"Many Photos" - Wife fighting defamation case after claiming on Facebook her husband strangled her

A judge in 2016 said Nicola Stocker (pictured), 51, defamed her husband by claiming he'd tried to strangle her - because he wasn't trying to kill her

A woman facing a £200,000 legal bill for claiming on Facebook that her ex-husband tried to strangle her is today fighting a judge's ruling that she defamed him because 'he wasn't trying to kill her'.

Nicola Stocker, 51, said millionaire businessman Ronald Stocker, 68, strangled her during an online spat with his new partner Deborah Bligh in December 2012.

She will argue that she used common language to describe the attack when she goes before the Supreme Court today.

Mr Stocker - who lives in a £2.5million detached home in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire - won a libel case against his ex-wife in 2016 at a High Court trial when the judge used the Oxford English Dictionary to define strangling.

Mr Justice Mitting decided Mr Stocker did 'in temper' attempt to silence his ex-wife, but was not satisfied he had threatened to kill her and therefore her comments had a defamatory meaning.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines 'strangle' in two senses. 1: 'To kill by external compression of the throat.' 2: 'To constrict painfully (of the neck or throat).' 

The judge said Ms Stocker had meant the first definition when she made her accusation on Facebook. 

Addressing a public meeting organised by the Centre for Women's Justice ahead of the case, Ms Stocker told The Telegraph: 'I find it incredibly sad that a legal system I held in such high regard in its current format enables men, and I am sure women, with enough wealth behind them to do that.

'I hope that Parliament will sit up and listen and one day make the changes so clearly needed.'

The couple split after 13 years of marriage in 2012. In December of that year she got into a Facebook spat in the comments section of a post by Deborah Bligh, Mr Stocker's new girlfriend. 

Ms Stocker, 51, said millionaire businessman Ronald Stocker (left), 68, strangled her during an online spat with his new partner Deborah Bligh (right) 

On the public post where all of their 'friends' could see, she claimed her ex-husband 'tried to strangle' her in 2003.

Following the original trial in 2016 Mr Justice Mitting noted that Mr Stocker had committed common assault - but had not tried to kill her.

He said 'each brought the worst out of each other' and they 'behaved to each other in a manner which does not credit either of them' on that night. 

She will fight the 2016 ruling today in the Supreme Court, where it will be decided whether the 'judge erred in determining the meaning of the words complained of '.

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News Photo Wife fighting defamation case after claiming on Facebook her husband strangled her
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