{"id":364495,"date":"2025-11-08T12:20:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/364495\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T12:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T12:20:15","slug":"joey-barton-trial-verdict-ex-footballer-found-guilty-of-sending-grossly-offensive-social-media-posts-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/364495\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Barton trial verdict: Ex-footballer found guilty of sending ‘grossly offensive’ social media posts | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-footballer Joey Barton has been 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.<\/p>\n

Barton has been convicted of sending grossly offensive social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.<\/p>\n

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Barton, 43, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with six posts he made on X.<\/p>\n

He was cleared of six other counts that he sent a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.<\/p>\n

Following a televised FA Cup tie in January 2024 between Crystal Palace and Everton, he likened Ward and Aluko in a post on X to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary”.<\/p>\n

He went on to superimpose the faces of the two women onto a photograph of the serial murderers.<\/p>\n

\"Lucy<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Barton sent grossly offensive social media posts about TV pundit Lucy Ward<\/p>\n

Barton also tweeted Aluko was in the “Joseph Stalin\/Pol Pot category” as she had “murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans’ ears”.<\/p>\n

Jurors found him not guilty on the Stalin\/Pol Pot comparison, and also the commentary analogy with the Wests, but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.<\/p>\n

He was also convicted of a post in relation to Aluko in which he wrote: “Only there to tick boxes. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is a load of s***. Affirmative action. All off the back of the BLM (Black Lives Matter)\/George Floyd nonsense”.<\/p>\n

The ex-Manchester City, Newcastle United and Marseille player – now a social commentator with 2.7m followers on X – is said to have suggested Vine had a sexual interest in children after the TV and radio presenter sent a message querying whether Barton had a “brain injury”.<\/p>\n

Barton repeatedly referred to Vine as “bike nonce” and asked him: “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.”<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Barton sent grossly offensive social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine<\/p>\n

He was convicted over the Epstein post and a tweet in which he said: “Oh @the JeremyVine Did you Rolf-aroo and Schofield go out on a tandem bike ride? You big bike nonce ya”.<\/p>\n

Barton was also found guilty of other tweets in relation to Vine in which he referred to him as “bike nonce” and said: “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999,” and “Beware Man with Camera on his helmets cruising past primary schools. Call the Cops if spotted”.<\/p>\n

He was cleared of guilt over three remaining tweets referring to Vine.<\/p>\n

Barton was bailed ahead of sentencing on December 8.<\/p>\n

The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Andrew Menary KC, noted the defendant was wearing a Union Jack patterned scarf as the verdicts were returned.<\/p>\n

He told the court: “He has chosen to adorn himself with a particular flag which I suppose is a stunt to make a point. He will not be permitted to do that on the sentencing date.”<\/p>\n

Aluko: Online actions have real word consequences<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the verdict, Aluko released a statement to social media saying that it acted as a reminder that online actions have ‘real world’ consequences.<\/p>\n

\"Eni<\/p>\n

Image:
\n Eni Aluko has said the guilty verdict is a reminder online words have ‘real world’ consequences<\/p>\n

“Social media and specifically X is a cesspit where too many people say things under the guise of freedom of speech to others they wouldn’t dream of saying in real life,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The crown court guilty verdict today is a reminder that actions and words online do not come without real world and criminal consequences.<\/p>\n

“The posts directed at me, Lucy Ward and Jeremy Vine by Joey Barton were deeply distressing and had a real damaging impact on my life and career. I am thankful justice has been served.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ex-footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court of six counts of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":364496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-364495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115514050533630596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}