Joey Barton handed suspended sentence over offensive X posts

Former footballer Joey Barton has been handed a suspended sentence for social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.

Barton, 43, was found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court of sending grossly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

The trial heard he had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with six posts on X including comparing Aluko and Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West, and calling Vine a “bike nonce” between January and March 2024.

Barton, originally of Huyton, Merseyside, was given six months in custody, suspended for 18 months.

The ex-Manchester City and Newcastle player was also made by the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, to do 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay more than £20,000 in costs.

Following a televised FA Cup tie in January 2024 between Crystal Palace and Everton, Barton likened Ward and Aluko to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary” and went on to superimpose their faces onto a photograph of the serial murderers.

Speaking to the BBC after leaving the court, Barton said: “If I could turn back the clock I would.

“I never meant to hurt anyone. It was a joke that got out of hand.”

He added: “Nobody wants to go to jail.”

Barton, who has 2.7m followers on X, repeatedly referred to Vine as “bike nonce” and said in one post: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999,” and “Beware Man with Camera on his helmets cruising past primary schools. Call the Cops if spotted.”

He was found not guilty of six other allegations that he sent a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.

Jurors cleared Barton, now of Widnes, Cheshire, over the commentary analogy with the Wests but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.

Giving evidence, Barton, who managed Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers, said he believed he was the victim of a “political prosecution” and denied his aim was “to get clicks and promote himself”.

On sentencing, Judge Menary KC told Barton: “Robust debate, satire, mockery and even crude language may fall within permissible free speech.

“But when posts deliberately target individuals with vilifying comparisons to serial killers or false insinuations of paedophilia, designed to humiliate and distress, they forfeit their protection.

“As the jury concluded, your offences exemplify behaviour that is beyond this limit – amounting to a sustained campaign of online abuse that was not mere commentary but targeted, extreme and deliberately harmful.”

Two-year restraining orders were issued against each of his victims which includes publishing any reference to them on any social media platform or broadcast medium.

Following the verdict, a Cheshire Police spokesperson said the force hoped the case would deter others using social media to share “abusive and hateful messages”.

They said Barton’s posts “would have been seen by hundreds, if not thousands of people, and yet he showed no regard or consideration for how this would impact on his victims and their wellbeing”.

“The sentence handed to him today comes with a number of strict conditions and should he breach these in any way he may face the prospect of time behind bars.”

In Vine’s victim impact statement, which was read in court, he said Barton’s actions were “profoundly traumatising”.

“I felt my reputation was sullied.”

He added: “Joey Barton is a small man who feeds off the pain of others.”

Ward, in her victim impact statement, described Barton’s posts as “irresponsible” and “hateful”.

“I am now constantly afraid, not just of the defendant, but the people he has incited against me and his history only heightens my fear.”

She added the “barrage of hate” has left her “questioning my own worth”.

In Aluko’s impact statement, she said Barton’s comments were “abhorrent and the most offensive criticism she has experienced in her life” and she had to step up security as a result.

“I remain deeply upset with the malicious comparison to serial killers and feel humiliated given that millions of people will have seen this comparison,” she said.

It was unwarranted and unjustified, she said, adding that as a result she was too scared to leave her house, resulting in cancelled engagements and loss of income.