Joey Barton was today accused of embarking on a pre-calculated campaign of gross and hateful ‘personal slurs,’ in a string of social media posts – some of which claimed broadcaster Jeremy Vine had a sexual interest in children.
On the first day of his trial on charges of sending 12 grossly offensive posts in full knowledge of the harm they would cause, prosecutor Peter Wright KC told the jury that Barton’s conduct was ‘defamatory, puerile and infantile behaviour by a grown man and so beyond the pale of what is tolerable in society as to be properly characterised as criminal.’
Barton declared ‘not guilty’ to each of 12 charges read out to him, in which messages he sent between January and March last year were read out.
Five of them related to football commentators Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, including one post in which their faces were pasted onto a picture of the serial killer Fred West and his wife, Rose West.
But most related to posts about Vine, in which Barton, 43, had suggested that signs of the presenter being near a primary school on a bike should require a need for the police to be called.
Barton posted an image of the TV host, in January last year, in which he called him ‘bike nonce and said: ‘If you see this fella by a primary school call 999.’ In an earlier post, also describing Barton as ‘bike nonce’, Barton declared: ‘Might as well own up now because I’d phone the police if I saw you near a primary school on ya bike.’
Joey Barton is pictured arriving at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday morning
Some of Joey Barton’s posts claimed broadcaster Jeremy Vine had a sexual interest in children – and described him as ‘bike nonce’
Barton implied a connection between Vine and the dead convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and declared that Elvis Presley had been ‘a nonce as well’, because his wife Priscilla Presley had been ‘underage’ and ‘Elvis has a history of that kind of thing.’ The slurs, allied to a reference to Rolf Harris, made it clear what Barton’s intentions towards Vine were, Mr Wright said.
Barton described Aluko and Ward as ‘the Fred and Rose West of football commentary’, later declaring that Aluko was actually ‘in the Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category.’
The former footballer and ex-Fleetwood Town manager, wearing a blue turtle-neck top, listened as Mr Wright told the jury that everyone in a free society was entitled to express views that are could be characterised as ‘cutting. caustic, controversial and forthright’ and even ‘offensive, shocking or personally rude.’
He continued: ‘But what someone is not entitled to do is to post communications which are beyond the pale of what is tolerable in society. In other words, they are considered to be of a grossly offence nature.
‘We say on behalf of the prosecution that the defendant crossed the line between free speech and a crime. 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 subjected them, via this medium to a slew of grossly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety.’
The posts directed at Aluko and Ward belonged to his ‘publicly expressed disapproval of female commentators on, as he sees it, the male preserve of ‘men’s’ football,’ Mr Wright said.
‘Whether this is a cynical ploy designed to boost his following in certain quarters – or a genuinely held belief is a matter for you to consider,’ Mr Wright told the jury. ‘His purpose, or one of them, in sending it in such a public way and in such a public forum was that it should cause distress or anxiety.’
When ITV responded with a trenchant tweet in defence of its pundits, Barton tweeted back to the broadcaster to ‘shut up you f****g idiots. Keep them off the tele (sic)’ – one of several foul-mouthed tweets. He also posted the image of the Wests with the commentators superimposed – stating: ‘We’ve established they cannot take a joke and understand metaphors.’
Five of the tweets related to football commentators Eni Aluko (pictured) and Lucy Ward
It was when Mr Vine suggested that the nature of attacks on Ward and Aluko might be evidence that Barton was suffering from some kind of brain injury, causing him to lose inhibition, that Barton embarked on the series of tweets to him, too.
When later given the opportunity to answer questions under caution at a police station in respect of each of these matters concerning Aluko, Ward and Vine, Barton elected not to do so. He instead chose to be completely silent.
Later Barton’s barrister Simon Csoka KC asked witness Gunay Guk, an ITV producer who testified to the distress Barton had caused Aluko and Ward, why the broadcaster publicly defended Aluko and her right to work on a top men’s match, after Barton’s comments, when she had herself suggested Ian Wright was not entitled to be an expert analysis on women’s football.
‘Is that something you supported her on?’ Mr Csoka asked.
The case, which is expected to last one week, continues tomorrow.
