Ruling due in Laurence Fox High Court libel battle over social media row
The Lewis actor is being sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal, but has counter-sued them.
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Laurence Fox is set to discover the outcome of his High Court libel battle with two people he referred to as paedophiles on social media in a ruling on Monday.
The actor-turned-politician was sued by former Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal over a row on Twitter, now known as X, in October 2020.
Mr Fox called Mr Blake and the former RuPaulās Drag Race contestant, whose real name is Colin Seymour, āpaedophilesā in an exchange about a decision by Sainsburyās to celebrate Black History Month.
The Lewis star ā who founded the Reclaim Party ā counter-sued the pair and actress Nicola Thorp over tweets accusing him of racism.
Mr Fox said at the time he would boycott Sainsburyās, accusing it of promoting āracial segregation and discriminationā.
Mrs Justice Collins Rice is due to issue her written ruling over the case on Monday.
During a trial in London in November, Mr Fox was described was an alleged āintelligent racist with an agendaā.
Lorna Skinner KC, representing Mr Blake, Mr Seymour and Ms Thorp, said the trio āhonestly believed, and continue honestly to believe, that Mr Fox is a racistā.
She said the actor āhas made a number of highly controversial statements about raceā, adding: āIf and to the extent that Mr Fox has been harmed in his reputation, it is his own conduct and not the claimantsā comments on it that caused that harm.ā
The barrister highlighted several of Mr Foxās social media posts, including a June 2022 tweet of four pride flags arranged in the shape of a swastika.
In his written evidence for the case, Mr Seymour, a Canadian artist, said he had faced āoverwhelming and distressingā abuse after Mr Foxās tweet, adding that he felt less safe as a drag performer.
Mr Blake, now chief executive of Mental Health First Aid England, said the incorrect suggestion that gay men were paedophiles was āa trope as old as the hillsā.
Broadcaster Nicola Thorp claimed that Mr Fox had āouted himself as a racistā with a tweet calling for a boycott of the supermarket.
She said that any reputational harm Mr Fox suffered āwas because of what he did, not because of what I saidā.
Patrick Green KC, representing Mr Fox, told the court neither Mr Blake nor Mr Seymour āhas suffered any actual, real-world consequencesā due to the actorās tweets.
The barrister said the posts did not cause people to think worse of Mr Blake and Mr Seymour, and that people did not believe they were paedophiles.
Instead, Mr Green said readers would have understood that Mr Foxās posts were a āretort to an allegation of racismā rather than a factual allegation.
Mr Fox told the court he was āhorrifiedā when he saw he had been called a racist, which he later described as āa career-ending word and a reputation-destroying allegationā.
He said his life was ādestroyedā by āhurtfulā racism allegations and he was left unable to get a mortgage.
The actor said he faced a āsignificant declineā in the number and quality of roles he was offered after he was accused of being a racist in the social media row.
Mrs Justice Collins is expected to issue her ruling at 3pm.