Rachel Riley wins £50,000 in damages from blogger calling her ‘serial abuser’
'In the unlikely event that Sivier pays the £50k the court has awarded, any money I may receive will go to charity as has always been the plan' Riley says
TV presenter Rachel Riley has been awarded £50,000 in libel damages after being vindicated in a trial against Mike Sivier, a blogger who accused her of being a “serial abuser”.
Sivier made the accusation after Riley engaged in an online debate over antisemitism in the Labour Party in 2018-2019.
Riley made a long Twitter thread with screen grabs of the accusations made against her by a 16-year-old girl named Rosie who called Riley a “self-entitled knob” that should be “ashamed of herself” for the way she engaged in the debate.
This was the last thing I knew Rosie had written about me, I shrugged & moved on with my life.
I wouldn’t call that bullying myself.
It would have taken all of minutes to smear me and spread hate, but I’ve now sat for a couple of hours to compile this and defend myself. pic.twitter.com/43LQbsjmtq
— Rachel Riley ???? (@RachelRileyRR) January 9, 2019
Blogger Mike Sivier later wrote an article with the headline “Serial abuser Rachel Riley to receive ‘extra protection’ – on grounds that she is receiving abuse”
Riley claimed that“the floodgates opened” for abuse against her after the article was published.
Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Riley on Wednesday and instructed Sivier to remove the article and not repeat it.
Mr Sivier had “misrepresented the evidential picture” the judge said, ruling that the article was “wholly unbalanced.”
“Whether or not one agrees with the views Ms Riley articulated in her second thread to Rose, Ms Riley expressed herself in a polite and cordial way, providing information to a teenager who had sought to engage with her, and who had said this was a topic about which she was just learning,” the judge added.
“The importance of giving Ms Riley an opportunity to comment prior to the publication of the article is particularly evident in light of the numerous matters on which Mr Sivier made assumptions. Ms Riley expressed the point that she found it hurtful to be accused of lying and encouraging a smear campaign in restrained and mild terms,” the judge concluded.
Following the ruling Riley said she was “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.”
The TV star also said she had offered Sivier to pay £1k to a children’s charity and £4k of court fees to settle the matter, “which he decided not to disclose during his extensive blogging and grifting.”
“In the unlikely event that Sivier pays the £50k the court has awarded, any money I may receive will go to charity as has always been the plan. My motivation has always been to combat the lies which has been achieved through due legal process today,” Riley said.
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