Joey Barton found guilty of assaulting wife by kicking her in head at their home

Former footballer Joey Barton has been found guilty of assaulting his wife by kicking her in the head at their family home.

The former Manchester City and QPR midfielder left Georgia Barton, 38, with a lump on her forehead and a bleeding nose after the incident in Kew, south-west London, in June 2021.

He was handed a 12-week prison sentence suspended for two years at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

They had each been drinking alcohol with two other couples while their children slept upstairs, before having a drunken row about a family matter, the court previously heard.

Barton, 42, then grabbed his wife and pushed her to the ground before kicking her in the head.

Mrs Barton had called police immediately after the incident, saying her husband had “just hit me”, but later sent a letter to prosecutors retracting her allegations.

At the same court on Tuesday, chief magistrate Paul Goldspring rejected Barton’s account of events as “vague” as he convicted him of a single charge of assault by beating after a two-day trial.

While he acknowledged Barton had “a record of violence”, the magistrate said: “I am satisfied that it is not necessary to impose an immediate custodial sentence.”

Mr Goldspring said a mitigating factor was that the couple remained in a “happy relationship” with a young child, adding: “That is not something I want to interfere with.”

Speaking outside court after the sentencing, Barton said he was “really disappointed” with the magistrates’ verdict and intended to appeal to decision at the High Court.

Prosecutor Helena Duong told 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 was not 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, of Widnes, 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.

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, 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.

He was ordered to pay £2,183 in victim surcharge and prosecution costs within seven days.