Laurence Fox Ordered To Pay £180K In Damages After Being Found Guilty Of Libel
Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay almost £200,000 in damages after being found guilty of libel.
Back in 2020, a defamation lawsuit was filed against Fox by drag performer Crystal and Stonewall trustee Simon Blake after the former GB News presenter branded them “paedophiles” on X (then known as Twitter).
Earlier this year, a judge ruled in favour of Crystal – whose legal name is Colin Seymour – and Blake, and it’s now been decided Fox must pay a total of £180,000 in damages.
This amount will be split evenly between the pair.
“By calling Mr Blake and Mr Seymour paedophiles, Mr Fox subjected them to a wholly undeserved public ordeal,” the judge reportedly said on Thursday (as reported by Deadline).
“It was a gross, groundless and indefensible libel, with distressing and harmful real-world consequences for them.”
Fox had previously filed a countersuit against the two parties, as well as former Coronation Street actor and social commentator Nicola Thorp, over social media posts they shared accusing him of racism, but this case was thrown out on Monday. The former London mayoral candidate has previously claimed he will attempt to overturn this decision.
During a subsequent interview on Sky News, Crystal claimed: “We had a victory on all counts, and it’s incredibly liberating and satisfying after three long years.”
The Drag Race UK competitor added: “[Fox] is a bully, and accusations of paedophilia against people in the queer community, against drag queens, these are old, old tropes and I didn’t want to stand for it. I didn’t want to let that slide.
“It honestly felt like if I didn’t pursue this, to the very end, that it was a tacit admission. I needed to see it through and make it clear that there was no basis of fact to this.”
