Oh dear, Mr Barton.

From the Daily Mail. Make of it what you will.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096615/Will-soccer-star-Barton-tweeter-accused-contempt-Footballer-investigated-John-Terry-tweets.html

 

Will soccer star Barton be the first tweeter accused of contempt?
Footballer investigated over John Terry tweets.

Premier League footballer Joey Barton is being investigated by the Attorney General over tweets about the John Terry racism case.

The Queens Park Rangers captain gave a robust view of the incident that led to Terry being accused of using racist language against Barton’s team-mate Anton Ferdinand last October.

On Friday, the Football Association stripped Terry – who vehemently denies the charge – of the England captain’s armband because his trial will not take place until after this summer’s European Championship finals.

Barton used Twitter to claim that while he does not believe Chelsea captain Terry is a racist, he should have admitted his error and taken any punishment on the chin long ago.

He made very strong remarks about Terry’s behaviour and the case – which he has since deleted.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve has the power to bring a criminal prosecution for contempt of court against Barton if he considers the comments would prejudice a fair trial.

If found guilty, an offender faces a maximum of two years in prison.
The tweets were brought to Mr Grieve’s attention by a BBC journalist last night.
A spokesman for the Attorney General said: ‘If somebody brings something to our attention we look at it.

‘There will now be a process but it must be remembered that each case is decided on its own facts.’

No contempt proceedings have ever been brought against a tweeter.

Last year the Attorney General decided to take no action against a blogger who made prejudicial tweets during the trial of Vincent Tabak, 33, who was jailed at Bristol Crown Court for strangling his neighbour Joanna Yeates.

But Mr Grieve is still considering whether to take further action against Guardian sports reporter Jamie Jackson, who tweeted the name of a juror during the tax- evasion trial involving Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp.

Controversial: Barton is as well known for his off pitch antics as his footballing performances
In the latest case Barton, who has more than a million followers on the social networking site and is renowned for his outspoken comments, questioned Terry’s forthcoming defence.

Barton was on the pitch during the verbal exchange between Terry and Ferdinand, brother of established England defender Rio.

Barton could be called as a witness at the trial which is scheduled to start on July 9 and will be heard by magistrates.

It is expected to last up to five days, with players from both Chelsea and QPR among the potential witnesses.

Last night a senior legal source said that Barton’s tweets would be less likely to risk serious prejudice of the trial because it will be heard without a jury.

Last year Mr Grieve said he accepted the danger posed to the administration of justice by many bloggers was minimal, but bloggers should not underestimate the potential for a blog or tweet to go viral.

 

Up to 2 years inside for contempt, that might cure his tweeting habit!

I’m sure that nothing will come of this, but should the authorities feel the need to act, I assume that they will leave any hearing until the end of the season as they are doing with Terry.

 

Why can't he just focus on football. I really don't think he cares at all about football, with us anyway, just wants media attention which he realises now he can get without being a good footballer ( I am told he was one once).

 

Wish he spent as much time practicing his passing as he did on twitter

 

Agree!!

 

Quite a few of us will be charged as well then? As there have been hundreds on here finding him guilty.

 

The difference is that he is involved with the case to a certain degree. He is very close to the aggrieved party as a teammate and is a possible witness as he was there at the time and was around the dressing rooms after the match when certain other things happened (apparently).

Your thoughts and my thoughts are just speculation based on what little we know and are not publicised to the same degree and are of no particualr interest to many people. Barton's remarks have a very wide audience. Barton's audience of followers are entitled to think that he is speaking from a position with inside knowledge. Therefore some might consider that what he says is likely to be nearer the mark.

Frankly it is no worse than JT's PR people, who within a couple of days of the incident were releasing and distributing lots of pictures of him with groups of black people with the aim of saying "I am not a racist ... look ... here I am with some black people. How can I be racist?" That was way too obvious.

However, as I said on another thread when he first made these remarks and had the spat with the two journos, there are times when it is better to keep your own counsel.

 

To misquote Shrek

"BARTON, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT, WHAT YOU LACK IS THE CAPACITY"

 

To go to prison for what he said, which was actually pretty tame, is utter bollocks.

It's the Mail, I wouldn't look too much into it.

