Ex-footballer Joey Barton sentenced for posting grossly offensive social media messages
Joey Barton sentenced for sending grossly offensive social media posts
- Former footballer Joey Barton has been handed a six-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, for sending six grossly offensive social media posts.
- Barton was convicted of six counts of sending grossly offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
- The posts targeted broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko, with a jury ruling he had 'crossed the line between free speech and a crime'.
- Convictions included superimposing Ward and Aluko's faces onto a photograph of serial murderers Fred and Rose West, and a post about Aluko regarding 'DEI' and 'affirmative action'.
- Barton was also found guilty of multiple posts referring to Jeremy Vine as a 'bike nonce' and making false accusations linking him to Epstein Island.