UK Right Wing Actor Must Pay $225,000 For Calling Drag Race Contestant And LGBTQ Activist “Pedophiles”

The Guardian reports:

The actor and rightwing activist Laurence Fox has been ordered to pay £90,000 each in damages to two people he libeled by referring to them as “paedophiles” on social media. A high court judge made the order in London on Thursday. Fox lost his high court libel battle in January, after Mrs Justice Collins Rice ruled that he had defamed two men by calling them paedophiles after they labelled him a racist.

The Reclaim party founder was sued by Simon Blake, a former Stonewall trustee, and Crystal, a drag artist, over a dispute on X, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2020. Fox, 45, used the slur against Blake and the former RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, whose real name is Colin Seymour, in a row about a decision by Sainsbury’s to provide a safe space for black employees during Black History Month.

Read the full article. That’s $225,000 USD. My January 2024 report on the case is here. Crystal finished sixth in the inaugural season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and is hosting the second season of the drag design competition show, Sew Fierce.