Rachel Riley thrilled as blogger she sued for £50k has appeal rejected

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Countdown star Rachel Riley, 37, was vindicated back in November when she won £50,000 in damages from a blogger who claimed she was a “serial abuser”. Today, the star took to Twitter to announce that blogger Mike Sivier’s appeal had been denied.

Rachel tweeted: “Today the judge rejected Sivier’s application for permission to appeal as it would’ve had no prospect of success.

“Since he lost this case, he’s grifted an extra £14k in the cost of living crisis, taking it to £247k donated.

“We previously offered a £1k donation to a children’s charity and £4k in legal fees to settle, but he refused, and now owes £50k in compensation plus very heavy legal fees. A fool and his money.

“Ever, ever grateful to my brilliant legal team: Mark Lewis, John Stables and Megan Tolkien,” she added.

“Who went so far above and beyond, because they are wonderful people – thank you!” (sic) 

Express.co.uk have contacted Mike for comment. 

Rachel previously sued Mike for an article on his Vox Political website in January 2019 entitled “Serial abuser Rachel Riley to receive ‘extra protection’ – on grounds that she is receiving abuse”.

The article incorporated tweets posted as part of an online debate on antisemitism in the Labour Party, some of which were between Rachel and a user who identified herself then as a 16-year-old girl. 

A judge previously found the blogger’s article would be read as claiming Ms Riley “engaged upon, supported and encouraged a campaign of online abuse and harassment of a 16-year-old girl”.

Rachel denied his allegations, while he defended himself by arguing he had a “reasonable belief” that it was in the public interest to publish these claims. 

Nevertheless, Mrs Justice Steyn ruled in favour of Rachel last November, awarding her £50,000 in damages as well as an injunction requiring Mike to remove the article and not repeat it.

The judge said that the blogger had “misrepresented the evidential picture” and that the article was “wholly unbalanced”.

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At the time, Rachel revealed she was thrilled by the outcome of the trial and took to Twitter to give her followers an update on the situation. 

“I’m very pleased to have complete vindication in my libel case against Mike Sivier,” Rachel tweeted in November 2022.

“He made very serious accusations which have been shown to be categorically untrue and wholly unreasonable.

“Over the course of the legal process Sivier has crowd funded over £233k by repeating what the court had already deemed to be perverse twisting of reality and outright lies, misleading some extremely vulnerable people into giving him their money.

“This is despite my offer for him to pay £1k to a children’s charity and £4k of court fees to settle the matter, which he decided not to disclose during his extensive blogging and grifting,” she added.

“In the unlikely event that Sivier pays the £50k the court has awarded, any money I may receive will go to charity as has always been the plan.

“My motivation has always been to combat the lies, which has been achieved through due legal process today.”

Rachel then went on to thank her legal team as well as everyone who “saw this nonsense for what it was.”

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