Former footballer Joey Barton has been spared jail after sending grossly offensive social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.
Last month a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Barton, 43, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with six posts on X, formerly Twitter.
Following a televised FA Cup tie in January 2024 between Crystal Palace and Everton he likened Ward and Aluko to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary” and went on to superimpose their faces on to a photograph of the serial murderers.
He was found not guilty of six other allegations that he sent a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.
Jurors cleared Barton, of Widnes, Cheshire, over the commentary analogy with the Wests but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.
Giving evidence, Barton, who managed Fleetwood and Bristol Rovers, said he believed he was the victim of a “political prosecution” and denied his aim was “to get clicks and promote himself”.
At Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, Judge Andrew Menary KC sentenced Barton to six months in custody, suspended for 18 months.
Sentencing, the Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Menary KC told Barton: “Robust debate, satire, mockery and even crude language may fall within permissible free speech. But when posts deliberately target individuals with vilifying comparisons to serial killers or false insinuations of paedophilia, designed to humiliate and distress, they forfeit their protection.
“As the jury concluded, your offences exemplify behaviour that is beyond this limit – amounting to a sustained campaign of online abuse that was not mere commentary but targeted, extreme and deliberately harmful.”
Barton must also complete 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay prosecution costs of £23,419.
Two-year restraining orders were issued against each of his victims which includes publishing any reference to them on any social media platform or broadcast medium.
