Joey Barton X posts ‘crossed line between free speech and crime’

Retired footballer and manager Joey Barton “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and female television pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, a jury has heard.

The former Manchester City midfielder, 43, is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court accused of 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

The charges arise out of posts made in January and March last year on social media platform X.

Peter Wright KC, prosecuting, told jurors Mr Barton “engaged in a quite deliberate course of conduct” and targeted the trio with a “slew of grossly offensive electronic communications”.

Mr Barton is accused of posting messages using slang to refer to Mr Vine as a paedophile.

He is also accused of describing the former footballers Ms Ward and Ms Aluko as “the Fred and Rosemary West of football commentary” – a reference to the notorious serial killers.

Mr Wright said Mr Barton, from Widnes, Cheshire, who denies all the charges, had a “sizeable following on X in excess of two million” and his comments on the social media perform “may well be characterised as cutting, caustic, controversial and forthright”.

He added: “Some may even consider some of them humorous.

“Everyone is entitled to express views that are all of those things.

“They are even entitled in a democratic, free society to express views that are offensive, shocking or personally rude when considered against and applying the contemporary standards of an open, just, multi-racial, equal and diverse society.

“What someone is not entitled to do is to post communications electronically that are – applying those standards – beyond the pale of what is tolerable in society.”

Mr Wright added: “We say that the defendant Mr Barton crossed the line between free speech and a crime on 12 occasions.

“On 12 occasions between early January and mid-March last year, he engaged in a quite deliberate course of conduct in which he targeted three people, who are in different ways in the public eye, and he subjected them through his posts to a slew of grossly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety.”

Mr Wright said the defendant had cultivated a publicly-expressed disapproval of female commentators in what he sees as the male preserve of football.

Following a televised FA Cup tie between Crystal Palace and Everton he likened Ms Aluko and Ms Ward in an X post to the “Fred and Rose West of commentary” and added the former was “only there to tick boxes”.

Mr Barton later posted an image of the serial killers with the faces of the two pundits superimposed onto them, the court heard.

Mr Wright said TV and radio presenter Mr Vine responded to Mr Barton’s comparisons by posting on X: “What’s going on with Joey7Barton? I just glanced at the Rose West thing… genuinely, is it possible we are dealing with a brain injury here?

“A brain injury can cause changes to a person’s character, eg disinhibition, anti-social behaviour. I sincerely hope he is okay.”

The prosecutor told the jury: “The defendant did not read these interventions as an expression of concern for his wellbeing but rather as an insult.

“He sent a post to Jeremy Vine’s X account in which he referred to him as ‘you big bike nonce’.”

Among other posts, Mr Barton then reposted an image of Mr Vine with the caption “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999”, said Mr Wright.

“We say this defamatory, frankly puerile and infantile behaviour by a grown man in respect of these people was, and is, beyond the pale of what is tolerable in society and therefore characterised as criminal.”

As well as Manchester City, Mr Barton also played for Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, Burnley and Marseilles before he moved into management after his retirement.

He was sacked from his most recent role of manager at Bristol Rovers in October 2023 after almost three years in charge.

The trial continues.