Joey Barton comments ‘made me feel physically unsafe’, Jeremy Vine tells court
Jeremy Vine felt “badly destroyed for no reason” by Joey Barton, a court heard.
The broadcaster told the jury his feelings after the former footballer accused him of being a pedophile on social media.
Vine said he stepped in to help football commentators Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko after Barton posted an image of their faces over a photo of notorious serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Following the televised FA Cup tie between Crystal Palace and Everton in January 2024, the former Manchester City and Newcastle United player had previously likened Ward and Aluko to “Fred and Rose West comments” in an X post.
Vine replied to
Barton, 43, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court over allegations he sent grossly offensive social media posts to Ward, Aluko and Vine on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the intention of causing distress or alarm.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Vine said: “I was quite surprised by what Mr Barton said about two highly respected commentators in Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
“I thought it was a very bad thing to impose these on images of two people who mass murdered children, and I was looking for an explanation.
“In that tweet I said ‘are we dealing with a brain injury here’ to underscore my feeling that he had crossed the line.”
The court heard Barton responded to Vine’s tweet with a post in which he referred to him as a “great cyclist once and for all”.
Barton later responded to Vine’s post, in which the streamer celebrated Elvis Presley’s birthday.
The defendant, who has 2.7 million followers on X, wrote: “Elvis was a novice too.
“Priscilla was underage and Elvis has a history of this sort of thing.
“Have you been to Epstein Island?
“Are you going to be on these flight logs?
“Now I better accept this because if I see you on your bike near an elementary school I’ll call the police.”
Asked by prosecutor Peter Wright KC about the post, Vine said: “I could see this was escalating now.
“I was very worried that he chose the word ‘once’ to throw around.
“He obviously decided to blame me.
“I was becoming very concerned that Barton had this obsession with me by tagging me alongside so many of his like-minded followers.
“I really panicked at this point.
“I felt like he wasn’t going to stop.”
Barton reposted a photo of Vine with the caption: “If you see this man in primary school, call 999,” the court heard.
Vine told the jury: “This is getting really serious now. He’s accusing me of being a pedophile.”
“I am a law-abiding father of two children and a devoted husband.
“These are disgusting acts, a despicable thing to say.
“This made me very upset and I had a sleepless night that night.”
As subsequent exchanges continued, she told Mr Wright she was “starting to get scared”.
“I realized I needed to take some action, but I wasn’t sure what to do,” Vine said. “I realized the quickest solution would be some type of civil lawsuit.
“All you have is your reputation. To have that taken away from you by someone I’ve never met is completely devastating. My wife saw me in pieces.”
The court was told the civil suit was filed in March 2024 and a week later a post from Barton’s Twitter account read: “If anyone has anything about Jeremy Vine (images, screenshots, videos, messages) that you think would help us with the case, please send them to me using the hashtag #bikenonce.”
Mr Wright asked the witness how he felt about this message.
Vine responded: “In short, it means I want assholes to fight back against Jeremy Vine.
“I thought that was incredible, I just couldn’t believe he said that.”
Asked by Mr Wright how Barton’s messages affected him in his daily activities, Vine said: “I truly believed that what Mr. Barton was doing made me feel physically unsafe.
“If people want to know where you live, they can.
“I received advice about my safety and diversified my movements.
“I believe these messages put me in danger, physical danger.
“One in 2.7 million people has a knife.”
He said he had to explain the “cloud of filth” to his two young daughters.
Mr Wright said: “When you look back on this incident, what do you think about it now in terms of the impact it had on you?”
Vine said: “I think I kind of panicked about it.
“For no reason, I felt like I was terribly devastated. It was like a violent attack on me. That’s how I felt. It turned my life upside down for over a year.”
“I never want to be in that place again in my life. It was a terrible, terrible time.”
Jurors were told that in June 2024 Barton agreed to pay Vine £75,000 in damages, along with his legal costs, for defamation and harassment as both parties settled the civil suit.
In another agreement between both parties, Barton paid Vine £35,000 in compensation and legal costs in similar matters.
The court heard Barton also apologized to Vine in June 2024 in a post from his
Defending, Simon Csoka KC suggested on Vine that his response to Fred and Rose West’s tweet was “just him trying to be provocative on Twitter to get involved in this story.”
Vine replied: “I was actually trying to help two targets of Mr. Barton’s abuse and probably did so foolishly.
“That certainly didn’t justify what happened next.”
Mr Csoka said: “You said that as a playful mockery.”
“I accept that,” Vine said.
Barton, of Widnes, Cheshire, denies the offenses, which are said to have been committed between January and March 2024.
