Joey Barton has been found guilty of sending grossly offensive social media posts targeting pundits Eni Aluko, Lucy Ward, and broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
Former professional footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of sending grossly offensive electronic communications targeting broadcaster Jeremy Vine and football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
A jury at Liverpool Crown Court convicted Barton, 43, on six counts of sending posts on X (formerly Twitter) with intent to cause distress or anxiety, concluding he had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime,” according to reporting.
The charges stemmed from a series of abusive social media attacks conducted between January and March 2024. Barton was convicted for a post targeting pundits Ward and Aluko, where he shared a superimposed image of their faces onto a photograph of convicted serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Jurors also convicted him over a post concerning Aluko, where he wrote: “Only there to tick boxes. DEI is a load of shit. Affirmative action. All off the back of the BLM/George Floyd nonsense”.
Barton’s online abuse extended to Jeremy Vine after the broadcaster questioned the posts, asking if Barton had a “brain injury.”
In response, Barton repeatedly referred to Vine as “bike nonce” and asked him: “Have you been on Epstein Island?” Vine later testified that the allegations of being a paedophile made him feel “physically unsafe.”
Barton was cleared of six other counts. He had denied the charges, claiming his remarks were intended as “dark and stupid humour,” but the jury ultimately returned the guilty verdicts on the six key counts.