Joey Barton has been handed a 12-week suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of assaulting his wife during a row at their home in 2021. The former Premier League footballer attacked Georgia Barton after a day of drinking with friends on June 2 that year.

Mr Barton was found to have pushed his wife and kicked her in the head at their home in Kew, south-west London, leaving her with a “golf ball-sized” lump on her forehead. Mrs Barton called 999 and said: “My husband just hit me in the house.” She repeated the allegation when officers arrived at their home.

However, when Mr Barton was charged with domestic violence, she pleaded with prosecutors to withdraw the case and appeared in court to defend her husband. She claimed she had actually been accidentally injured when a friend stepped in to separate a row and said: “I’m not a victim. I’ve never been a victim.”

Mr Barton denied attacking his wife, saying he went to bed unaware that she had been injured.

But on Tuesday, Judge Paul Goldspring found Mr Barton guilty of assault. He said he believed the 42-year-old and his wife had not told the truth about what happened that night.

“I believe the veracity of the first account and it is supported by other evidence,” he said. “The account on the telephone in the 999 call and to the attending officer is true. I reject the account by Mrs Barton over eight months later and repeated in the witness box by her.”

He added that the explanation by Mrs Barton that the injuries she suffered were accidental was “unbelievable”. The judge said the Bartons “were not being truthful about what happened” and rejected Mrs Barton’s claim that she had drunk four bottles of wine that day, believing it had been put forward to explain the change in her story about what had happened.

Former England international Barton had argued: “If I kicked someone in the head, there would be a lot more damage than what’s alleged in this case.”

Simon Csoka KC, Mr Barton’s lawyer, told the court that his client had been either bare-footed or wearing flip-flops. He added that Mrs Barton’s injuries were not consistent with being kicked while lying on the ground. “A kick from a professional footballer would no doubt have broken his toes,” he said.

Police had attended the Bartons’ home on the night of the 999 call. PC Daniel Humphrey told the court he saw “a golf ball-sized lump, which looked swollen to me” on the forehead of Mrs Barton, adding: “There were little red dots under the skin.”

The officer also believed he had seen blood under Mrs Barton’s nose when she wiped it. The next day, Mrs Barton refused to provide a formal statement to police, insisting the incident “shouldn’t have happened” and she retracted parts of her allegation.

Mr Barton had been drinking in Richmond during the day and returned to their home. He revealed that a dispute had broken out between another couple and he and Mrs Barton took opposing sides. Mr Barton then suggested that a “stupid verbal altercation” ensued with “petty name-calling”. He said that one of their friends got between them before he went to bed.

But prosecutor Helena Duong said Barton had “grabbed her, pushed her to the ground, and you kicked her to the head”.