Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | January 31, 2024
Laurence Fox, a former actor who now spends most of his days on social media trying to make people pay attention to him, is at the 'finding out' section of 'f*cking around.' Fox was sued by Stonewall trustee Simon Blake and drag artist Crystal after he referred to both of them as 'paedophiles' on Twitter.
High Court judge Mrs. Justice Collins Rice said Mr Fox's labelling was 'harmful, defamatory and baseless.' In English courts, libel laws put the onus on the defendant to prove that their statements are substantially true, meaning that Fox had to go on the stand and prove that the people he called child sex offenders were indeed abusing kids. Shock horror, he couldn't do that. Justice Collins Rice added that Fox did not attempt to show the court that his obvious lie was true and that 'the law affords few defences to defamation of this sort.'
Fox tried to countersue both Crystal and Blake, as well as TV presenter Nicola Thorp, for libel, claiming that tweets they sent calling him a racist were defamatory. That fell flat on its face because the court found that statements describing Fox as a racist were 'substantially true.' According to the court, Fox could not claim that being called a racist by this trio hurt his career because his reputation had already been damaged by prior statements he'd made. Again, shock horror that the guy who proudly put on blackface can be fairly described as racist.
Crystal shared their statement on social media following the ruling:
She also appeared on Sky News in full Elle Woods garb to talk about the case, noting that it was deeply uncomfortable watching Fox in court because he kept saying the N word and defending blackface.
Fox says he plans to appeal. I imagine he has a lot of free time on his hands these days since he's unemployable as an actor. He was sacked from his show on GB News last year after making comments so sexist that even pound shop Fox News was embarrassed into taking action.
He is, of course, claiming his free speech has been infringed upon because he has no idea how libel or defamation works, but let me explain it in simple words so that even he can understand it: If you call someone a paedophile and you know that they're not, they have the right to sue you for it because you're deliberately trying to hurt their reputation and harass them. Calling queer people child predators is an age-old attack that has returned to the forefront in recent years as the anti-trans hate movement garners steam. Calling a Stonewall worker and a drag queen child rapists is historically loaded, deliberate in its intentions, and deeply queerphobic.
Also, if someone says you're a racist and you've got a history of doing blackface, you're a racist, honey. Don't blame me, the courts say so.
