Countdown presenter Rachel Riley awarded £50,000 damages after being branded ‘abuser’ by blogger-Alicia Adejobi-Entertainment – Metro

Rachel Riley has won her libel case (Picture: Rex Features)

Rachel Riley has scored a major victory in her libel trial after being awarded damages of £50,000.

The Countdown presenter took legal action against political blogger Mike Sivier, who published an article in January 2019 branding her a ‘serial abuser’.

The article, published on Sivier’s website Vox Political, alleged that Riley engaged in a ‘campaign of online abuse and harassment’ against a teenager on Twitter, which the presenter denied.

Sivier’s article discussed a debate about anti-semitism in the Labour Party, including tweets exchanged between Riley and the teen who identified herself as a 16-year-old in December 2018 and January 2019.

A judge previously found that Mr Sivier’s article would be read as claiming Ms Riley ‘engaged upon, supported and encouraged a campaign of online abuse and harassment of a 16-year-old girl’.

Sivier defended the libel claim by arguing he had a ‘reasonable belief’ it was in the public interest to publish the claims in the article.

Riley vehemently denied claims she was harrassing a teenager online (Picture: Rex Features)

The Countdown presenter initially lost a round in the libel trial after Sivier won his appeal (Picture: Getty Images)

However, in a judgment on Wednesday, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Riley, granting her the five-figure sum in damages as well as an injunction requiring Mr Sivier to remove the article and not repeat it.

The news is a turnaround from May, when Sivier won his appeal against Riley’s claim.

A High Court judge had initially ruled in favour of Riley, and Mrs Justice Collins Rice concluded Sivier had ‘no prospect’ of succeeding at a trial.

However, the blogger later won his appeal after three judges ruled his public interest defence should instead be assessed at a trial.

‘I would allow the appeal,’ said one appeal judge, Lord Justice Warby, in a written ruling.

‘I would set aside the order striking out the defence of publication on matter of public interest.

‘In my view, the appropriate course is for the public interest defence to be assessed at a trial.’

Riley eventually won the case with the judge stating: ‘Mr Sivier’s website article said this was fact, and he seeks now to defend that by showing Ms Riley’s speech and “deliberate and calculated omissions” were responsible.

‘There is no arguable source for that responsibility in law or fact; and it is a still further leap to the truth of an allegation of deliberately supporting and encouraging a campaign of abuse and harassment.

‘I do not see an argument from Ms Riley’s alleged omissions realistically capable of supporting that allegation.’

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