RACHEL RILEY’S LIBEL CASE REVELATIONS
RACHEL RILEY told a court this week that a tweet by former Jeremy Corbyn staffer Laura Murray left her feeling vulnerable to “physical attack” and that she had experienced “sleepless nights” after seeing the post.
The Countdown star is suing Ms Murray for libel at the High Court after the former member of Mr Corbyn’s inner circle posted: “Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.
“This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.”
Ms Riley said she believed was targeted by Ms Murray following her criticism of antisemitism that was endemic in the Labour Party in 2018.
She claimed Ms Murray’s tweet was a “dog whistle” to the former Corbyn aide’s Twitter followers to launch a “pileon” of anger and hate.
Ms Riley said in a witness statement: “The volume of abusive and threatening messages was all-consuming.
“Every time I have to revisit the abuse I received for this case due to this incident, it is re-traumatising and upsetting and I experience the same physical and mental reactions which affect my sleep and wellbeing.”
The online row began after an egg was hurled at former Labour leader Mr Corbyn when he was on a visit to Finsbury Park Mosque in north London on 3 March, 2019.
In the wake of the incident, Ms Riley retweeted a post by Guardian columnist Owen Jones about a similar egg attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin in January 2019.
Mr Jones had commented: “I think sound life advice is, if you don’t want eggs thrown at you, don’t be a Nazi.”
Ms Riley retweeted Mr Jones’ post with the words “good advice” followed by a rose and an egg emoji.
Later, Ms Murray, then a senior aide to ex-Labour leader Mr Corbyn, tweeted back: “Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for Visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer.
“Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi.
“This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.”
Ms Riley wrote in her witness statement presented to court: “I had not tweeted that Jeremy Corbyn deserved to be violently attacked.
“I was really affronted at being called ‘dangerous and stupid’ and that people were being told not to have anything to do with me ‘ever’.
“I had made a sarcastic — but in my opinion relevant and important — comment in relation to Owen Jones and a few hours later the defendant was spreading it round on Twitter that I advocated violence against Jeremy Corbyn because in her words, I had said that he deserved to be attacked because he was a Nazi.
“I believe that I was targeted by the defendant because I had been critical of the Labour Party’s handling of antisemitism. It was an attempt to shut me up or to stop people listening to what I was saying.
“The allegations in the tweet have made me feel vulnerable to physical attack which is naturally very worrying. I found it hard to focus on my work and suffered sleepless nights.”
She added: “Even now, the abuse has gone unchecked and my reputation is not vindicated.”
Ms Riley went on to say that the growth of antisemitism on the left of British politics had led her to criticise the Labour Party under Mr Corbyn and certain of its supporters.
She said: “I have spoken publicly to condemn this antisemitism in the Labour Party.
“I started to do so in September 2018. My main vehicle for commenting has been Twitter.
“This led to me becoming the target of a very great deal of abuse and many damaging falsehoods from people supportive of Jeremy Corbyn’s politics and his stewardship of the Labour Party.”
Ms Murray’s contentious tweet, in which she wrote “this woman is as dangerous as she is stupid”, received around 1,584 retweets, 4,883 likes and 736 comments.
Ms Riley claimed her “good advice” tweet was sarcastic and intended to show the hypocrisy involved in Owen Jones and the left’s “selective support” for acts of violence against politicians. Giving evidence, she said:
“I don’t see how you could misconstrue that tweet without knowing my background activities of exposing antisemitism.
“My motivation was to show Owen Jones’ hypocrisy. “He said it was on ‘all-out war’ against antisemitism. But he’s never tweeted anything specific.
“If anyone else did he would attack their character and would try and pull up dirt on them.
“Owen Jones’ most prominent position is as a champion of the left, as a cheerleader for Jeremy Corbyn, and I was highlighting the kind of attacks he made.”
Ms Riley claimed she did not step in and clarify what she meant because of advice on how to deal with Twitter “pile ons” of angry users from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate.
William McCormick QC, acting for Ms Murray, said in his closing speech that Ms Riley had been “misled”, arguing that she had viewed the whole episode through the lens of her campaigning about antisemitism and the Labour Party.
“She has no doubt been the subject of vile and misogynistic views — one can see from the sample,” the barrister said.
“It is one of the vices of Twitter that the moderate voice is drowned out by the extremist voice [that] is either unwilling or unable to see nuance and shade in arguments that can require subtlety and expression.
“Voices that recognise that, withdraw from the field, and those that don’t are left. My client is not one of those people.”
Ms Riley’s conclusion that she was being targeted by Mr Corbyn’s aide were “entirely unsupported in evidence”, Mr McCormick argued.
Ms Murray denies defaming Ms Riley, arguing truth, honest opinion and responsible publication.
The trial ended on Wednesday.
Every time I have to revisit the abuse I received it is traumatising’