 

Barton has made very good points that I agree with 100%
The fools in power who ignored social media I have to laugh at them trying to now come to terms with it all
Revolution is in the air ... They have the power to shut him up whenever they want to
Fun seeing how this unfolds

He really is a very average footballer ... Now most of you are seeing that in fact it's no wonder that we have become the laughing stock recently. He just has to be in the spotlight

We all do where has it come from?

Television and now we are all broadcasting

 

Cheers eamon, got concerned for a bit as am a bit clumsy when it comes to soap

 

Average is bang on.I'm starting to think Leopard and spots here.

 

barton needs to concentrate more on his football and less on being plato

 

Stupid tweets aside, I think it's time to see what Diakite and Adel can do in the middle.

 

I hate to say it, but after all the hype created by Terry's comment and subsequent debacle by the FA, I can see the trial opening and being thrown out immediately because of bartons comments and the fact that it has been publicised so much. Terry's defence will argue that he can't possibly have a fair trial.

I hope not, but as we've seen last year with the whole Ryan Giggs farce and all the so called 'super injunctions', social media, being a relatively new phenomenon isn't covered by law, or in itself can defeat or make obsolete existing laws. The media used to know that it couldn't publish facts about a legal case, but because so many people learn the facts about a legal case and talk about it on social media it means that becomes public knowledge and thus the media prints the facts of legal cases which solicitors can now use in defence of the guilty.

The laws will have to change to cover social media and that facts of a case become public knowledge before it goes to court.

 

You can only be in contempt of court if you have posed a SUBSTANTIAL risk of SERIOUSLY prejudicing the course of justice.

People on here assuming Terry's guilt wouldn't fall into that bracket, but Barton has over a million followers and his thoughts would have been Retweeted across the wider Twitter audience.

It's slightly different in this case as Terry's trial will be heard by magistrates, but the fear in other cases is any potential juror could read defamatory material before a trial and be prejudiced.

So for Barton to say he's just exercising his right to freedom of speech is utter garbage. Whatever happened to the right to a fair trial??!! It is the law after all.

If Barton's missus was on trial - and completely innocent - but everyone exercised their right to freedom of speech and said she was guilty, and she was convicted by a jury persuaded on that basis, then he'd soon realise what an ignorant, self-indulgent p***k he really is.

 

I followed Joey's tweeting on friday night and started a thread warning of the implications.
Putting the legal complexities and moral issue aside i am concerned that it will have a negative impact on QPR.
Barton's possible contempt of court could lead to John Terry getting away with it when it is pretty obvious that he is Bang to Rights.
(Which is why Chelsea put their own interests above England and the justice system by delaying the case)
We could come out the losers and victims of this because the law is an ass.

Same with the two sendings off against Norwich and Wolves.
Those players were naive and lost their cool and we are paying the price in 6 lost points
Barton might well have his eyes on a political career and view himself as a freedom fighter.
Those sentiments are admirable but he is paid a fortune to keep us up but is now prepared to go to prison for his principles.
Which would leave us a tad short in midfield.

This is a massive distraction from our fight for survival and more unwanted attention on Anton Ferdinand.
From a selfish point of view i would swap freedom of tweeting and any desire to occupy the moral high ground for a few crafty wins
to make sure we can get another season to get our revenge on all the slags that have tucked us up this year.
Including Chelsea, John Terry,the turkey fiddlers, all the noncey referees we have had, the coffin dodgers at the FA, the Sun hacks,
Sky Sports (apart from the delectable Natalie Sawyer), bent nose Mick, Sir Alex Taggart, Candle wax face Arry and everybody else who does not have blue and white hooped blood.

 

Hes not a martyr, hes a moron and Id happily see him banged up if it means he doesnt have to play for us.

Hughes should ban him from twatter, hes an embarrassment.

 

I ask again, how can you prejudice a trial without a jury?

"Last night a senior legal source said that Barton’s tweets would be less likely to risk serious prejudice of the trial because it will be heard without a jury."

The fact that Barton is a potential witness can only work for John Terry's case, Terry's legal team can now rip Barton's testimony to shreads based on his tweets.
You silly silly boy Joey if you thought this would help the case AGAINST JT.