Joey Barton found GUILTY at Westminster Magistrates’ Court of assaulting his wife after attacking her on drunken night at their home.
He has been handed a 12-week suspended sentence, meaning he won’t go to prison unless he commits another offence.
Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton) tweeted after leaving court: “Really disappointed in the magistrate’s decision today. Especially, after a judge 2 and a half years ago in Wimbledon Magistrates ruled in my favour.
“I intend to appeal this decision to a higher court, the crown court and whilst this process is ongoing that’s all I will say on the matter.”
Really disappointed in the magistrate’s decision today. Especially, after a judge 2 and a half years ago in Wimbledon Magistrates ruled in my favour.
I intend to appeal this decision to a higher court, the crown court and whilst this process is ongoing that’s all I will say on…
— Joey Barton (@Joey7Barton) March 25, 2025
The 42 year old former footballer and manager attacked Georgia Barton at their house in Kew after a drunken night out with two other couples, and also threatened to fight his wife’s brother and father in a “verbal disagreement about a family matter” having kicked Mrs Barton, whom he is still married to, in the head.
Barton admitted he had drunk “six to eight” drinks when the attack unfolded and said to the court there had been a “disagreement” and he “stupidly took (a) mate’s side”. Joey he denied the assault charge.
Barton had been due to face trial in 2022 after pleading not guilty, only for it to be halted when Georgia retracted her claims. The High Court subsequently ruled last year that the trial could go ahead and that the previous decision to drop the case was “wrong in principle.”
The couple were married in 2019 and have two children together.
On Tuesday (25th March 2025), chief magistrate Paul Goldspring rejected Barton’s account of events as “vague”, convicting him of a single charge of assault by beating after a two-day trial.
Prosecutor Helena Duong said to the court Mrs 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”.
Mrs Barton easn’t as affected by alcohol as both she and Barton had suggested, the prosecutor said.
Ms Duong said Mrs Barton’s bloody nose was “an injury that really requires an explanation”, adding: “It was, plainly, something not caused by an accident.”
Barton previously told the court he admitted getting into an argument with his wife, but denied that anything “physical” had happened.
He was arrested in his bedroom on the night of the incident, where he had been asleep and was still drunk, the trial was told.
Barton was taken to a local police station where he gave a no-comment interview.
Simon Csoka, defending Barton, said it was not clear what the period of time was between Mrs Barton receiving the injury and making the 999 call.
Referring to the lump sustained on her head, he told the court: “There are a number of circumstances where the injury may have been sustained accidentally.”
The former footballer was due to face trial at a magistrates’ court in 2022 but the case was adjourned after Mrs 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.
The couple are still married and living together, the court heard.
Barton, wearing a black jacket, jumper and trousers and glasses, did not speak from the dock but was asked to stand as the verdict was given.
BREAKING: Former footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of assaulting his wife
Read more: https://t.co/riD9He2iYF
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/WxLauJDcl8
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 25, 2025
A few months ago, court heard that Joey Barton pushed his wife to the floor before kicking her in the headhome.
Georgia Barton had been left with a lump on her forehead and a bleeding nose after the alleged assault, and while Barton admitted getting into an argument with his wife, he denied that anything physical happened.
This case relates to an incident at Joey Barton’s London home near Kew Gardens in June 2021, when he was manager of Bristol Rovers.
At the time, the court was shown police body cam footage and heard audio from the 999 call made by Georgia Barton to police in which she said she’d been pushed the ground and kicked in the head by her husband. They called her she suffered a a bleeding nose and a lump on her head the size of a golf ball.
Mrs Barton told the operator: ‘Me husband’s just hit me in the house. He’s in the house, I’m outside.’
Friends had to intervene in the argument between the pair, with Joey Barton being pulled away from his wife, prosecutors say.
The arguing had started after Barton threatened to fight his wife’s brother and father, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
‘There had been a verbal disagreement about a family matter,’ prosecutor Helena Duong said.
Barton ‘grabbed her and pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the head’
Barton ‘threw’ a friend off and said ‘don’t disrespect me’, the trial heard.
Mrs Barton called the police shortly after 11pm to ‘report she had been hit by her husband’ after they both had drunk ‘four or five bottles of wine’, a previous hearing was told.
