Broadcaster and former footballer Lucy Ward was left “intimidated” and “physically scared” by social media posts made by Joey Barton, a jury has heard.
Ward, 51, was giving evidence to Liverpool crown court on Tuesday in a case against former footballer and manager Barton, 43, who is accused of 12 counts of sending a grossly offensive electronic communication with intent to cause distress or anxiety.
The ex-Manchester City and Newcastle United player is alleged to have “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” with messages on X about Ward, fellow football pundit Eni Aluko and broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
The court heard that Barton, who has a large following of 2.7 million on X, compared Ward and Aluko to serial killers Fred and Rose West in a post made after an FA Cup tie that the pair had worked on in January 2024. Barton later posted an image of the Wests with Ward and Aluko’s faces superimposed on to it.
When asked by the prosecution’s Peter Wright KC how these posts had affected her, Ward told the court that she “knew he would get to me at one point” due to Barton’s general viewpoint that he did not like women commenting on men’s football matches.
Ward, who played women’s football for Leeds United and later became their head of education and welfare before her current 20-year broadcasting career, said the posts left her feeling “intimidated”, describing them as 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,” Ward said.
“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.”
Ward went on to say that she felt “anxious” due to the fact that “you can’t escape someone who has more than 2.5 million followers”, that it got “to the stage now where I got a little scared, physically scared really” and that she thought it was “going to explode in a really negative way.”.
She added: “It was a continuous harassment, what I would call bullying. And you don’t know who is out there and how they are going to react, especially in this day and age. I felt vulnerable going to games.”
Representing Barton, Simon Csoka KC argued that the difference in quality between men’s and women’s football are stark and asked Ward if she understood that Barton’s posts were merely an analogy that “you are doing a bad job, you are murdering it week in, week out, effectively?”
Ward replied that she understood that, but still found the comparisons “offensive” and “horrific”.
Barton, from Widnes, Cheshire, denies the alleged offences said to have been committed between January and March last year.
The trial continues.
