Police investigate Joey Barton tweets

Joey Barton said he had been visited "four times in three days" by police seeking a voluntary interview

The former Premier League footballer Joey Barton has been visited by police over comments posted on social media.

Cheshire Police said it had received "reports of offences under the Communications Act".

It said officers had made "multiple attempts" to arrange a voluntary interview with a 41-year-old man originally from Liverpool.

Mr Barton said he understood the visits were over "something I've tweeted".

He told the BBC he had "no clue" which specific posts formed part of the police enquiry.

'Attempt to intimidate'

The force said it could not comment about which posts had been reported.

In his post on X, Mr Barton said two officers had knocked on his door at 21:30 BST on Thursday "when [his] kids were in bed".

Mr Barton said in the post that he had given the officers his solicitor's contact details.

He also said his solicitor had tried to contact a sergeant at the force but had been unsuccessful.

"Either it’s a shambles or an attempt to intimidate me and my family", he added in his social media post.

A spokesperson for Cheshire Police said: "To date, we have not had any response from his legal representatives and we await further contact."

Mr Barton said he had "no clue" which posts were being investigated

Mr Barton has been criticised in recent months for comments attacking female footballers and football pundits.

In January, sports minister Stuart Andrew described his attacks as "dangerous" and warned they "opened the floodgates for abuse".

Former England striker and broadcaster Eni Aluko has criticised X for allowing Mr Barton and others to "vomit hatred unchecked".

Mr Barton began criticising her punditry in January and described Ms Aluko and another female pundit, Lucy Ward, as the "the Fred and Rose West of football commentary", referring to the Gloucestershire serial-killer couple.