Joey Barton guilty of sending ‘grossly offensive’ social media posts
Former footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of posting “grossly offensive” social media posts.
Barton, 43, was convicted after a trial at Liverpool Crown Court for posting posts on X about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
A jury on Friday found him guilty of sending six “highly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or alarm” just hours after they were sent.
He was cleared of six other charges of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or alarm between January and March 2024.
Following the televised FA Cup tie between Crystal Palace and Everton in January 2024, he likened Ward and Aluko to “Fred and Rose West’s football commentary” in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
He proceeded to superimpose the faces of the two women onto a photo of the serial killers.
Barton also tweeted that Aluko was in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category” because he “killed the ears of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans,” and wrote in a separate post: “He’s just there to tick the boxes. DEI is complete bullshit. Affirmative action. All behind the BLM/George Floyd nonsense.”
The former Manchester City, Newcastle United and Marseille player – now a social commentator with 2.7 million followers on X – is said to have suggested Vine had a sexual interest in children after the TV and radio presenter sent a message questioning whether Barton had “brain damage”.
Barton repeatedly referred to Vine as a “bicycle moment” and asked him: “Have you been to Epstein Island? Are you going to go into these flight logs? You better admit it now because if I see you near an elementary school on your bike, I’m calling the police.”
Barton, who also manages Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers, told Liverpool Crown Court he believed he was the victim of a “political investigation” and denied his aim was to “get clicks and promote himself”.
He said his posts about Ward and Aluko were “dark and silly humor” and “tried to make a serious point in a provocative way.”
He said that Epstein’s tweet on Vine was a “crude joke” and that the phrase “once a bike” is a known phrase used by non-cyclists about cyclists. Barton said he had no intention of implying that Vine was a pedophile.
In his closing speech to the jury of seven men and five women, prosecutor Peter Wright KC said Barton had crossed the line “by a significant margin” beyond what is socially acceptable.
He said: “Mr Barton is not the victim here. He is not the free speech advocate he wants to portray himself as. He is not a martyr to be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
“He’s just a naive, unrepentant bully. A little bully who enjoys sitting there with his phone and broadcasting these insults.”
Mr Wright said Ward, Aluko and Vine were “collateral damage from his self-promotion”.
Simon Csoka KC, defending, in his closing argument told jurors it was up to them to decide where the line between freedom of expression and crime was, but argued that if that line was “too low”, freedom of expression would be “completely worthless”.
He said that freedom of expression in society should not be taken lightly and should be protected and valued, but “it comes at a price.”
This is a story of breaking. More to follow…
