Joey Barton posts 'left female broadcasters scared' as Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward give evidence

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Eni Aluko has told Liverpool Crown Court she was left "scared" and that she felt one of the social media posts on Joey Barton's account was a "targeted attack."

Last year, a tweet on Barton's X page said Aluko and fellow ex-footballer turned broadcaster Lucy Ward were the "Fred and Rose West of football commentary" while they were covering an FA Cup tie with ITV .

Another tweet on his account said the television company had hired "under-qualified, under-prepared, tokenistic people" while also saying Aluko had been hired "to tick boxes" in an apparent reference to her race.

As well as the comments on the ex-Manchester City midfielder's account, there was also an edited picture of Aluko and Ward's face superimposed onto the infamous serial killers.

Barton was charged with 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive communication with the intention of causing distress or anxiety, which he denies. Aluko and Ward both described the impact Barton's alleged social media posts had on them on Tuesday.

Aluko said she was left "devastated” by Barton's comments, having had "supportive and encouraging" interactions with the former England footballer between 2017 and 2020. She also said an ITV producer had informed her about Barton's social media attacks the day after she had appeared on TV for the broadcaster.

She said: "I think I was in shock to be honest, and the first thing I said was, 'What happened? Was there anything in the show I said or that went wrong?'

"I was trying to understand why someone would compare you to the worst serial killers the UK had ever seen based on commentary in a football match.”

Other posts on his account referenced "woke" and "DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) bulls***" while another post responded to a video of Aluko kicking a football by writing: "F***ing pathetic. Get them off the Men’s Football . Off the tele. Only there to tick boxes. DEI is a load of s**t. Affirmative action. All off the back of the BLM (Black Lives Matter)/George Floyd nonsense. Cancel me, I don’t care anymore.”

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Aluko, who told the court she felt scared to leave the house and cancelled engagements as a result, said she took that specific post as a "targeted attack" before adding: "I felt attacked and very much targeted, and the nature of social media is that people repeat what others say, so Joey Barton, with the amount of followers he has is emboldening others to say very similar and you see it repeated over and over again.”

She also said she avoided leaving her home for a week and was left feeling "intimidated" and "depressed".

Ward also admitted she knew Barton would eventually start targeting her, due to the many appearances she was making on television.

When asked by prosecutor Peter Wright KC how she felt about the post of her and Aluko superimposed onto Fred and Rose West, she said: "Intimidated. It was very unpleasant to be the subject of someone’s abuse. I’m trying to do my job.

"I am one of the few females doing it, and I have already crossed over a lot of barriers. It’s tough to do your job with that happening. Fred and Rose West tortured, sexually abused and killed children, so I couldn’t really work out why I was being called that. At first, it was very, very harsh, but then obviously it continued. It was getting to the stage now where I got a little scared — physically scared, really."

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In another exchange, Simon Csoka KC, defending, asked Ward if she "understood the metaphor" about Barton's reference, saying she was "murdering" commentary, asking: "It doesn’t mean they are murdering anyone. It just means they are making a bad job of it.”

Ward replied: "I understand what was meant, but found it grossly offensive. It’s not just the content of the tweets, it’s encouraging others to pile in. It was constant harassment and bullying.”

Csoka also asked Aluko if she felt Barton was directly comparing her to Fred and Rose West, to which the ex-Chelsea star replied: "All I understood was that he invoked the names of the worst serial killers in the UK to describe me talking about football.

"If you see a headline that says 'Eni Aluko compared to Fred and Rose West' and it doesn’t mention football then of course someone can draw a different conclusion from that.”