Joey Barton says he is being threatened with legal action by Jeremy Vine (Picture: Getty)
Joey Barton says he is being threatened with legal action by broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
The former footballer, 41, has an ongoing online feud with Vine, 58, and recently posted a series of tweets baselessly accusing him of being a ‘nonce’.
On Thursday, Barton shared a message on X claiming Vine is ‘suing me,’ and included photos of legal documents.
The tweet – which was swiftly deleted but seen by Metro.co.uk – included a photograph of a pre-action letter warning of a claim for defamation and harassment.
It included a notice that Vine was intending to seek an urgent interim injunction against him if the alleged conduct continues.
The letter also warned that the document was confidential and not for publication, especially on the internet.
Barton posted legal documents purporting to be from a company representing Vine (Picture: Getty Images For The Cambridge Union)
If published on the internet, the letter warned it was likely to increase the damage BBC star Vine complains of.
Barton shared the documents – which also included a screenshot of a tweet from Barton asking Vine if he was ‘one of the many Government Stooges trying to pressure people to play Russian Roulette with those Covid vaccines – online.
In a caption, he wrote: ‘So @theJeremyVine is suing me,’ along with a series of crying-laughing emojis.
He claimed the ‘fella who served me the papers was sound. Told me he completely agreed with me and to keep going,’
Barton finished the tweet with the hashtag ‘#bikenonce’.
Vine himself has not spoken about the alleged intended court case.
Barton has sent a series of tweets about Vine including branding him a ‘bike nonce’ (Picture: Daily Mail/Rex/Shutterstock)
It comes after Barton hit out at a panel on the Jeremy Vine show who criticised him, with Vine calling him a ‘bit of a yobbo’ in a clip shared to X.
‘He’s just gone on social media and is really being vile about lots of people,’ the host continued.
Captioning the video, Barton took aim writing Vine was a ‘pedo defender’.
Last week Barton was admonished by ITV after he compared commentators Eni Aluko and Lucy West to two of Britain’s most notorious serial killers, Fred and Rose West.
The documents posted by Barton warn they should not be published, especially on the internet (Picture: Getty Images)
ITV responded with a forceful statement, championing their continued promotion of women in their coverage of the sport.
It read: ‘For Joey Barton, an ex-professional player with a significant social media presence, to target two of our pundits, Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, with such vindictive remarks based on gender and to invoke the names of serial killer in doing so is clearly contemptible and shameful on his part.’
While Barton deleted the initial tweet sharing the legal documents, he has since posted a message writing: ‘How can you harass someone who follows you? Who has emailed you countless times asking you on his TV show? Who you initiated insults with by trying to gaslight. Saying they’d had a brain injury. Bizarre.’
Earlier this month, Vine had tweeted in regards to Barton’s comments aabout Aluko and Ward: ‘What’s going on with @Joey7Barton? I just glanced at the Rose West thing, then the @GNev2 spat, then his attack on Phillip Schofield and the ITV reply… genuinely, is it possible we are dealing with a brain injury here?’
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Jeremy Vine and Joey Barton for comment.
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Barton shared legal documents to X.