Video: Footballer Joey Barton released from jail
Published 11:16 28/07/08 By By Hannah Wood, Mirror.co.uk
Disgraced footballer Joey Barton was today released from jail in Manchester.
The soccer thug, 25, left Strangeways prison at 11am after serving 74 days of a six-month sentence for beating up a teenager in Liverpool city centre last December.
The £40,000-a-week Newcastle United midfielder was wearing jeans and a jumper and carrying a holdall as he emerged after weeks in the cells.
He shook hands with a friend waiting for him outside the prison gates and made no comment to reporters, who asked if he had any message for fans of the Magpies, before getting into a waiting silver Land Rover and being driven off.
Watch footage of his release:
He had hoped to be freed earlier this month with an electronic tag forcing him to keep a curfew. But he was deemed unfit for release by probation officers, as he is a violent offender and committed his last offence while on bail.
Barton was jailed on May 20 after pleading guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to assault and affray.
Watch the shocking footage of the December attack here:
Despite being freed today he is still serving a four-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, after a separate conviction for a "ferocious" training ground attack on former Manchester City colleague Ousmane Dabo, which left his victim unconscious and bleeding.
He was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and pay £3,000 compensation to Dabo and court costs of £3,430. He was on bail over the Dabo incident when he got involved in the fight outside a McDonald's restaurant in Liverpool city centre last December.
Join the Mirror.co.uk debate on whether or not Kevin Keegan should give Barton another chance here .
YOB WITH HISTORY OF DRUNKEN THUGGERY
Dec 2005: Stubbed out a cigar in team-mate Jamie Tandy's eye at Christmas party. Fined six weeks wages.
May 2005: Ran over and broke the leg of a 35-year-old pedestrian at 2am in Liverpool.
June 2005: Had spat with a 15-year-old Everton fan at City's team hotel in Bangkok and fined by his club.
2006: Dropped his shorts at Everton fans at Goodison Park. Fined and warned by FA
March 2007: Arrested on suspicion of trashing a taxi after the driver refused to wait at a McDonald's in Liverpool. Later cleared after cousin Joshua Wilson, 19, confessed.
Dec 2007: Caught on CCTV straddling and punching his victim repeatedly in the face in McDonald's in Liverpool.
May 2008: Jailed for six months for assault.
