Former footballer Joey Barton has been sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, for making grossly offensive social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
Mr Barton was found guilty in November by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court, which found that six of his posts on X “crossed the line between freedom of speech and criminal offences”.
The 43-year-old must complete 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay prosecution costs of £23,419.
A two-year restraining order was issued against each victim, including publication of any references to them on social media platforms or broadcast media.
Sentencing, Judge Andrew Menary KC, Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, told Mr Barton: “Heated debate, satire, ridicule, and even vulgar language may fall within the scope of free speech. However, if a post intentionally targets an individual and intends to cause humiliation and distress by slandering them as serial killers or falsely insinuating pedophilia, they lose protection.”
“As the jury concluded, your offenses go beyond this limit and amount to more than mere comments to a sustained campaign of targeted, extreme and intentionally harmful online abuse.”
Mr Burton was acquitted of six other charges of sending grossly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.
After the FA Cup televised FA Cup match between Crystal Palace and Everton in January 2024, he compared Ward and Aluko to “football commentators Fred and Rose West” in an X post.
He superimposed the faces of two women on a photograph of a serial killer.
Barton also tweeted that Aluko was in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category” because he “murdered the ears of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of soccer fans.”
The jury acquitted him of the comparisons between Stalin and Pol Pot, and of the analogy with Western commentary, but ruled that the superimposed images were deeply offensive.
He was also found guilty of a post he wrote in reference to Aluko: “Just check the box. DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) is bullshit. Affirmative action. It’s all behind the BLM/George Floyd nonsense.”
The former Manchester City, Newcastle United and Marseille player, now a social commentator with 2.7 million followers on
Burton repeatedly called Vine a “bicycle straight” and asked, “Have you ever been to Epstein Island? Will it be on your flight log? If I see you riding your bike near an elementary school, I’ll call the police, so maybe you should confess now.”
He was found guilty of Epstein’s post, in which he tweeted, “Oh, @the JeremyVine Rolf Alou and Schofield went for a tandem bike ride? Big bike bastard.”
Barton was also found guilty of other Vine-related tweets, including calling himself a “bicycle nonce” and saying things like: “If you see this bastard near a primary school please call 999” and “Watch out for this guy patrolling in front of a primary school with a camera on his helmet. If you see him please call the police.”
He was acquitted of the remaining three tweets that referenced Vine.
More to come…
