Joey Barton charged with alleged 'malicious communications towards Eni Aluko' - as former Man City midfielder claims British legal system is 'becoming a Banana Republic' after previously comparing pundit to serial killers Fred and Rose West in January

Joey Barton has been charged with alleged 'malicious communications' towards pundit and former England star Eni Aluko - and branded the legal system a 'banana republic' in response. 

Barton will appear in court on July 30 after an investigation by Cheshire Police. 

In January, the former Premier League footballer compared Aluko and fellow pundit Lucy Ward to the serial killers Fred and Rose West. 

'A man from Widnes has been summoned to court to face charges of malicious communications,' a Cheshire Police statement read.

'Following an investigation by Cheshire Police, the Crown Prosecution Service has since authorised the charges for Joseph Barton. The 41-year-old will appear at Warrington Magistrates' Court on Tuesday 30 July.

'The charges relate to reports of alleged malicious communications online, between Monday 1 January and Thursday 18 January.'

Responding to the charges, Barton wrote on X: 'I'm up next month for 'malicious communications' charge at Warrington Mag for Eni Aluko tweets.

'Crazy times we're living in. Haven't the Police got enough on their hands?

'British system is becoming a Banana Republic. Lawfare used against its own citizens for having a dissenting voice.'

In February Aluko accused Barton of subjecting her to one of the worst cases of social media abuse I've ever experienced' after a stream of vile messages. 

After she covered Crystal Palace's FA Cup draw with Everton in January with Ward, Barton had written: 'How is she even talking about Men's football. She can't even kick a ball properly. Your coverage of the game EFC last night, took it to a new low. Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, the Fred and Rose West of football commentary.'

The Wests murdered 12 women and young girls over the course of 20 years. Fred took his own life before facing trial while Rose was sentenced to 10 life terms. She remains in prison aged 70.

Barton then stoked the fire further by making his criticism even more extreme, writing that Aluko was 'clearly in the Joseph Stalin category' for 'murdering hundreds of thousands of fans' ears'.

Aluko explained to BBC Breakfast in February how the tirades had impacted her life. 

'I can only describe it as waves caving in on you,' she said. 'I think the nature of Joey Barton's tweets were consecutive over the course of a week.

'There were several tweets, he continued to double-down even after ITV came out in mine and Lucy Ward's defence, and actually was deliberately trying to get worse and incite other people to say the same. This is probably one of the worst cases of social media abuse I've ever experienced.'

Aluko admitted that being the target of social media experience is nothing new to her, but insisted that Barton's attacks were different due to the ex-Manchester City midfielder having 2.8million followers on X. 

'It's not something I've not experienced before, it's part of a culture that I think many women in broadcasting have had to put up with for a long time now. But here you have somebody in Joey Barton who has millions of followers who is actively targeting people like me in order to generate attention on X,' Aluko continued.

'We have a platform on X that actively promotes people like Joey Barton's content through the algorithms and through the way that X is now constructed. I just don't accept that it is just a platform that people can express their freedom of speech. I've been driven off the platform and my freedom of speech is not protected.

'Certain people's freedom of speech, like Joey Barton, which is hateful and attacks people on the basis of their gender and their race is being actively promoted and that's where I think we really need to start thinking about what the social media platforms like X, how much responsibility and how much negligence they have.'

More to follow.