By Paul Sorene

Joey Barton might not be nicest bloke on the team, but can the Newcastle United player really be blamed for turning former Man City team-mate Jamie Tandy into a woman-beater? Of course not.

The Star issues the headline:

“JOEY BARTON TURNED ME INTO WIFE-BEATER”

The Sun echoes, more factually:

“Attack by Barton turned me into a girlfriend-beater”

Tandy was the man who Barton used as an ashtray at a Man City Xmas party in 2004. It was a dreadful assault – Barton stuck a cigar in Tandy’s eye – and one which dogs Barton to this day. But what happened to Barton’s victim?

Tandy, playing for Droylsden in 2008

A judge was told it sent Tandy off the rails and triggered his boozing. City got rid of him after he broke a leg. He lost his home and tried twice to kill himself as he faced debts of up to £30,000.

The depressed dad-of-two took out his frustrations on girlfriend Sian Heron. He would often batter her, once shattering her nose, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Tandy, who now plays for non-league Witton Albion, has been ordered to pay his ex £1,000 in compensation.

Judge Francis Davis told him: “You should go to prison. What you did to that lady was not only inexcusable it was cowardly and selfish.

“But I’m conscious of the misfortune that struck you with the destruction of your football career. You need to grow up.”

This gives the Star the reason to produce “Bad lad’s trail of shame”. No, not Tandy. Barton. You can hear Barton on BBC Radio 4 these days. He says most footballers are “knobs”:

“Driving around in flash cars and changing them like you change your socks, wearing stupid diamond watches and spending money like it’s going out of fashion in the middle of a recession when some people are struggling to put food on the table for the kids – it’s not the way to do it.”

In other news, Joey Barton has never broken his girlfriend’s nose…

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