Former Premier League player Joey Barton remains in custody until his trial next year. An application for bail for the 44-year-old former Manchester City and Newcastle midfielder has been denied.
Barton was due to appear in court last week, charged with intentional grievous bodily harm. But the case has now been postponed until March next year.
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Barton is accused of attacking former non-league manager Kevin Lynch at a golf club in Huyton and Prescot in March this year. Lynch was previously manager of Merseyside club Prescot Cables.
By the time the trial takes place, Barton will have spent 12 months in custody.
Several violent convictions behind him
This is far from the first time Barton has been charged with a violent incident.
In May 2007, he was charged with attacking Manchester City teammate Ousmane Dabo during a training session. Dabo was knocked unconscious and hospitalized with suspected retinal detachment.
After initially pleading not guilty, Barton changed his confession to guilty. He was given a suspended prison sentence of four months, was ordered to pay £3000 in damages and serve 200 hours of community punishment. In addition, he was banned for six matches by the FA, with a further six matches suspended.
In December of the same year – when he had left City for Newcastle – Barton was arrested on suspicion of attacking a man in Liverpool city centre. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in prison in May 2008.
In July 2025, Barton was found guilty of assault after pushing his wife Georgia Barton to the floor and kicking her in the head during an incident he was originally charged with four years earlier. For this, he received a suspended sentence of 12 weeks.
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A well-known name in the judges’ notebooks
Barton retired as a player in 2017, after a career marked by controversy – both on and off the pitch.
He was sent off six times in the Premier League, which places him among the most penalized players in the tournament’s history.
In May 2012, while playing for QPR against his old club City on the last day of the season, he was sent off for violent behaviour after giving Carlos Tévez an elbow. On his way off the pitch, he kicked Sergio Agüero in the back of the knee and attempted to punch Vincent Kompany with his head.
The FA suspended him for 12 matches and fined him £75,000 for the incident.
Barton’s most recent football role was as manager of Bristol Rovers, where he was sacked in 2023. Previously, he had spent two and a half years as manager of Fleetwood Town in the EFL.
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