What does this tell us about the sentence given to Huw Edwards, guilty of possessing indecent images of children?
Huw Edwards had no previous.
In sentencing Barton the judge referenced previous character.
Criminal investigations and convictions
In 2006,
Merseyside Police investigated after Barton exposed his buttocks to
Everton supporters following a game on 30 September. On 4 October, they announced that they would be taking no further action.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-212"><span>[</span>212<span>]</span></a>
On 13 March 2007, Barton was arrested on suspicion of assault and criminal damage following an altercation with a taxi driver in
Liverpool on 4 March.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto2-55"><span>[</span>55<span>]</span></a> He was cleared of this charge in May 2008, after his cousin, Joshua Wilson, admitted to causing the damage.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto-56"><span>[</span>56<span>]</span></a>
On 1 May 2007, Barton assaulted his teammate
Ousmane Dabo during a training session. Dabo was hit several times, left unconscious, and hospitalised with head injuries, including a suspected detached
retina.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto5-60"><span>[</span>60<span>]</span></a> On 16 May, Barton was arrested and questioned by
Greater Manchester Police,<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto11-62"><span>[</span>62<span>]</span></a> and was later charged with assault.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto3-65"><span>[</span>65<span>]</span></a> He initially pleaded not guilty, but later changed his plea to guilty.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto7-66"><span>[</span>66<span>]</span></a> On 1 July 2008, Barton was sentenced to a four-month suspended prison sentence plus 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay £3,000 compensation and Dabo's court costs.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-ABHConviction-5"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a>
In the early hours of 27 December 2007, Barton was arrested on suspicion of assault in
Liverpool city centre. Barton punched a man twenty times, causing him to lose consciousness, before attacking a teenage boy.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto6-82"><span>[</span>82<span>]</span></a> At the time, Barton was on bail for two previous arrests, and he was denied bail for the third arrest.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto10-83"><span>[</span>83<span>]</span></a> Barton pleaded guilty to the offence, and, on 20 May 2008, he was sentenced to six months in jail. Barton's cousin, Nadine Wilson, and his brother Andrew Barton also pleaded guilty to their part in the assaults and received suspended sentences.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-Joey_Barton_is_jailed_for_assault-3"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a>
In August 2008, Jamie Tandy pursued a civil claim against Barton. Barton had stubbed out a lit cigar in Tandy's eye in 2004 while Tandy was a youth player at
Manchester City. Tandy said that the incident caused a "major psychiatric deterioration in his health that has destroyed any chance he may have had of playing professional football at a high level."<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-213"><span>[</span>213<span>]</span></a> In November 2009, Barton agreed to pay Tandy £65,000 as part of an out-of-court settlement.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-214"><span>[</span>214<span>]</span></a>
On 4 June 2012, Barton was arrested alongside three other men after a fight outside a nightclub in
Liverpool.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-215"><span>[</span>215<span>]</span></a> Barton claimed that he had been "sucker punched" in the incident. The following month, all four men were told they would face no further police action.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-216"><span>[</span>216<span>]</span></a>
On 13 April 2019,
South Yorkshire Police launched an investigation after Barton was alleged to have assaulted opposition manager
Daniel Stendel in the
Oakwell tunnel following a game between
Fleetwood Town and
Barnsley.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto9-190"><span>[</span>190<span>]</span></a> In July 2019, Barton was charged with causing actual bodily harm and bailed until 9 October 2019.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto4-191"><span>[</span>191<span>]</span></a> He pleaded not guilty.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto8-192"><span>[</span>192<span>]</span></a> On 6 December 2021, Barton was found not guilty of the charge.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-auto1-196"><span>[</span>196<span>]</span></a>
In July 2021, Barton was charged with the assault by beating of a woman at an address in
Kew, London in June 2021.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-217"><span>[</span>217<span>]</span></a> In March 2022, a court heard that Barton was accused of kicking his wife in the head and grabbing her throat while drunk, the case being adjourned to 23 June due to a late arrival of emails.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-218"><span>[</span>218<span>]</span></a> The case was further delayed until the end of October, Barton's defence team being set a deadline of two weeks to provide the list of witnesses that they would be presenting and say whether or not the alleged victim would be called as a defence witness.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-219"><span>[</span>219<span>]</span></a> The case was dismissed on 31 October on grounds of the impossibility of Barton receiving a fair trial because prosecutors would not call the alleged victim to testify,<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-220"><span>[</span>220<span>]</span></a> but the acquittal was reversed on appeal by the prosecution.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-221"><span>[</span>221<span>]</span></a> In March 2025, Barton was found guilty of assault and handed a 12-week suspended prison sentence.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-222"><span>[</span>222<span>]</span></a>
In April 2024,
Cheshire Police announced it was investigating Barton after "reports of offences under the
Communications Act". The force said it could not comment further about which posts had been reported.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-223"><span>[</span>223<span>]</span></a>
Defamation claims
Jeremy Vine sued Barton for
libel over posts on
X, where Barton had repeatedly called Vine a "bike
nonce". In a preliminary ruling, judge
Mrs Justice Steyn, in the High Court, held that the tweets were defamatory at common law, since Barton had combined the term 'nonce', British slang for paedophile, with images of notorious paedophiles such as
Jimmy Savile and
Jeffrey Epstein, which had the defamatory effect of falsely insinuating that Vine is a paedophile.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-224"><span>[</span>224<span>]</span></a> In settlement, Barton offered to pay £75,000 in damages and to pay Vine's legal expenses.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-225"><span>[</span>225<span>]</span></a> However, Vine stated that the £75,000+costs was an offer made at an earlier stage, and subsequently Barton went on to make further defamatory statements, and that the legal process continues in respect of these.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-226"><span>[</span>226<span>]</span></a> To settle the libel claim with Vine, Barton was ordered to pay an additional £35,000.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-227"><span>[</span>227<span>]</span></a>
In January 2024,
ITV responded with condemnation to Barton's referring to
Eniola Aluko and
Lucy Ward as "the
Fred and Rose West of football commentary" after they appeared as
pundit and co-
commentator on an ITV match broadcast.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-228"><span>[</span>228<span>]</span></a> In July 2024 Barton was charged with making
malicious communications related to
tweets he made concerning Aluko, between 1 and 18 January 2024.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-229"><span>[</span>229<span>]</span></a> Barton had said on his
Twitter feed that Aluko had only been hired as a pundit for an
England game for "
diversity and inclusion quotas".<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-230"><span>[</span>230<span>]</span></a> These posts, along with others targeting Vine, led to Barton being found guilty in November 2025 at Liverpool Crown Court of six counts of sending "grossly offensive" messages via social media.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-231"><span>[</span>231<span>]</span></a>
In December 2024, Barton was additionally charged with malicious communication relating to social media posts referring to Jeremy Vine and Lucy Ward.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-232"><span>[</span>232<span>]</span></a>
On 9 April 2025, Aluko won the first stage of a High Court libel claim against Barton. She had appeared to criticise people placed on the government's
furlough scheme, for which she apologised. In response, Barton had posted comments suggesting that her private education made her a "hypocrite" and that her late father had been financially corrupt.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-233"><span>[</span>233<span>]</span></a><a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Barton#cite_note-234"><span>[</span>234<span>]</span></a>
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