Joey Barton ‘crossed line between free speech and crime’ with social media posts

Former 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.

Barton, 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 a series of posts made in January and March last year on social media site X, formerly Twitter.

Opening the prosecution case on Monday, Peter Wright KC told jurors that Barton 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 said: “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.

“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 to the recipient or to any other person to whom he intended its contents or nature to be communicated.”

Barton, from Widnes, Cheshire, denies the allegations.

The defendant had cultivated a publicly expressed disapproval of female commentators in what he sees as the male preserve of “men’s football”, said Mr Wright, and shares those views on social media.

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

Barton later posted an image of the notorious serial killers, the court heard, with the faces of the two pundits 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 the ex-Manchester City and Newcastle United midfielder wrote of Ms 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.”

Mr Wright said TV and radio presenter Mr Vine responded to Barton’s Fred and Rose West 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’.”

Barton later replied to a posting from Mr Vine in which the broadcaster celebrated the birthdate of Elvis Presley, the court was told.

The defendant wrote: “Elvis was a Nonce As well. Priscilla was underage and Elvis has a history of that kind of thing.

“Have you been on Epstein Island ? Are you going to be on these flight logs?

“Might as well own up now because I’d phone the police if I saw you near a primary school on ya bike.”

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.

The defendant later referred to Mr Vine as “Bike Nonce” and sent more posts with the hashtag #downwithbikenonce.

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.”