COUNTDOWN star Rachel Riley says she suffered a stream of online harassment after she was branded a “serial abuser” by a pro-Corbyn political blogger, a High Court libel trial has heard.
Ms Riley is locked in a bitter court fight with blogger Michael Sivier over an article she says accused her of causing a 16-year-old to receive death threats.
The two faced off in London’s High Court today, with Riley suing Mr Sivier over a January 2019 article she says caused her to suffer “horrendous” online abuse.
The court heard the confrontation with Mr Sivier started after Ms Riley had entered into a Twitter spat with the 16-year-old, named only as “Rose” in court.
Ms Riley insists their dialogue never strayed beyond the bounds of polite debate.
The TV presenter, who is Jewish, became a target online after criticising anti-semitism in the ranks of the Labour Party.
However, in the online article, Mr Sivier claimed she “cold-shouldered a 16-year-old girl with anxiety problems who had pointed out that Mrs Riley has adopted questionable allies in such a way that Ms Riley’s supporters subjected her to an appalling amount of abuse – known as dogpiling”.
He also alleged Ms Riley had “vilified the great Jewish intellectual Noam Chomsky as an anti-Semite” and “supported the anti-Semite Mark Meechan (aka ‘Count Dankula’) who taught his dog to perform Nazi salutes when he said “Gas the Jews!” and “Sieg heil!”.
Ms Riley, 36, is seeking compensation as well as a permanent gagging order to prevent further publications.
Riley told the High Court in London that the amount of abuse she received dramatically increased after January 2019.
She said: “That’s when the floodgates opened. I changed my Twitter settings after that week because it was so horrendous.
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“It was a whole load of abuse that I was receiving, that Channel 4 was receiving.”
The court heard that Mr Sivier’s online article had claimed the TV host, who took over from Countdown legend Carol Vorderman, was to receive extra security in the studio “on grounds that she is receiving abuse” for her views on anti-semitism.
He went on to accuse the 36-year-old of hypocrisy, writing: “Rachel Riley says she needs extra security on Countdown but her own behaviour has encouraged others to threaten a teenage girl’s life”.
John Stables – for Ms Riley – said the article had a devastating impact on the TV presenter, telling the High Court: “the seriousness of baseless expressions of opinion, formed from the false facts, as to Ms Riley therefore being a hypocrite, of provoking her followers to subject the child to further abuse and harassment, including death threats, and therefore of acting ‘obscenely’, can hardly be in doubt”.
The barrister also said that Mr Sivier’s “Serial Abuser” article continues to be published online.
“Mr Sivier has not removed it, has never corrected it and has never apologised for it,” he told Mrs Justice Steyn, adding: “the likelihood of future serious harm to her reputation is also overwhelming”.
From the witness box, Ms Riley said the article had left her “angry, upset and frustrated.”
In the court of public opinion people like Mr Sivier choose to believe what they like despite the facts
Rachel Riley
Mr Sivier’s defences of truth and honest opinion were “struck out” and removed by a judge at a previous hearing.
However, the political blogger is still fighting his case on the grounds that he was reporting on an issue of genuine public interest.
Mr Sivier’s barrister, David Mitchell, claimed Ms Riley had presented no solid evidence about the “serious harm” caused by the offending article.
And he insisted that Ms Riley’s reputation couldn’t have suffered serious harm as she already had a name for being “highly controversial and offensive”.
The Oxford University graduate has in the past declared that she is Jewish and “has a hatred of anti-semitism”.
But this case is not Ms Riley’s first taste of the libel courts – in December last year she was awarded £10,000 after suing Labour aide Laura Murray for wrongly accusing her of branding Jeremy Corbyn a “Nazi”.
The trial is due to conclude later this week, and a decision is expected at a later date.
