•Joey Barton
Former Manchester City footballer Joey Barton was yesterday given a 12-week suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of assaulting his wife by kicking her in the head at their family home.
The former midfielder left Georgia Barton, 38, with a lump on her forehead and a bleeding nose after the incident in southwest London, in June 2021, reports AFP.
Barton, 42, grabbed his wife and pushed her to the ground before kicking her in the head after a drunken row about a family matter.
Sentencing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring rejected Barton’s account of events given during evidence as untruthful and “vague”.
While he acknowledged Barton had “a record of violence”, the magistrate said: “I am satisfied that it is not necessary to impose an immediate custodial sentence.”
Goldspring said the couple remained in a “happy relationship” with a young child, adding: “That is not something I want to interfere with.”
Barton was handed a 12-week sentence suspended for two years and ordered to pay more than £2,000 ($2,600) in victim surcharge and prosecution costs.
Barton, who played for a number of clubs including City, Newcastle and Queen’s Park Rangers, was manager of Bristol Rovers at the time of the assault.
Barton’s wife had called police immediately after the incident, saying her husband had “just hit me”, but later sent a letter to prosecutors retracting her allegations.
Prosecutor Helena Duong told the court that Georgia Barton’s 999 call to police on the night of the incident was “compelling evidence” of the assault, as she had described it in “clear terms”.
Barton’s wife was not as affected by alcohol as both she and Barton had suggested, the prosecutor said.
Barton previously told the court he admitted getting into an argument with his wife, but denied that anything “physical” had happened.
He was due to face trial in 2022 but the case was adjourned after Georgia Barton sent a letter to prosecutors retracting her allegations.
In the letter, she said her injuries had been caused by accident when a friend moved in to separate the pair.
