Katie Hopkins Sued for a Libelous Tweet

Katie Hopkins has found herself in a rut as she is reported to be facing legal drama from journalist, Jack Monroe. According to reports, Monroe is suing Hopkins for vandalising a war memorial on Twitter. The issue between the two stems from a Tweet on May 2015 from New Statesman contributing editor, Laurie Penny. Penny had shared an image of women from the World War II memorial in central London. Unfortunately, the image had a graffiti message sprawled across it that read "F**k Tory Scum."

The problem, however, was that Hopkins assumed that the tweet was from Monroe. She tweeted Monroe asking if she had "scrawled on any memorials recently?" and that Monroe's action had vandalized the memory of the people who fought for her freedom. Hopkins further went on and asked the writer "Grandma got any more medals?" as a taunt.

Hopkins' accusation shocked Monroe, who defended herself against the claim. This launched into a Twitter war with Monroe pointing out members in her family who were part of the RAF and the Falklands. Monroe further asked Hopkins to delete the tweet she had sent out, as it was a libelous claim that she had made and to also make a public apology for her accusation and donate £5000 of her money to a refugee rescue charity. If Hopkins would not pursue any of these, Monroe would be seeking legal action against Hopkins for her libelous tweet.

While Hopkins has deleted the tweet, she made no attempt to apologize for the mistaken identity. To add salt to injury, she went on to insult both Monroe and Penny. On a tweet sent out last May 2015, Hopkins asked her followers "in 10 words or less" to differentiate "irritant" Penny and "social anthrax" Monroe. A few weeks after this tweet, Hopkins admitted that she got confused about identity and that she was wrong. Still, she made no apology.

Just recently, Monroe confirmed that she already took legal action. When asked to comment further, she declined. It is said that Monroe is seeking up to £50,000 for the damage of the comment.

Tags

Katie Hopkins, Jack Monroe, Laurie Penny, Twitter, Lawsuit, libel, Mistaken Identity

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