Joey Barton has apologised to Jeremy Vine and agreed to pay him £75,000 in damages and his legal costs over defamation and harassment claims.
A High Court judge ruled last month that comments ex-Man City, Newcastle and Burnley player and former Fleetwood Town manager Barton made about Vine on X, formerly Twitter, were defamatory.
Mr Barton wrote on X on Tuesday: “I apologise to him for the distress he has suffered.”
Barton’s statement in full read:
“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.”
