Joey Barton received suspended sentence for offensive posts by X

Former footballer Joey Barton has been given a suspended sentence for social media posts about broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.

Barton, 43, was found guilty by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court of sending extremely offensive electronic communications with intent to cause distress or anxiety.

The trial heard he had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with six posts on

Barton, originally from Huyton, Merseyside, was given six months custody and suspended for 18 months.

The former Manchester City and Newcastle player was also ordered by the Honorary Registrar of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community and pay more than £20,000 in costs.

Following a televised FA Cup tie in January 2024 between Crystal Palace and Everton, Barton compared Ward and Aluko to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary” and superimposed their faces on a photograph of the serial killers.

Speaking to the BBC after leaving court, Barton said: “If I could turn back time, I would.

“I never meant to hurt anyone. It was a prank that got out of control.”

And he added: “No one wants to go to jail.”

Barton, who has 2.7 million followers on

He was found not guilty of six further allegations that he sent an extremely offensive electronic communication with the intention of causing distress or anxiety between January and March 2024.

The jury acquitted Barton, now of Widnes, Cheshire, over the comment’s analogy with the Wests, but ruled the superimposed image was extremely offensive.

Giving evidence, Barton, who managed Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers, said he believed he was the victim of “political persecution” and denied his aim was to “get clicks and promote himself”.

Sentencing, Judge Menary KC told Barton: “Intense debate, satire, ridicule and even crude language may fall within the permitted freedom of expression.

“But when posts deliberately target people with vilifying comparisons to serial killers or false insinuations of pedophilia, designed to humiliate and distress, they lose their protection.

“As the jury concluded, his offenses exemplified behavior that went beyond this limit, amounting to a sustained campaign of online abuse that was not mere commentary but targeted, extreme and deliberately harmful.”

Two-year restraining orders were issued against each of his victims, including posting any reference to them on any social media platform or broadcast outlet.

Following the verdict, a spokesperson for Cheshire Police said the force hoped the case would deter others from using social media to share “abusive and hateful messages”.

They said Barton’s posts “would have been viewed by hundreds, if not thousands, of people and yet he showed no regard or consideration for how this would affect his victims and their well-being.”

“The sentence imposed on him today includes a number of strict conditions and if he breaches these in any way he could face the prospect of spending time behind bars.”