Joey Barton has been found guilty of posting grossly offensive messages on social media.
Barton was found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court of six counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
During his trial at Liverpool Crown Court, the ex-Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder, 43, said he believed he was the victim of a “political prosecution” and denied his aim was “to get clicks and promote himself”.
But the jury decided Barton, who also played for England in 2007, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with six posts he made on X, formerly Twitter.
The prosecution argued that his comments on the platform, where he boasts more than two million followers, “may well be characterised as cutting, caustic, controversial and forthright”.
Peter Wright KC continued: “Everyone is entitled to express views that are all of those things.
“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, of Widnes, Cheshire, denied 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March last year.
On the other six counts, which pertained to other posts on X between January and March 2024, he was cleared.
In one post on X, in January 2024, he compared football commentators Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary”, and superimposed the women’s faces on a photograph of the serial murderers.
He also described Aluko as being in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category”, suggesting that she had “murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans’ ears”.
Another message allegedly suggested Jeremy Vine had a sexual interest in children after the broadcaster posted a question asking whether Barton had a “brain injury”.
He told the court the posts were “dark and stupid humour” and “crude banter”. He also said he had no intention of implying Vine was a paedophile.
Mr Barton, whose playing career also included appearances for Queens Park Rangers, Marseille, Burnley, and Glasgow’s Rangers, before his career ended in 2017.
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