A series of posts made by Laurence Fox against TV presenter Narinder Kaur have been ruled "contemptuous" attacks on her "integrity, sincerity and reliability" in a High Court ruling. It comes amid a libel claim by Kaur.
As part of a hearing, the court was asked to determine the natural and ordinary meaning of the posts made by Fox, and whether they were defamatory.
In the ruling, Mr Justice Linden said posts by Fox alleging Kaur presented a false image of herself with her OnlyFans account, which states she used to post cooking videos, were a "clear attack on her integrity, her sincerity and the reliability of what she says".
Finding they were defamatory, he said Fox's claims went over "the threshold of seriousness" and would be "likely materially to adversely affect how people treated her".
Addressing comments made by Fox on the Fox & Father podcast, in which he claimed she exposed herself to photographers and subsequently deleted her OnlyFans account, the court reached a similar conclusion.
"A key theme of the conversation was that the Claimant was not the victim that she publicly claimed to be, and the Defendant also alleged that she deleted her OnlyFans account in order to conceal this from the public," the judge said. "This was an attack on her integrity, sincerity and reliability."
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Fox had further alleged that Kaur had sought to profit from a false public image, and that she had participated in staged paparazzi photographs.
"The references to her being an attention seeker, and ‘a few quid’, conveyed the idea that she was desperate for any form of publicity and willing to sell herself cheaply to achieve it," Linden said, ruling that Fox's posts were "a contemptuous statement that she lacked integrity, dignity and self-respect" and serious enough to be defamatory.
Linden also referenced a post in which Fox called Kaur a "double digit IQ only fans skank", which the judge said was "an attack on the Claimant’s integrity in presenting herself to the public as a victim", and that the word "skank" accused her of being "sleazy and of low sexual morals". The court rejected that the word was meant to mean "prostitute", but another post conveyed that Kaur "lacks integrity in making public pronouncements which do not reflect the truth about her, and that she is a person of low sexual morals".
Regarding another post that claimed Kaur had falsely reported Fox to the police, readers would understand it to mean Kaur "had made a false report of sexual assault to the police and thereby may have committed a criminal offence".
The court further ruled that a post claiming Kaur was a "race baiting gash flasher" who would "jump on any bandwagon for £50" portrays her as "insincere, mercenary and unprincipled" and that "the reputation of others would be damaged if they allowed her to associate with them".
In response to comments Fox made in an interview with Larry Taunton and Liam Tuffs, the judge ruled that they "were an attack on her integrity which alleged that she was presenting herself as a person of high moral standards when in fact she was quite the opposite", and rejected the argument that his comments merely raised suspicion.
"The Defendant was positively asserting that she had done the deal… and was flashing her genitalia to all and sundry," he ruled.
Fox is also due to stand trial next year over allegations he published an explicit image of Kaur on X with the intention of causing alarm, distress or humiliation. He has denied the charges.
The libel claim continues.
Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
