BBCA jury has heard that former football player and manager Joey Barton “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” by posting social media posts about Jeremy Vine, Lucy Ward, and other female television pundits Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward.
The 43-year-old former Manchester City midfielder is accused of 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic message with the intention to afflict others.
The charges stem from posts on X’s social media platform in January and March of last year.
“Cutting, caustic,”
Mr. Barton is accused of using slang to refer to Mr. Vine as a paedophile in messages posted by him.
In a reference to the infamous serial killers, he is also accused of referring to former footballers Ms. Ward and Ms. Aluko as “the Fred and Rosemary West of football commentary.”
According to Mr. Wright, who denies all the charges, has a “sizeable following on X in excess of two million” and that his social media posts are “may well be described as cutting, caustic, controversial, and forthright.”
Some people might even find some of them amusing, he added.
Everyone has the right to express opinions that are all those things.
In a democratic, free society, they are even permitted to express opinions that are offensive, shocking, or personally offensive when taken against and when compared to modern standards for a diverse, equal, open, and multiracial society.
“Groosely offensive.”
We claim that the defendant, Mr. Barton, straddled the line between a crime and free speech on 12 occasions, adding: “We claim that Mr. Barton crossed the line between a crime and a free speech.
He “engaged in a quite deliberate course of conduct” on 12 occasions between early January and mid-March last year, when he targeted three people who are in different ways in the public eye through a slew of obscene electronic communications with the intention of causing anxiety or distress.
According to Mr. Wright, the defendant had cultivated a publicly expressed dislike for female commentators in what he views as the male domain of football.
In an X post to the “Fred and Rose West of commentary,” he likened Ms Aluko and Ms Ward to the “Fred and Rose West of commentary” and said the former was “only there tick boxes.”
“Puerile and infantile”
Mr. Vine, a TV and radio presenter, responded to Mr. Barton’s comparisons by asking, “What’s up with Joey7Barton? ” on X. I just took a moment to consider the Rose West incident.
A brain injury can change a person’s character, such as anti-social behavior and inhibitions. I’m so happy that he’s okay.
The defendant’s lawyer argued to the jury that “the defendant did not interpret these interventions as a concern for his well-being but as an insult.”
He sent a message to Jeremy Vine’s X account saying, “You big bike nonce,” in which he responded.
Mr. Barton then reposted an image of Mr. Vine with the message “If you see this fella by a primary school call 999,” according to Mr. Wright.
We claim that a grown man’s defamatory, sincere, and infantile behavior toward these people was beyond what is acceptable in society and is therefore regarded as criminal.
Before he transitioning to management after his retirement, Mr. Barton also played for Queens Park Rangers, Burnley, and Marseilles as well as Manchester City.
After almost three years in charge, he was fired from Bristol Rovers in October 2023.
