Former Premier League star Joey Barton is accused of kicking his wife in the head during a drunken family row and leaving her with a “golf ball-sized“ lump on her forehead, a court has heard.
The retired midfielder, 42, has been charged with assault by beating over the incident on June 2, 2021, when he allegedly pushed Georgia Barton to the ground and attacking her.
Westminster magistrates court heard a 999 call from Mrs Barton, which begins with her saying: “Hi, my husband just hit me in the house.“
As the call goes on, Mrs Barton says she is outside the home and her husband is inside, and when asked if he has hit her in the past she replies: “No, this is the first time.“
She can be heard sobbing as she then says to the 999 operator that she was struck “in the face“.
Mrs Barton refused to give a formal statement about the incident, and then begged prosecutors to drop the criminal case, suggesting she had actually been injured by accident by a friend.
“Please accept my word I’m not a victim. I’ve never been a victim“, she wrote.
“Life is great with Joseph. Please help and stop this trial.“
Police were called out to the Bartons’ London home in Kew on the night of the alleged assault after the 999 call, and Mrs Barton repeated the allegation to an officer, PC Daniel Humphrey.
The officer told the court on Friday he saw a “gold ball sized lump which looked swollen to me.
“There were little red dots under the skin“, he added.
The officer said he also saw Mrs Barton wipe her nose when there was blood visible below.
“She said she’d had an argument with her husband, he had somehow taken her to the ground, she said he pushed her and he either punched or kicked her.“
Barton, a former player for QPR, Man City, and Newcastle, denies assault, and giving evidence he said he was unaware his wife had been injured before he went to bed.
“I didn’t do any of it, I went to bed“, he said.
He said he and male friends went out in Richmond during the day, and he drank two vodka lemonades and four or five pints of beer before they returned home.
He said his wife and her female friends were already drinking wine, and the group continued into the evening socialising in the garden.
Barton said some of their friends, a couple, got into a dispute, and he and his wife took sides in the row.
“I supported my mate, saying his wife was out of order“, he said.
“We started having a disagreement and ended up in a stupid verbal altercation.“
Barton said there was “petty name calling“ and “we ended up getting more agitated, getting quite close to each other.
“I said something about her dad or brother or something like that, saying I’ll end up fighting with your dad or brother. Something stupid like that.“
He said one of their friends “got in between us“ and he was moved away, before he headed to bed.
Barton said he did not see his wife fall over and did not witness her receiving any injuries.
Prosecutor Helena Duong told Barton: “I suggest the truth of the matter is you got into a petty argument with your wife, Mrs Barton, and you grabbed her, pushed her to the ground, and you kicked her to the head.“
Asked if he disagreed, Barton said: “Absolutely, yeah.“
Faced with the particular allegation that he kicked his wife in the head, Barton said: “If I kicked someone in the head, there would be a lot more damage than what’s alleged in this case.“
Ms Duong replied: “Is that right?“, and Barton replied: “I would imagine, yeah.“
Before the case began, he applied for the 999 call and police bodyworn footage to not be used as evidence against him in the trial.
But the application was rejected by District Judge Paul Goldspring.
Opening the case, Ms Duong said: “Mr Barton is charged with one count of assault by beating in relation to Georgia Barton, his wife.
“It relates to an incident on June 2, 2021.
“On that evening, shortly after 11pm, Mrs Barton called 999, she reported she had been hit by her husband, and referred to having been just hit.
“It is alleged to have occurred at the home address in London, in Kew. “
The prosecutor said a police officer arrived around 25 minutes later and Mrs Barton “described being in a verbal disagreement about family matters.
“She alleged Mr Barton grabbed her, pushed her to the ground, and kicked her in the head.“
Mrs Barton, who told police at the scene that she had been pushed down and “kicked“ in the head, wrote to the court when Barton was first due to stand trial in 2022.
“I don’t wish to support the prosecution“, she wrote, before setting out that she had drunk four bottles of wine over the course of just under 12 hours.
“I told the officer I had been drinking heavily, and I was not sure what I said to police some hours earlier was totally accurate“, she said.
Mrs Barton said her first comments to police may not be a “true reflection“ of the incident, but was “borne out of what friends said happened in the kitchen.“
“It is now apparent to me that during a long drinking session all adults present engaged in, the blow to the head had to have been caused by one of my friends“, she said.
“One of my friends must have caused the blow to me while trying to take myself and Joseph away from each other.“
She insisted: “Joseph didn’t assault me.
“I was just very angry with him.“
She told the court: “I don’t support this prosecution at all, I said from the outset I didn’t support the prosecution.
“The relationship with my husband is very good.
“Please accept my word I’m not a victim. I’ve never been a victim.“
The court heard the couple were with four friends on the night, and they had each drunk between four or five bottles of wine each.
Mrs Barton gave evidence, saying she received a blow to the head during her row with her husband, at a time when their friends had intervened to stop the argument.
She said she did not know how she had been injured, and her friend told her that Barton had been responsible.
”I didn’t see him hit me, I just remember thinking ‘he wouldn’t have done that, I don’t see why he would have done that’”, she said.
Asked about her words to police, she said: ”I was just so drunk, I didn’t know what was true and what wasn’t.”
Barton argued before the trial began that the 999 call and bodyworn footage would be unfairly deployed if the prosecution did not also call Mrs Barton as a witness.
A District Judge at Wimbledon magistrates court in 2022 stopped the case against Barton from going ahead, concluding it would be unfair.
But prosecutors successfully appealed that decision, setting up Friday’s trial at Westminster magistrates court in front of Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring.
Judge Goldspring ruled on Friday there would be ”no unfairness” with the 999 call recording and bodyworn footage being used as evidence in the trial.
Ms Duong opposed the application to keep the key evidence out of the trial, saying Mrs Barton’s initial accounts were “credible and compelling“.
She added that although Mrs Barton will not be a prosecution witness, she could be called to court to give evidence for the defence.
Judge Goldspring agreed, concluding: ”I’m entirely satisfied Mrs Barton was so emotionally overpowered by events that the possibility of concoction and distortion can be disregarded.”
A police officer who spoke to Mrs Barton the morning after the incident, when she declined to give a statement. The court was also told she said her first account of the incident had been ”over-exaggerated”.
The hearing continues.
