Joey Barton kicked wife in head during drunken row at home, court told

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.

Georgia Barton was left with a lump on her forehead and a bleeding nose after the alleged assault.

Friends were forced to intervene in the argument between the pair – pulling Barton away from his wife, prosecutors say.

The former Man City and QPR midfielder, 42, is accused of assaulting Georgia Barton, 38, in Kew, south-west London in June 2021, where they had been drinking with two other couples while their children slept upstairs.

The arguing had started after Barton threatened to fight his wife’s brother and father, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

Barton told the court he admitted getting into an argument with his wife, but denied that anything “physical” had happened.

Mrs Barton also denied that her husband had hit or kicked her, having previously sent a letter to prosecutors retracting her allegations.

“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 the police 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 999 call played to the court, a tearful 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 police 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.”

A police officer asked Mrs Barton if she wanted to use an ice pack for the “bump” on her head, the court heard.

Barton was arrested at about midnight in his bedroom, where he had been asleep, and was still drunk, the trial was told.

He was taken to a local police station where he gave a no-comment interview.

The couple are still married and living together, the court heard.

Giving evidence on Friday, Barton said he had consumed “six to eight” drinks with friends before arriving 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 told the court 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,” the former footballer replied.

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 told 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.”

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.

In the letter, she said her injuries had been caused by accident when a friend moved in to separate 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.

A judge ordered that proceedings be paused over concerns a trial would be unfair to Barton after prosecutors said they did not plan 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 a judgment in June, two senior judges ruled in the DPP’s favour and said Barton should face a trial over the allegations in front of a different judge.

Barton denies a single charge of assault by beating.

The trial will continue on March 25.