Joey Barton “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and female sports pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, a jury has heard.
The former footballer is on trial at Liverpool Crown Court and stands accused of 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The charges relate to a series of posts the 43-year-old made on social media site X between January and March last year.
The prosecution told the jurors that Barton had more than two million followers on X and that his comments on the platform “may well be characterised as cutting, caustic, controversial and forthright”.
Peter Wright KC said: “Some may even consider some of them humorous.
“Everyone is entitled to express views that are all of those things.”
He continued: “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.”
Barton, from Widnes, Cheshire, denies the allegations.
What did Joey Barton post on X?
Following a televised FA Cup tie, the former Manchester City player likened Aluko and Ward to the “Fred and Rose West of commentary” and said the former was “only there to tick boxes”.
The court heard Barton later posted an image of the serial killers with the pundits’ faces superimposed on to them and said: “We’ve established they cannot take a joke and understand metaphors. So, I’ll leave you with this.”
In a separate post, he said of Aluko: “She’s clearly in the Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category… She’s murdered hundreds of thousands if not millions of football ears in the last few years.”
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The jury heard TV and radio presenter Vine responded to 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.”
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Prosecutor Mr Wright 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’.”
The court was told Barton later replied to a post in which Vine had celebrated the birthdate of Elvis Presley by writing: “Elvis was a Nonce As well. Priscilla was underage and Elvis has a history of that kind of thing.”
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Mr Wright told jurors: “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.”
