Victory for Countdown’s Rachel as she wins £50,000 over ‘abuser’ slur
COUNTDOWN star Rachel Riley said she had been ‘completely vindicated’ after being awarded £ 0,000 in libel damages yesterday from a blogger who claimed she was a ‘serial abuser’.
Miss Riley, 36, sued Mike Sivier after he published an article on his website Vox Political accusing her of ‘bullying or encouraging the bullying’ of a 16-year-old called Rose on Twitter.
The article had discussed tweets as part of an online debate on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. A judge previously said Mr Sivier’s article would be read as claiming Miss Riley ‘engaged upon, supported and encouraged a campaign of online abuse and harassment of a 16-year-old girl’, allegations Miss Riley denied.
However yesterday, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Miss Riley, granting her the five-figure sum as well as an injunction requiring Mr Sivier to remove the article.
Miss Riley said: ‘I’m very pleased to have complete vindication in my libel case against Mike Sivier.
‘He made very serious accusations which have been shown to be categorically untrue and wholly unreasonable.’