonce" and a "pedo defender". At a preliminary hearing earlier this month, Mrs Justice Steyn was asked to decide several early issues in the case, including the "natural and ordinary" meanings of the posts and whether they were statements of fact or opinion.

On Friday, the judge ruled that 11 of the posts could defame Mr Vine.

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She said: "The strong impression gained by the assertion the claimant is known as 'aka' 'bike nonce', followed immediately by the further assertion that he is known as, again, 'aka' 'pedo defender', is that the term 'nonce' was being used in its primary meaning to allege the claimant has a sexual interest in children."

"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'."

"The reader would have understood that the word 'bike' was a meaningless aspect of the accusation, serving only as an indication that this was a label attached to the claimant, who was known as a cyclist, without detracting from the operative word 'nonce'."

Mr Vine's barrister, Gervase de Wilde, told the hearing in London on May 9 that the abuse began