Joey Barton Convicted for Offensive Social Media Posts

Former footballer Joey Barton has been convicted on six counts of sending “grossly offensive” social media posts aimed at broadcaster Jeremy Vine and football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.

The 43-year-old Barton, originally from Huyton in Merseyside, made derogatory comparisons between Aluko and Ward and the infamous serial killer couple, Fred and Rose West. Additionally, he referred to Vine as a “bike nonce” in posts made between January and March 2024.

Jurors at Liverpool Crown Court upheld the prosecution’s assertion that Barton had traversed the boundary between free speech and criminal conduct. However, he was acquitted on six other counts related to sending grossly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

Judge Andrew Menary KC cautioned Barton against wearing a scarf adorned with a British flag in court, labeling it a “stunt”. He indicated that Barton would not be permitted to wear the scarf during his sentencing on December 8. The judge also reminded Barton of the bail conditions prohibiting him from referencing his three victims prior to the hearing.

Throughout the trial, Barton contended that he was the target of a “political prosecution” and maintained that his comments about Aluko and Ward were merely examples of “dark and stupid humour”. He claimed he intended to make a significant point provocatively.

With a substantial following of 2.7 million on social media platform X, Barton characterized his posts concerning Vine as “crude banter”, insisting that his use of the term “bike nonce” was not meant to suggest that the radio presenter was a paedophile.

The jury dismissed a charge related to a post where he mockingly apologized to Aluko for the comparison to Rose West, which included the assertion that she belonged to the same category as historical figures like Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot, and had metaphorically “murdered hundreds of thousands if not millions of football fans’ ears” in recent years.

However, Barton was convicted of a post stating that ITV pundit Aluko was “only there to tick boxes”, referencing issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd.

Though the jury acquitted him of alleging that Ward and Aluko were the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary” after a January 2024 FA Cup match between Crystal Palace and Everton, he was found guilty of another post superimposing their faces onto an image of the serial killers.

He also faced convictions for posts insinuating that Vine had visited “Epstein island”, a reference to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and another post stating: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999.”

In his closing remarks, prosecutor Peter Wright KC asserted that Barton had significantly exceeded the limits of societal tolerance. He described Barton as “a little bully” who derives pleasure from posting slurs online and emphasized that Barton was not the victim in this case.

Judge Menary elucidated that the term “grossly offensive” necessitates a high threshold for conviction, clarifying that the law does not penalize bad manners or unpopular opinions, but intervenes only when the content is of an extreme, degrading, or dehumanizing nature that society would unanimously declare intolerable.

Barton has been released on bail, and the judge mandated that a pre-sentence report be prepared. He also advised Barton against making any further social media posts related to the case before his sentencing.