The trial of Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton was adjourned until June by a district judge at Wimbledon Magistrates Court today, Friday, March 18, after legal argument could not be resolved.
Mr Barton faces one charge of assault by beating against his wife Georgia at their house in Kew, south west London, on June 2, 2021. The Rovers manager has pleaded 'not guilty' to that charge, and a trial was due to get underway today.
But as the trial got underway, district judge Andrew Sweet heard that Mrs Barton had written to the Crown Prosecution Service offering to give a witness statement - something that had not happened before.
Joey Barton trial LIVE: Bristol Rovers manager accused of assaulting wife
The court heard a letter was sent to the CPS by Mrs Barton on February 17 this year.
Prosecutor Helena Duong said: “It is contrary to her first account. We don’t propose to obtain a statement from her. There is nothing to stop Mr Barton’s legal team from taking their own statement from her if they wish to.“She has given an account some eight months after the incident. In the Crown’s submission it’s an attempt to exculpate her husband.”
Defence and prosecution debated whether this changed the evidence to be heard at the trial, which centred around the accounts and body-worn video footage of police officers who attended the Bartons' home in London that night last June.
The Judge decided that the trial could not proceed today, so adjourned the case until June 23.
Earlier, the court heard Barton “kicked his wife in the head” causing a “golf ball-sized lump” on her head after drinking “four or five bottles of wine”.
Duong said the couple, who were entertaining friends including another couple, were said to have gotten into a drunken argument over “families”. She said Barton had pushed his wife over and kicked her in the head.
Barton, who now lives in Widnes, Cheshire, was said to be asleep upstairs when police arrived and was “still intoxicated” when he was arrested.The court heard a letter was sent to the CPS by Mrs Barton on February 17 this year.
Simon Csoka QC, defending, said Mrs Barton explains the injury was caused “accidentally” when friends intervened in an argument and that everyone had drunk around “four or five bottles of wine each”.
Barton has been in charge of League Two Bristol Rovers since last February.
