BBC Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine is suing Joey Barton after the ex-footballer called him a “bike nonce” in a social media post.
A libel claim has been filed at the High Court, naming Vine as the claimant and former Man City, QPR, and Newcastle midfielder Barton as the defendant.
It follows a post by Barton on X, formerly Twitter, featuring 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!”
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.”
Barton, a former Bristol Rovers manager, posted on social media about the libel case, sharing pictures apparently featuring legal documents and writing: “So @theJeremyVine is suing me… Fella who served me the papers was sound.”
It is the second libel case brought against Barton as a result of his recent activity on social media.
TV pundit and ex-footballer Eni Aluko is suing him after an online attack about her family, after a series of social media posts about female football pundits and Aluko herself.
On January 19th, he wrote that “more has come to light about poor, little Eni Aluko” and made the remark: “Dad was a Nigerian Senator. Dodgy money. Ran to England.”
Barton went on to reference her home and education, “3 Rolls Royce's”, and added: “Race card player”.
In response, Aluko posted on Instagram: “Joey Barton recently published a Post on X which made untrue, inaccurate and defamatory allegations about me and my family.
“It is particularly harmful that Mr Barton involved my family in that post, suggesting my late father, a distinguished Nigerian senator, was in receipt of 'dodgy money' and that I had benefitted from his corruption which paid for my lavish lifestyle including Rolls Royce cars and a private education. Mr Barton also publicly stated he knew where my family lived.
“These, and the other allegations he made in the post, are all entirely untrue and have caused me extreme harm and distress.
“These were made just days after I stated publicly that I was genuinely scared, following Mr Barton's repeated online posts targeting me using extreme violent comparisons in previous weeks.
“I have instructed Judith Thompson at Samuel's Solicitors, as well as Sara Mansoori KC and Ifeanyi Odogwu at Matrix Chambers to send a letter before action to Mr Barton setting out the true position and requesting that the post on X be taken down.
“Instead of taking down his post, Mr Barton published a post today mischaracterising my legal complaint with a photograph of my letter of claim, causing further abuse of me, and my legal advisers.
“While he has now removed that post, it has been necessary to make this statement to set out the correct position.”
According to the court filing, Vine is also being represented by Samuels Solicitors.
