Bad day at the office for Joey Barton – it looks as though Jeremy Vine’s libel and harassment claim against him has been successful, meaning Barton has to now pay him £75,000 in damages + his legal fees, as well as issue a groveling public apology to Vine on Twitter.

Vine sued Barton after he had called him a ‘bike nonce’ and ‘pedo defender’ on Twitter – here’s Joey’s apology 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.”

Jesus, what a massive L for Joey Barton this is. He seemed pretty confident throughout the lawsuit that calling Jeremy Vine a bike nonce was his right, and even set up a GoFundMe where a whole bunch of people donated…

£16,361 raised and going to Alder Hey.

If you want to chip in and share in this battle for freedom of speech https://t.co/Y7U5JwVlpU

Have decided to settle with JV. pic.twitter.com/uWNwpklSf6

— Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton) June 18, 2024

Having to pay Jeremy Vine £75,000 and apologise to him so publicly is a real kick in the d1ck for a guy like Joey Barton, and so it looks as though he’ll be quitting social media for good (or so he says):

I’m done with social media.

👍

— Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton) June 18, 2024

If only he had called Jeremy Vine a ‘bike w@nker’ instead, none of this would have happened. The moment you start bringing the words ‘nonce’ and ‘pedo’ into it, things can get a little libel-y, as Barton has now found out the hard way. Still, at least he’ll always have the screenshots:

Don’t forget – Joey Barton is also being sued by Eni Aluko for comments he’s made about her on X too. Great going, Joey.