Yahoo News Katie Hopkins successfully sued for £24k
Food blogger Jack Monroe has won £24,000 in damages after taking out a libel action case against columnist Katie Hopkins.
Monroe, who sued the controversial Mail Online columnist over Twitter posts from May 2015, told the High Court in London that the messages from Hopkins had led to death threats, and said their legal dispute had been an "unproductive, devastating nightmare".
It"s taken 21 months
but today the High Court ruled
that Hopkins statements to/about me were defamatory.
I sued her for libel.
and I won.- ❄Jack Monrowflake (@MxJackMonroe) March 10, 2017
The food blogger's lawyers argued the tweets were defamatory and caused "serious harm" to Monroe's reputation.
I'll be writing a longer statement shortly, but for now, to everyone who told me I couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't - I could, I would, I did.
- ❄Jack Monrowflake (@MxJackMonroe) March 10, 2017
It comes after Katie Hopkins mistook the food blogger for another Guardian columnist, who had responded to "f**k Tory scum" being sprayed on a war memorial by tweeting: "I don't have a problem with this. The bravery of past generations does not oblige us to be cowed today."
Hopkins publicly messaged Monroe, making the implication that Monroe was in favour of war memorial vandalism by writing: "Scrawled on any memorials recently? Vandalised the memory of those who fought for your freedom[?] Grandma got any more medals?"
Hopkins deleted the tweet, then called Monroe "social anthrax" before sending a public Twitter message saying: "I was confused about identity. I got it wrong."
Monroe seemingly didn't accept this explanation, saying: "She deadnamed me at the Ch5 Benefits debate - she did a LOT of digging. Hard to be confused about something you've researched that hard."
Mr Justice Warby said the two disputed tweets had "meanings with a defamatory tendency, which were published to thousands. Their publication not only caused... real and substantial distress, but also harm to [Monroe's] reputation which was serious, albeit not 'very serious' or 'grave'."
The judge awarded "fair and reasonable compensation, [assessed] at £24,000", plus costs.
Monroe, who identifies as non-binary transgender, had offered to settle at £5,000, donated to "migrant rescue", along with a public apology, and the judge noted in his findings that the dispute "could easily have been resolved at an early stage".
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