Laurence Fox ordered to pay £180,000 to two people he libelled with paedophile slurs-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro

Laurence Fox made a statement outside the Royal Courts Of Justice after a High Court judge ruled that he libelled two people(Picture: PA)

Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay a total of £180,000 in damages to two people he called paedophiles on social media after losing a libel battle.

The actor-turned-politician, 45, who was married to Billie Piper, was successfully sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and RuPaul’s Drag Race star Crystal over a row on X.

He was ordered to pay Blake and the drag artist, whose real name is Colin Seymour, £90,000 each after he branded them ‘paedophiles’ in an exchange about a decision by Sainsbury’s to mark Black History Month in October 2020.

In a ruling at the High Court today, Justice Collins Rice said: ‘By calling Mr Blake and Mr Seymour paedophiles, Mr Fox subjected them to a wholly undeserved public ordeal.

‘It was a gross, groundless and indefensible libel, with distressing and harmful real-world consequences for them.’

Before the hearing today, Fox, founder of the Reclaim Party, had counter-sued Blake and Seymour, as well as broadcaster Nicola Thorp over tweets accusing him of racism.

Fox had tried to counter-sue Blake (left), Nicola Thorp and Colin Seymour (Picture: PA)

But in a judgment in January, judge Rice ruled in favour of Blake and Seymour, dismissing Fox’s counter-claims.

At a hearing in March, Lorna Skinner KC, for Blake and Seymour, had said the pair should receive ‘at least six-figure sums’ from Fox, calling a suggestion the pair should only receive a ‘modest’ award ‘nonsense.’

However, Patrick Green KC, for Fox, said the starting point of damages should be between £10,000 and £20,000, with the total being ‘substantially lowered’ due to an apology from Fox and the absence of malice.

The judge said ‘it was a gross, groundless and indefensible libel’ (Picture: PA)

Drag Race’s Crystal will be paid £90,000 in damages from Fox (Picture: PA)

Ahead of Thursday’s ruling, Fox described the original judgment as a ‘bullies charter’ and said he disagreed ‘profoundly’ with the result.

He said in a post on X: ‘I don’t know what the judge will award these people. But the costs of these proceedings are enormous. So a whopper of a cheque is getting written in the next few days.”

Fox added: ‘We are seeing the courts used maliciously across the west and that is a very concerning trend. So enjoy the victory guys and I hope it is short-lived!’

Fox was sacked from GB News after making vile remarks about Evans (Picture: Channel 5)

Fox was previously married to Scoop actress Billie (Picture: David M Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images)

It has been a turbulent past 12 months for Fox who was also sacked from GB News after making vile comments about journalist Ava Evans on Dan Wootton’s show.

After an investigation, Ofcom found in March that his remarks ‘constituted a highly personal attack on Ms Evans and were potentially highly offensive to viewers.’

The media watchdog ruled they were ‘degrading and demeaning both to Ms Evans and women generally’ and ‘clearly and unambiguously misogynistic.’

Following the ruling, Fox wrote on X, formerly Twitter that he was not ‘overly bothered about this anymore’ and ‘could have expressed myself better, that’s life and I’ve said my bit.’

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