5 hours ago
7
Former footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of six counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
A jury at Liverpool crown court found that Barton, 43 of Widnes, Cheshire, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with a series of posts made to his more than 2 million followers on X between January and March 2024. He was cleared of a further six counts.
The first posts made by Barton targeted female football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko after the pair had worked on the coverage of a 17 January 2024 FA Cup tie between Everton and Crystal Palace.
Barton, a longtime critic of female involvement in men’s football, criticised the pair’s punditry of the fixture and compared them to notorious serial killers, calling them the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary”. He went on to superimpose the faces of the two women on to a photograph of the serial murderers. Ward told the court on Tuesday that these posts left her feeling “physically scared”.
He also posted that Aluko was in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category” as she had “murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans’ ears”, before alleging that she was only “there to tick boxes” before saying: “DEI is a load of shit. Affirmative action. All off the back of the BLM/George Floyd nonsense.”
Barton’s attack on the pair led to broadcaster Jeremy Vine attempting to intervene, telling the court on Wednesday that he had been “quite shocked by what Mr Barton had said about two very respected commentators” and asking him if he was “dealing with a brain injury here?”
Barton responded by calling Vine a “bike nonce”, then asking him “have you been on Epstein Island?” and “are you going to be on these flight logs?” before telling him he might “as well own up now because I’d phone the police if I saw you near a primary school on ya bike”, and posting an image of Vine with the caption: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999.”
Vine told the court he took these allegations seriously and felt “physically unsafe” because of them, worried that any of Barton’s “like-minded” followers could interpret them as real, and saying that “if people want to find out where you live, they can.” Vine also said that as a result of Barton’s posts: “I took some advice about my security, I varied my movements. I do believe these messages put me in danger, in physical danger.”
Barton alleged he was the victim of “political prosecution” in what he downplayed as “crude banter” and “a spat between celebrities online” when cross examined on Thursday.
“This was the state, in my opinion, trying to squeeze me into the ground,” he said. “This is a state prosecution, I believe, for whatever their agendas are in pushing on people.”
Barton said he did not intend to actually call Vine a paedophile and that his posts directed towards the broadcaster were “a wind-up” and “a bad, dark, juvenile joke”.
At one point during cross examination, prosecutor Peter Wright KC called Barton’s explanations “nonsense”, to which the former player responded by asking: “Are you calling me a nonce?” Wright in turn responded: “No, nonsense.”
Barton went on to say he had not “tried to cause distress or anxiety or risk his life or his daughters’ lives”, adding: “I don’t want people to fear for their lives, I’m a dad.”
He is due to be sentenced on 8 December, with his bail conditions prohibiting him from mentioning the three victims in any way before then.
