Broadcaster Jeremy Vine has told a jury he felt “wickedly torn down for no reason” by ex-footballer Joey Barton, whose online posts led him to take civil action.

The TV and radio presenter said he intervened to support football commentators Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko after Barton shared an image online of their faces superimposed on to a photograph of notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West.

After a televised FA Cup match between Crystal Palace and Everton in January 2024, the former Manchester City and Newcastle United footballer likened the sports broadcasters to the “Fred and Rose West of commentary”.

Responding to the comment, Vine said on X: “What’s going on with @Joey7Barton? I just glanced at the Rose West thing… genuinely, is it possible we are dealing with a brain injury here?”

‘I was quite shocked’

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Vine said: “I was quite shocked by what Mr Barton had said about two very respected commentators in Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.

“I thought it was very vicious to impose them on the images of two mass murderers of children, and I was looking for an explanation.

“I said ‘are we dealing with a brain injury here’ as a way of underlining my own feelings that he had crossed the line on that tweet.”

Barton, 43, is currently standing trial at Liverpool Crown Court, accused of posting grossly offensive messages on X aimed at the three broadcasters, allegedly with the intent to cause distress or anxiety.

The court heard that Mr Barton replied to Vine’s tweet with a post referring to him as “you big bike nonce”.

The defendant, who has 2.7 million followers on X, also made references to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

‘This now gets really serious’

Vine told the prosecutor he felt “very alarmed” that Mr Barton was choosing “this word ‘nonce’ to throw around” and that “this was now escalating”.

“This now gets really serious. He is accusing me of being a paedophile,” he said.

“These are disgusting actions. It’s a despicable thing to say.

“It gravely upset me, and I had a sleepless night that night.”

As more posts followed, Vine “began to feel scared”.

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Vine said: “I realised I had to take some action, but I was not sure what to do. I realised the quickest remedy would be some sort of civil action.”

Civil proceedings were initiated in March 2024. A week later, a post from Mr Barton’s X account stated: “If anyone has any information about Jeremy Vine – pictures, screenshots, videos, or messages that could help us in the case – please send them to me using the hashtag #bikenonce.”

Jurors heard that in June 2024, Barton agreed to pay Mr Vine £75,000 in damages for defamation and harassment, along with his legal expenses, as the two parties reached a settlement in the civil case.

In a separate agreement, Barton also paid Vine an additional £35,000 in damages and legal costs relating to similar issues.

The court was told that Mr Barton issued a public apology on his X account in June 2024, admitting that he had made a “very serious allegation” on social media.

He denies the offences said to have been committed between January and March 2024.

A writer, whose “candid” and “unsparing” diaries have become the first to ever win the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction. has told Sky News she is “delighted” to see the literary format recognised rather than dismissed.

Helen Garner, an acclaimed Australian author and diarist whose celebrity fans include singer Dua Lipa and fellow writer David Nicholls, said that diaries, often written by women, tended to be given “short shrift” in the literary industry.

She has now won the Baillie Gifford award for How To End A Story, a collection which charts 20 years of her life, from publishing her debut novel while raising a young daughter in the 1970s to the disintegration of her marriage in the 1990s.

Judges hailed her as a “brilliant observer and listener” and described the diaries as a “recklessly candid, unsparing, occasionally eye-popping account of the implosion of a marriage”.

Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge and Wilfred Frost on the new Mornings with Ridge and Frost programme, Garner, 82, said: “My main reason to be delighted is that I think diaries have been given short shrift in literature. I think they are literature.

“Because they were often written by women, they used to be dismissed as just sort of verbal sludge that people… sort of lazily wrote down, but in actual fact to keep a decent diary involves as much hard work as writing a full-on book – in my experience, anyway. So I’m really glad that it’s been recognised.”

Garner was named winner of the £50,000 prize at a ceremony in London on Tuesday, and accepted her award via video link from Melbourne, Australia.

Journalist Robbie Millen, who chaired the prize jury, said her “addictive” book was the unanimous choice of the six judges.

“Garner takes the diary form, mixing the intimate, the intellectual, and the everyday, to new heights,” he said, comparing her to Virginia Woolf in the canon of great literary diarists. “There are places it’s toe-curlingly embarrassing. She puts it all out there.”

‘The mess my life became is not unique’

Garner, who has published novels, short stories, screenplays and true crime books, told Sky News she has been surprised to hear from so many readers who have related to her words and most intimate thoughts.

“People have said to me, ‘this could be my marriage’,” she said. “I found that rather shocking because it’s quite a painful story of a marriage collapsing, starting off with love, but then developing over the years into something painful and destructive.

“I’ve been glad to find that I’m not unique in that way, that the mess that I made in my life, the mess that my life became, it’s not unique. In fact, it’s archetypal. It’s something that’s happened to gazillions of people in the history of the world.”

Asked by Ridge if the book would have been a “difficult read” for her ex-husband, Garner replied: “I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to him for approximately 25 years. We won’t be speaking to each other again, I imagine. And if you’ve read the diary, you’ll see why.”

How To End A Story is the first set of diaries to win the Baillie Gifford Prize, which was founded in 1999 and recognises English-language books in current affairs, history, politics, science, sport, travel, biography, autobiography and the arts.

It was selected from more than 350 books published between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025.

Becks, Goldenballs and now officially Sir David – football star David Beckham has received his knighthood from the King.

After years in the running following his OBE in 2003, the former England captain and Manchester United star has now been honoured for his services to sport and charity at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sir Kazuo Ishiguro and West End performer Dame Elaine Paige were also among the stars set to be recognised at the event.

Sir David, 50, who has described himself as a “huge royalist”, was last year named an ambassador for the King’s Foundation, an educational charity established by Charles in 1990.

The football star, who grew up in northeast London, made his Premier League debut for Manchester United in 1995 and was part of the team that earned a dramatic Champions League final victory in 1999 – when they beat Bayern Munich with two nail-biting late goals.

It was the year they famously won the treble, also taking home the Premier League and FA Cup silverware.

During his time with the club, Sir David scored 85 goals and collected honours including six Premier League titles and two FA Cups, before going on to play for clubs including Real Madrid, AC Milan, LA Galaxy, and Paris Saint-Germain.

He retired from the sport in 2013.

Alongside his football career, he is also known for his charity work, including serving as a goodwill ambassador for humanitarian aid organisation UNICEF since 2005.

Sir David’s wife Victoria, the Spice Girl turned fashion designer, joined him at the ceremony. The couple married in 1999 and have four children together – Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper.