British Attorney General 'aware of Barton tweets'

The Attorney General’s office in the UK today said it had been made aware of a series of robust observations made by Joey Barton on Twitter over the John Terry racism saga.

Yesterday afternoon, following the stripping of the England captaincy from Terry, Barton took to the micro-blogging website to give his take on the matter.

The Chelsea skipper had his country’s armband taken from him for a second time in the wake of an allegation of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand during a match at QPR last year.

Terry, who denies the charge, will stand trial in July, just a matter of days after Euro 2012 finishes.

Barton, who was playing in the match at Loftus Road in October, has defended his comments on the grounds of free speech.

However a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office said: “I can confirm the Tweets have been brought to our attention and have been viewed.”

Dominic Grieve QC is the current Attorney General. He is the Government’s senior law officer and part of his remit is to make sure people facing criminal allegations receive a fair trial.