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.
Barton, 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 former football player is alleged to have drunk up to five bottles of wine before launching an assault on Mrs Barton, leaving her with a ‘golf-sized’ lump on her head and a bloody nose.
He was pictured outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning for a new hearing after a previous trial was halted in 2022 when Mrs Barton retracted her claims.
Friends were forced to intervene in the argument between the pair on June 2, pulling Barton away from his wife, prosecutors say.
The arguing had started 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.
Joey Barton has arrived at court accused of attacking his wife Georgia Barton after a heavy drinking session
Joey Barton and his wife Georgia pictured outside Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court in 2022
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.’
Barton previously denied the charge of assault by beating against him
The incident, on June 2, 2021, was brought to the attention of police when Mrs Barton (right) made a 999 call to officers just before 11.15pm
In 2022, 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.
Mrs Barton had written to prosecutors a month before the original planned trial and said the injury was an accident and came after she and her husband had both drank ‘four to five’ bottles of wine.
She claimed in her letter that her injuries occurred after friends tried to intervene in an argument between the pair.
But last year, two senior judges ruled the decision to halt the trial was wrong after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Parkinson, appealed against the decision at the High Court in London.
In a 20-page ruling, Dame Victoria Sharp said the previous judge’s decision ‘was wrong in principle’.
Barton had denied a charge of assault by beating after being arrested by police at his home.
The incident, on June 2, 2021, was brought to the attention of police when Mrs Barton made a 999 call to officers just before 11.15pm.
The couple married in 2019 in Oxfordshire and have two children together.
Barton played for teams including Manchester City, Newcastle, Queen’s Park Rangers and Marseille, as well as making one appearance for England in 2007.
