Soccer bad boy Joey *Barton says he is prepared to go to jail over his Twitter rant about the John Terry racism case.
The QPR star, who served two months of a six-month sentence for assault in 2008, faces a possible contempt of court prosecution.
Barton Tweeted today: "I will gladly go to jail for a month, in the name of free speech. I have no problem with what I said. Make me a martyr.
"What are they going to do put everyone who exercises freedom of speech in jail? They'll be a revolution, if they try that shit."
Even though Terry is charged with racially abusing QPR footballer Anton Ferdinand and faces trial, Barton used the website to reveal *controversial views on the dispute.
The Attorney General can take action for contempt of court over published comments that could prejudice a fair trial. The maximum sentence is two years in prison, although no-one has yet been prosecuted for contempt over a Tweet.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve has the power to bring a criminal prosecution for contempt of court against Barton if he considers the comments would prejudice a fair trial.
If found guilty, an offender faces a maximum of two years in prison.
During an hour of *tweeting on Friday Barton made numerous comments about the case, claiming Terry, 31, who was this week stripped of the England captaincy, only “has himself to blame” for the *incident in October.
Chelsea star Terry, who denies the racism charge, will face trial in July.
The comments from Barton, many of which we have chosen not to publish, led to a furious backlash yesterday.
But Barton continued to share his views with his 1.17 million Twitter *followers. At one point he wrote: “I’ll probably get a letter now from ‘the powers that be’.”
Later, an unrepentant Barton, added: “What they gonna do lock me up for telling the truth? I’d rather be *executed in public for my mistakes than hide from justice. I mean, what’s the point of living as a *coward?”
Despite the *controversial nature of *Barton’s tweets they remained *online yesterday for all to see.
The midfielder’s rant will reignite the debate over why news*papers are *restricted in what they can print *while users of Twitter and other sites are free to express their opinions with virtually no control over content.
Barton, 29, placed his comments on Twitter late on Friday night.
Among his remarks, he *criticised the length of time it has taken to deal with the Terry case, saying the delay had left England the “laughing stock of world football”.
He tweeted: “This John Terry saga has turned into one of the most *hideously managed spectacles I have ever known. Heads should roll.”
The rant comes a week after QPR captain Barton chaired a meeting of his team-mates ahead of their FA Cup match with Chelsea, where they *discussed whether they should shake Terry’s hand before the game.
It led to the FA scrapping the *traditional handshake amid fears it might add to the tense atmosphere
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