An emotional call to emergency services has captured the moment Joey Barton’s wife claimed the former Rangers player pushed her to the floor before kicking her in the head.
Georgia Barton was left with a bleeding nose and a lump on her forehead after the alleged assault. Friends were forced to intervene in the argument between the couple, pulling the 42-year-old away from his wife, according to prosecutors, reports the Mirror.
The former Manchester City and QPR midfielder, 42, is accused of assaulting Georgia Barton, 38, in Kew, south-west London in June 2021. The incident happened following a night of drinking with two other couples while their children slept upstairs. The quarrel began 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 – who appeared in court wearing a dark coat, dark jumper, jeans and glasses – “grabbed her and pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the head”, Ms Duong said.
As a friend tried to intervene, Barton “threw” him off and said “don’t disrespect me”, the trial heard. Mrs Barton called 999 tearfully shortly after 11pm to “report she had been hit by her husband”, the court heard.
The pair had both drunk “four or five bottles of wine”, a previous hearing was told. During the call to police which was played to the court, an emotional Mrs Barton told the call handler: “Me husband’s just hit me in the house.
“He’s in the house, I’m outside.” Asked if anything similar had happened before, she said: “No, it’s the first time,” adding that she had been hit “in the face”.
When officers arrived at around 11:30pm, Mrs Barton 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.”
An officer asked Mrs Barton if she wanted to use an ice pack for the “bump” on her head, the court heard. Police arrested a drunk Barton at around midnight, in his bedroom, where he had been asleep, a trial was told.
The court heard that the pair are still married and living together. The former footballer, of Widnes in Cheshire, 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.
A judge ordered that proceedings be paused over concerns a trial would be unfair to Barton after prosecutors said they did not intend to ask Mrs Barton to give evidence in court.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Parkinson, appealed against the decision at the High court in London, with barristers claiming at a hearing that a fair trial could go ahead. In June, two senior judges tules in the DPP’s favour and stated that Barton should face a trial over the allegations in front of a different judge.
There has been numerous controversial incidents throughout Barton’s career. In 2024, broadcaster Jeremy Vine sued him for libel and harassment over 14 posts made on social media, including one where he called Mr Vine a “big bike nonce” and a “pedo defender” on X, formerly Twitter.
Earlier this year, he appeared in court charged with sending offensive messages to Vine and commentator Lucy Ward. He was stripped of his QPR captaincy in 2012 having been sent off during Manchester City ’s dramatic final-day 3-2 win over QPR after elbowing Carlos Tevez and, as he left the pitch, Barton kicked Sergio Aguero before aiming a headbutt at Vincent Kompany.
Barton denies a single charge of assault by beating, and the trial continues.
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