Joey Barton today claimed that his trial on charges of sending abusive tweets was part of a state conspiracy against him which ITV had pushed police officers to pursue.
In two hours under cross-examination, the former footballer described the case as a ‘hatchet job’ and said that he was in fear of being sent to jail, whilst the barrister prosecuting him was treating the trial like ‘a game.’
Barton, 43, launched an attack on prosecution witness Jeremy Vine – accusing him of having ‘main character syndrome’ and of ‘snarling’ at him when they passed each other in court on Wednesday.
He said that the case being brought against him, which he viewed as ‘nonsense’, was being launched because of his views on ITV’s female football pundits.
The former Manchester City footballer, who was asked why he refused to answer any police questions when interview about his tweets, said: ‘I felt it was a political prosecution from the moment of the knock on the door. This is a hatchet job. A political prosecution which ITV put them up to. The police force in this country has been politicised and I knew that if I said stuff, one day I would be in front of the crown. I didn’t trust that police force and the way it’s been politicised.’
Joey Barton says that he is in fear of being sent to jail in a ‘hatchet job’ court case
Barton’s attack on Mr Vine began when the TV and radio presenter responded on Twitter/X to a tweet in which Barton compared football analysts Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to the child serial killers Fred and Rose West.
Barton, who has already paid £600,000 to Mr Vine who sued him for libel, today portrayed the presenter as an attention-seeker, looking to gain ‘clicks’ by inserting himself into what Mr Wright described as ‘an assault’ on the ITV presenters. Barton claimed Mr Vine was ‘a fly in the ointment’ who was ‘craving attention’ on Twitter and unhappy with ‘getting laughed at.’
But submitted to detailed questions on his tweets, Barton brandished a red A4 book which he claimed was his ‘journal’, showing his plans to campaign for the removal of women pundits, and urged the judge to give it to the jury.
He said that he had written in it because he feared losing his mind. ‘I have a family history of Huntingdon’s and I knew I would be here one day,’ he said
He told Peter Wright KC: ‘You are trying to trip me up here and put me in jail’ and told Judge Andrew Menary, who repeatedly attempted to stop him introducing his political views into answers: ‘I’m fighting for my life here, sir.’
Mr Wright described as ‘nonsense’ Barton’s explanations of tweets associating Mr Vine with serial child sex offenders Rolf Harris and Jeffrey Epstein and requests for ‘dirt’ on him from his three million twitter followers. The prosecution KC said the attacks on the female commentators constituted ‘cyber bullying’ on those Barton felt were ‘fair game.’
He suggested to Barton that he was actually a ‘narcissist’, asking if he knew the meaning of the word. ‘It is someone who has an excessive admiration of, and interest, in themselves,’ Mr Wright reminded Barton.
Barton, 43, launched an attack on prosecution witness Jeremy Vine on Thursday
Barton’s defence of his attacks on Ward and Eluko included a claim that ‘mainstream TV’ was discriminating against ‘men and white people’ and thus ‘racist’. At one stage during the morning’s proceedings, he claimed he needed medication for toothache. He said: ‘I cracked my tooth last night. I grind my teeth when I’m worrying.’ There was an adjournment while Paracetamol was found for him.
Barton’s many points under cross-examination about the trial included a claim that he was forced to ask for a Crown Court trial as the lower Magistrates’ Courts would have been ‘a kangaroo court.’
In one of his interventions, Judge Menary told Barton: ‘You are grandstanding now. You are determined to make some kind of speech to the jury instead of answering the questions. You are making speeches, so less of the speeches and answer the question.’
Barton, 43, denies 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The case continues.
