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Niall Horan Fights Back: Wins First Round Of ‘Hard Drugs’ Libel Case

By Alan Ewart
Published on: 23:20 PST, Dec 7, 2015

One Direction star Niall Horan and his band-mates are all too accustomed to having their names in the newspapers. Horan and his pals are subjected to a constant deluge of rumors relating to just about every aspect of their lives. Of course Horan would probably accept that publicity is an essential element when it comes to fuelling a successful music career. In the early days of One Direction’s career Simon Cowell’s SyCo and their management team fed a constant stream of stories about Horan and his band-mates to the media.

As often proves to be the case, when stories are not forthcoming, the media speculate and report the flimsiest of rumors. As a general rule, Horan and his band-mates do not comment on media speculation, but as Niall has just shown everyone has a point beyond which they will not be pushed.

For Horan it seems that moment came back in July of this year when the Daily Star ran a front page story suggesting that Niall was using hard drugs. According to the Press Gazette the Star ran a banner headline “new drug storm” and the article reported that Horan was “staring blankly” and there was express reference to “rumours the singers were using hard drugs.” The story also made reference to the fact that Niall along with singers Justin Bieber and Cody Simpson were spotted with a “breaking bad” style pipe.

Clearly Niall was not happy that the article portrayed him as a user of crystal meth and as a result Horan has taken legal action against the Star which is owned by the Express newspapers group. According to the Guardian the Star has attempted to have the case thrown out largely based on the fact that they included the words “there is no suggestion that this is the case” to mitigate the claim that Niall was using hard drugs.

Horan has won the first round of the case after the judge, Mr Justice Dingemans, refused to throw out the case. The Judge said that the Star’s article was capable of being “defamatory” and that Niall’s case should therefore be heard. Horan claims that the articles were defamatory because they implied that during an evening spent with Bieber and Simpson he had used crystal meth or crack cocaine.

It is perhaps interesting to note that little about Horan’s defamation case is being reported in the mainstream press who instead focus on whether or not Horan is dating Selena Gomez. The Mirror reports that Niall and Selena were spotted kissing during a date at Santa Monica’s pier fairground over the weekend.

The Daily Mail also reports that Horan and Gomez are getting cozy and report that as well as attending the fairground the rumored couple were spotted kissing and hugging at a mutual friends birthday party. The Mail claims that an “insider” has told U.S. Weekly that Niall and Selena seem very close.

“Niall and Selena were seen kissing in the middle of the club, in front of everyone. [They] definitely seemed very close and like they were together. Niall got there first with his bodyguard, then the next thing I know, I looked over and Selena was there. They were very close together, talking and whispering.”

Despite the claims that Niall and Selena are a couple, it has been claimed that they are just friends and that they are spending time together because Niall is helping Selena out with PR for her new music video.

One Direction fans are unlikely to get too excited by claims that Niall and Selena are dating, after all it is less than a week since Horan was being linked with Ellie Goulding.

[Photo by Joel Ryan/Invision/AP]

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