Joey Barton has been remanded in custody charged with attacking the headteacher of a school for children with additional needs.
The former footballer was arrested after the incident outside a golf club in Liverpool at 9pm on Sunday.
Barton, 43, was one of two men detained by police as emergency services responded to reports that a man had been seriously assaulted.
Kevin Lynch, the alleged victim, was said to be in a serious but stable condition in hospital on Tuesday, being treated with severe injuries to his face and body.
Lynch, 51, is the founder and headteacher of NexGen Academy, a school in Liverpool for children with additional needs. He is the former manager of the Merseyside non-league football team Prescot Cables.
NexGen Academy said it was going through a distressing time and did not want to be contacted by the media.
Barton arrived at Liverpool magistrates’ court in a prison van and appeared in the dock alongside Gary O’Grady, 50.
They are jointly accused of assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, which includes deliberate, malicious, or reckless infliction of “really serious” violence.
Barton was refused bail and remanded in custody by district judge James Hatton during the brief hearing.
It means the former midfielder will be held in prison until at least his next court appearance in four weeks unless he successfully applies for bail before then.
O’Grady was released on bail with conditions not to contact the alleged victim or enter the golf club, where they were arrested. The pair were told they would next appear in court on 7 April.
The court heard that both Barton and O’Grady, a self-employed roofer, “vehemently deny” the charge.
One person told the Liverpool Echo on Tuesday that they had seen a man on the floor “with blood on him” before they rang 999.
They said they saw police washing blood off the pavement on Monday: “When my partner went to work yesterday morning they had taken the cordon down and they were washing the pavement. That’s why there’s sand all over the pavement from where they washed it.”
Police officers remained at the scene on Tuesday morning carrying out fingertip searches behind a cordon. Officers were seen checking neighbouring gardens while sniffer dogs were at the golf club, about 8 miles east of Liverpool city centre.
Barton played for clubs including Manchester City, Newcastle United and Rangers during his 15-year football career. He moved into management in 2018, first with Fleetwood Town and then Bristol Rovers until 2023.
Barton’s arrest was confirmed in the high court earlier on Tuesday at a libel hearing brought by the football pundit Eni Aluko over a series of social media posts made by him in 2024. The court was told that Barton could not attend because he had been arrested.
Aluko’s barrister, Gervase de Wilde, urged the judge to reject a request to adjourn the hearing, saying Aluko’s request for damages should be treated as unopposed as Barton’s lawyers had not attended court.
Mr Justice Lavender awarded Aluko £339,000 in damages but gave Barton seven days to appeal owing to his current circumstances.
Leave a Reply