Grieve defends Barton decision

Attorney General Dominic Grieve has defended his decision not to prosecute footballer Joey Barton for a series of online comments about John Terry ahead of his trial, insisting they would not jeopardise the case.

QPR midfielder Barton posted the remarks on Twitter on Friday after Terry, who has been accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand, was stripped of the England captaincy. Mr Grieve said comments made "in bad taste" on Twitter were "neither here nor there" and would be judged only on whether they would prejudice a fair hearing.

"As far as I could see, in this particular case, whatever Mr Barton had been doing didn't seem to me, on the facts, to amount to creating the risk we have just been talking about," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

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