During the 999 call played to the court, Mrs Barton, in tears, told the call handler: ‘Me husband’s just hit me in the house.
‘He’s in the house, I’m outside.’
When questioned if anything similar had happened before, she said: ‘No, it’s the first time,’ adding that she had been hit ‘in the face’.
When police arrived at around 11:30pm, she told them: ‘I’ve been pushed down and kicked about and stuff.
‘He said he was going to fight with my brother and my dad.’
In bodycam footage played Mrs Barton says: ‘He’s got [my] head (and) pushed me down.’
The officer at the scene told a colleague that Ms Barton had a ‘good lump on the side of her head’.
The second piece of body-worn footage sees Ms Barton confirm her account to a different police officer and a police officer asked if she wanted to use an ice pack for the ‘bump’ on her head, the court heard.
A drunk Joey Barton was arrested at around 12am in his bedroom, where he had been asleep, the trial was told.
Giving evidence, Joey Barton said he had consumed ‘six to eight’ drinks with friends before he arrived home at about 6.30pm.
‘A couple of our friends got into a disagreement,’ he said. ‘That led to us having a disagreement. I stupidly took me mate’s side, I said his wife was out of order.
‘We just got into petty name calling. We ended up getting a bit more agitated and were close to each other.’
Barton said to the court that a friend had come between him and his wife to separate them, but denied that anything ‘physical’ had happened.
Ms Duong asked Barton: ‘Are you someone that on occasion might lose your temper?’
‘Yep,’ he responded.
Asked if he had kicked his wife, he said no, before adding: ‘If I kicked someone in the head there would be a lot more damage than what’s alleged in this case.’
Mrs Barton said to the court she and her husband had been ‘nose-to-nose at one point’, but had not come to blows.
‘There was a lot of wine drunk by myself that day.
‘I felt a collision to my head which stunned me and made me fall backwards,’ she said.
‘It couldn’t have been Joe, he was too far away.’
Mrs Barton said a friend later told the group: ‘Joe’s pushed her down, Joe’s hit her, Joe’s kicked her, you need to ring the police.
‘I just repeated on the phone what she had said.’
In 2022, a judge ordered that proceedings would be paused over concerns a trial wouldn’t be fair to Barton after prosecutors said they did not plan to ask Mrs Barton to give evidence in court.
Mrs Barton wrote to prosecutors a month prior the original planned trial and said the injury was an accident and came after she and her husband had both drank ‘four to five’ bottles of wine.
She said in her letter that her injuries came after friends tried to intervene in an argument between the pair.
‘I’m not a victim… I want to move on with my life,’ she said.
‘The reality is that that letter was an attempt to protect your husband,’ Ms Duong said today.
But in 2024, two senior judges ruled the decision to halt the trial was wrong after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Parkinson, appealed against the decision at the High Court in London.
A 20-page ruling sees Dame Victoria Sharp say that the previous judge’s decision ‘was wrong in principle’.
Barton had denied a charge of assault by beating after being arrested by police at his home.
The incident was brought to the attention of police when Mrs Barton made a 999 call to officers just before 11.15pm.
The case had been originally heard in 2022, however, it was stopped because Missus Bartlett withdrawn all the allegations against her husband. So it’s taking place now because the High Court says that it needs to.
Former footballer Joey Barton pushed his wife to the floor before kicking her in the head during a drunken row at their family home, a court has heard. pic.twitter.com/sdUfODXz9D
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) January 24, 2025
As seen in Sky Sports’ report above, the couple turned up at court together to give evidence. In the witness box, Joey Barton said he’d been drinking all day and admitted that he was somebody who occasionally lost his temper. He said there’d been a stupid verbal altercation but denied assault.
“I didn’t see her fall over. I went to bed”, he said. He added, “if I kick somebody in the head, there would be a lot more damage than that”.
Mrs Barton told the court she was extremely drunk and emotional. They were shouting and screaming, but no physical contact, she said.
She said friends intervened, but she was hurt in the commotion. “I’m a 100% confident Joe didn’t strike a blow”, she told the court.
And in a letter to the Crown Prosecution Service, she wrote, “my relationship with my husband is a good one. I am not a victim”.
So in summary, Mrs Barton, despite making that original 999 call, said there was no assault.
Three months later, Joey Barton has been found guilty by court.
