Joey Barton learns fate for sending ‘grossly offensive’ posts on X | UK | News
Joey Barton has been spared jail after sending grossly offensive social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
Last month, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found former footballer Barton, 43, had “crossed the line between freedom of expression and crime” with six posts on X, formerly Twitter. Following the televised FA Cup tie between Crystal Palace and Everton in January 2024, he likened Ward and Aluko to “football commentary by Fred and Rose West” and went on to superimpose their faces onto a photograph of serial killers. In another post about Aluko, Barton said: “It’s just there to check the boxes. DEI is a bunch of bullshit. Affirmative action. This is all coming off the back of the BLM/George Floyd bullshit.”
Barton repeatedly referred to Vine as a “cyclist” and asked him: “Have you been to Epstein Island? Are you going to go into these flight logs? Now you better accept this because if I see you on a bicycle near an elementary school, I’m calling the police.”
The former Manchester City, Newcastle United and Marseille player (now a social commentator with 2.7 million followers on
Barton was found guilty of referring to himself as a “bicycle moment” in two tweets about Vine, saying: “If you see this man near a primary school, call 999” and “Watch out for the man in the helmet with the camera passing by primary schools. If seen, call the police.”
He was also found not guilty of six other counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.
Jurors cleared Barton, of Widnes, Cheshire, over the commentary analogy with West, 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 investigation” and denied his aim was to “get clicks and promote himself”.
At Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, Judge Andrew Menary KC sentenced Barton to six months in prison and suspended for 18 months.
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