Former Manchester City player, Joey Barton has been given a suspended prison sentence for making defamatory posts on social media about several renowned broadcasters.

The ex-footballer was sentenced to six months in custody, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work as well as pay more than 20,000 pounds in costs.

Joey Barton’s denigrating posts on X targeted broadcaster Jeremy Vine and TV football pundits Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko.

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The former Newcastle United player repeatedly referred to Vine as a "bike nonce" and wrote in one post: "If you see this fella by a primary school call 999," and "Beware man with camera on his helmet cruising past primary schools. Call the cops if spotted."

Judge Menary KC, in his ruling, explained that Barton’s posts vilified these personalities by making comparisons with serial killers, which breaches United Kingdom laws on free speech.

"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," the judge said.

Speaking to BBC after the judgment, Barton expressed remorse over his conduct and stated that he would not have repeated the same behaviour if given another chance.

The former footballer explained that he did not mean to offend anyone with the posts, but unfortunately affected individuals took them seriously.

"If I could turn back the clock I would. I never meant to hurt anyone. It was a joke that got out of hand. Nobody wants to go to jail," he remarked.

SB/JE

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