The former footballer Joey Barton pushed his wife to the floor before kicking her in the head during a drunken row at their family home, a court has heard.

Georgia Barton was left with a lump on her forehead and a bleeding nose after the alleged assault. Friends were forced to intervene in the argument between the pair, pulling Barton away from his wife, prosecutors said. The former Manchester City midfielder, 42, is accused of assaulting Georgia Barton, 38, in Kew, south-west London in June 2021, where they had been drinking with two other couples while their children slept upstairs.

The arguing had started after Barton threatened to fight his wife’s brother and father, Westminster magistrates court heard. “There had been a verbal disagreement about a family matter,” the prosecutor, Helena Duong, said. Barton – who appeared in court wearing a dark coat, dark jumper, jeans and glasses – “grabbed her and pushed her to the ground and kicked her in the head”, Duong said. As a friend tried to intervene, Barton “threw” him off and said “don’t disrespect me”, the trial heard.

Mrs Barton called the police shortly after 11pm to “report she had been hit by her husband”, the court heard. The pair had both drunk “four or five bottles of wine”, a previous hearing was told.

During the 999 call, which was played to the court, a tearful Mrs Barton told the call handler: “My husband’s just hit me in the house. He’s in the house, I’m outside”. Asked if anything similar had happened before, she said: “No, it’s the first time,” adding that she had been hit “in the face”.

When police arrived at around 11.30pm, Mrs Barton told them: “I’ve been pushed down and kicked about and stuff. He said he was going to fight with my brother and my dad.”

The former footballer, of Widnes in Cheshire, was due to face trial at a magistrates court in 2022 but the case was adjourned after Mrs Barton sent a letter to prosecutors retracting her allegations. A judge then ordered that proceedings be paused over concerns a trial would be unfair to Barton after prosecutors said they did not plan to ask Mrs Barton to give evidence in court.

The director of public prosecutions (DPP), Stephen Parkinson, appealed against the decision at the high court in London, with barristers claiming at a hearing that a fair trial could go ahead. In a judgment in June, two senior judges ruled in the DPP’s favour and said Barton should face a trial over the allegations in front of a different judge.

Barton’s career and life have been marked by numerous controversial incidents. Last year, the broadcaster Jeremy Vine sued him for libel and harassment over 14 online posts, including one where he called Mr Vine a “big bike nonce” and a “pedo defender” on X, formerly Twitter. A high court ruling deemed Barton’s post to be defamatory, leading to Barton issuing a public apology to Vine, as well paying him £75,000, followed by a further £35,000 for posts published after Vine took legal action.

Barton denies a single charge of assault by beating and the trial continues.

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