Joey Barton has agreed to pay Jeremy Vine £75,000 plus his legal fees and issued a grovelling apology for comments he made about the TV and radio presenter on social media.
Last month, a High Court judge ruled that 11 of Barton’s comments about Vine on X (formerly Twitter) were defamatory. In the posts, Barton called Vine a ‘big bike nonce’ and a ‘pedo defender’.
After settling the case with Vine, Barton posted an apology on X on Tuesday, adding that he has agreed to pay him damages and cover his legal costs.
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Vine had bought legal action against Barton for libel and harassment over 14 online posts, following an exchange on X regarding Barton’s criticism of women’s involvement in men’s football.
Barton, who posted ‘I’m done with social media’ on X earlier on Tuesday morning, then posted the following statement: "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," Barton wrote.
"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."
Prior to his apology, Barton shared that he would be donating the proceeds of a GoFundMe he created that currently sits at more than £16,000 to finance his legal battle to Alder Hey.
Barton was sacked as Bristol Rovers manager last October and is yet to take up another role in football.
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