Former footballer Joey Barton has today (Tuesday) been found guilty of assaulting his wife.
The court was told how Barton pushed his wife, Georgia, 38, to the ground before kicking her in the head at their home in Kew, south west London.
The assault happened on June 2, 2021, when Barton was manager of Bristol Rovers.
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The argument began when Barton threatened to fight his wife’s brother and father.
In a 999 call, made at 11.14pm that night, that was played to the court at an earlier hearing, Mrs Barton said: “Me husband’s just hit me in the house. He’s in the house, I’m outside.”
A court heard she was upset and emotional when making the call.
Police officers arrived at the property about 25 minutes later, where Mrs Barton was waiting outside. PC Daniel Humphrey was the first police officer to arrive on the scene and noticed a “golf ball” size lump on her forehead. Her nose had also been bleeding.
She then repeated the allegation she had made over the phone.
She told officers: “I’ve been pushed down and kicked about and stuff. He said he was going to fight with my brother and my dad.”
Mrs Barton said it was the first time anything like that had happened.
Barton was arrested in his bedroom at around midnight that night, while he was sleeping.
The next day, he was interviewed by police under caution and answered “no comment” to all questions put to him, apart from to identify himself.
Barton was subsequently charged with assault by beating, which he denied.
He admitted to losing his temper on occasions but denied any violent behaviour on the night in question. During the trial, he said: “If I kicked someone in the head, there would be a lot more damage than what’s alleged in this case.”
Speaking today Simon Csoka KC, representing the former footballer, said Barton been wearing flip flops or was barefoot as it had been a hot day.
“A kick from a professional footballer would no doubt have broken his toes”, he added.
Meanwhile Mrs Barton, who later withdrew her allegations, denied her husband had attacked her during the trial.
Barton was Bristol Rovers manager at the time of the incident (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
She described them standing close to each other and shouting, but denied any physical contact had taken place. She added how she did not know what caused the impact.
She told the court she was intoxicated and a friend told her Barton had attacked her. When she contacted the police, she said she simply repeated what they’d told her.
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The ex-footballer was first due to face a trial in 2022 but the case was adjourned when Mrs Barton wrote a letter on February 17 of that year, eight months after the incident, to retract her allegations.
That resulted in the proceedings being paused.
However it was later ruled Barton should face a trial in front of a different judge.
Barton, who was dressed fully in black, in a roll neck jumper, appeared in court on Tuesday by himself and was holding a copy of Christopher Hitchens’s book Arguably.
Handing down his sentence at Westminster Magistrates’ this afternoon, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said he believed Mrs Barton had given a “cogent” and “compelling” account to officers when she dialled 999. He did not accept the idea her memory was clearer further down the line, than in the immediate aftermath, of what had occurred.
He said it was “untenable” and “unbelievable” that anyone would involve the police if what had taken place was an accident.
Barton outside court (PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
He also rejected her suggestion that she was too intoxicated to know what happened on the night and noted how her original account was corroborated by the injury to her head.
Mr Goldspring gave Barton a sentence of 12 weeks’ custody, suspended for a period of two years. He must pay prosecution costs of £2,055 and a victim surcharge of £154.
He told Barton about the seriousness of an assault in a domestic context. “The one place she is entitled to feel safe is her home, and the one person she is entitled to feel safe from is you, and that’s not what happened in this case,” he said.
He also noted his previous record of violence.
However he did not hand down an immediate custodial sentence, pointing out that Barton and his wife are still together, and recently had another child. “‘That is not something I want to interfere with,” he said.
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He said that although Barton had relevant convictions, they were from 2008, while the case in question was also now nearly four years old.
Speaking to reporters outside court following the sentence, Barton, wearing sunglasses, said he intended to appeal the decision.
(Ioannis Alexopoulos/Anadolu via Getty Images)
