ENI ALUKO: I TOOK JOEY BARTON TO COURT AND WON – BUT IT’S DAMAGED MY TV CAREER

Former Lioness Eniola Aluko, who took Joey Barton to court over “grossly offensive” social media posts, feels “vindicated” by his conviction – but said it has forever changed her TV punditry career.

A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Barton, 43, had “crossed the line between free speech and a crime” relating to six posts he made on X about Aluko, fellow TV pundit Lucy Ward, and broadcaster Jeremy Vine.

In her first interview following the verdict, Aluko told The i Paper she feared she would be stabbed in the streets after Barton likened her to infamous serial killers Fred and Rose West. She did not leave her house for a week without a disguise, she said.

The former Manchester City and Newcastle United player was found guilty of six counts of sending a grossly offensive social media posts with intent to cause distress or anxiety, but cleared of six other counts relating to posts sent between January and March 2024.

Following a televised FA Cup tie in January 2024 between Crystal Palace and Everton, he likened Ward and Aluko in a post on X to the “Fred and Rose West of football commentary”.

He went on to superimpose the faces of the two women on a photograph of the serial murderers.

Barton also tweeted Aluko was in the “Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category” as that she had “murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans’ ears”.

Jurors found him not guilty on the Stalin/Pol Pot comparison, and also the commentary analogy with the Wests, but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.

He was also convicted of a post in relation to Aluko in which he wrote: “Only there to tick boxes. DEI is a load of shit. Affirmative action. All off the back of the BLM/George Floyd nonsense.”

Following the verdict, Aluko said: “I’m particularly pleased about the guilty verdict in relation to a post mentioning DEI and targeting me as a black woman.

“DEI has been used as a slur in recent times and we are constantly having to defend our qualifications and justify our existence because people claim we have been handed unfair opportunities, which is racist and wrong.”

The former England striker, who also played for Chelsea and Juventus, said she was terrified online abuse might spill over into physical violence after Barton’s posts.

She said she received waves of racist, sexist, misogynistic and violent direct messages on Instagram and X in the days that followed.

“I was depressed, didn’t get out of bed, cancelled engagements, didn’t eat, just felt quite crippled really by such a horrific association to some of the worst serial killers, murderers, child rapists the UK has ever seen,” she said.

“That’s one of the worst parts of it. When a big account with millions of followers like Joey Barton’s does something so grossly offensive and aggressive, it emboldens others to do the same,” she said.

She added that one message, from a 20-year-old man, sent after Barton’s posts “said I should be shot”. “As much as people think it’s just words online, it spills over into real world ideas and real world harm, and it only takes one of those millions of people to have a knife or to think that they’re justified to attack you before we’re talking about something really serious.”

The 38-year-old made history as the first female pundit to appear on the BBC’s Match of the Day. But she said her broadcasting work in the UK effectively dried up after Barton’s string of posts targeting her.

She faced scrutiny herself this year when in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour she suggested that Ian Wright risked blocking female pundits from getting opportunities in broadcasting.

She later apologised, saying Wright “is a brilliant broadcaster and role model whose support for the women’s game has been significant”.

As well as her MOTD appearances, Aluko has been a regular pundit for live football on ITV, BT Sport and Amazon Prime. She said she will “always be grateful to ITV” for issuing a statement in the aftermath of Barton’s online abuse, but was disappointed she did not receive greater support from broadcasters – and was not contacted for further shows after her contract ended in June 2024.

“I would have liked to have seen a lot more courage on the broadcasters’ part to say ‘this is not something we’re going to accept’. And how that pans out in practice is, you continue to stand by that talent. You put them on screen, you communicate about how to deal with online trolls and people in the comments section – but it was just avoided.

“Nobody had ever had that conversation with me, and in the end it ended up being that I just wasn’t on screen. And that’s very, very disappointing.”

Despite wanting to be defiant in the face of the abuse she received with a return to TV, Aluko said she felt there was “a pulling back”.

“When you look at the 12-month period, or 18-month period during this litigation, I have done the least TV I’ve ever done,” she said.

Already working with broadcasters in the US and Africa, Aluko is now focused on pursuing opportunities outside of the UK.

“My appetite to work in a space where you don’t feel protected and supported is gone,” she said.

“I think there’s lots of opportunities beyond the UK. I’ve always been a broadcaster internationally. I’ve always enjoyed that work and those are the spaces that I’m going to pursue.

“It really is a shame, but I think I would always encourage anyone in any walk of life, go to spaces where you feel protected and welcomed and respected and protected. That’s very important, specifically to women.”

2025-11-07T19:41:49Z