![\"Jeremy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/jeremy-vine.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJeremy Vine appeared close to tears in court as he described to a jury the impact of what he called a \u201ccloud of filth\u201d spread about him online by former footballer Joey Barton.<\/p>\n
The broadcaster told Liverpool Crown Court that he feared for the safety of his children after Barton repeatedly branded him a paedophile on social media and encouraged followers to send him supposed evidence to support the claim.<\/p>\n
Vine, 60, said Barton\u2019s posts, shared to an audience of around three million on X, had been viewed millions of times and had left him deeply distressed.<\/p>\n
The court heard that Barton had also shared Vine\u2019s home address and suggested the public contact police if he was seen near a primary school. <\/p>\n
Vine said the campaign had not only attacked his reputation but had introduced fear into his family life.<\/p>\n
In quiet, emotional tones, he told the jury: \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019t want to communicate this to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe youngest in particular would get upset. I felt I had to explain this cloud of filth to them and where it came from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Vine has condemned the ‘disgusting allegations’ from Joey Barton<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
The dispute began after Vine responded to a social media post in which Barton compared football analysts Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West.<\/p>\n
Vine criticised the remark and asked whether Barton was suffering from a brain injury. After some users said the comment was insensitive to those who live with brain trauma, Vine amended his tweet. That did nothing to slow the escalation that followed.<\/p>\n
What came next, he said, was \u201clike a violent assault.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Jeremy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762366632_496_jeremy-vine.jpg\")
Jeremy Vine has described Joey Barton’s comments on X as ‘like a violent assault’<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
Barton began referring to Vine as a \u201cbike nonce\u201d and linked his name to the disgraced Rolf Harris and Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
Vine said: \u201cI felt I was wantonly being torn down for no reason. I made my initial comment, tried to modify it and then just tried to leave it alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThis was a despicable thing to say. It gravely, gravely upset me and I had sleepless nights. His followers miked up the phrase and he amplified their replies with his own comments. I didn\u2019t want to inflame it any more. I was very alarmed. I had a sense he was not going to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vine eventually launched a libel case, believing it the quickest way to halt the allegations.<\/p>\n
Barton responded by publicly asking whether anyone had \u201canything\u201d on Vine to help him defend himself. <\/p>\n
![\"Joey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/joey-barton.jpg\")
Joey Barton denies the allegations against him<\/p>\n
| <\/p>\n
PA<\/p>\n
Vine said he was \u201castonished,\u201d telling the court: \u201cI thought, this is incredible. I could not believe I was seeing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The libel action concluded with Barton ordered to pay sums of \u00a375,000 and \u00a335,000 plus legal costs, as well as issuing an apology which was pinned to his X profile. <\/p>\n
One part of the apology concerned a doctored video that suggested Vine supported compulsory vaccination, something he had never said.<\/p>\n
Barton, 43, now stands trial charged with 12 counts of sending grossly offensive messages with intent to cause distress or anxiety. He denies the charges. The case continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremy Vine appeared close to tears in court as he described to a jury the impact of what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,218,217,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-245761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-football","tag-sport","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}