Barton´s Twitter shocker over Speed

Outspoken QPR captain Joey Barton has provoked outrage in Britain after labelling suicide ‘selfish’ in the wake of Gary Speed’s death.

Speed, 42, the Wales manager and a former English Premier League star, was found hanged at his home on Sunday.

Barton initially expressed sadness and shock at Speed’s passing on Twitter soon after the news broke.

But he then found himself at the centre of a storm after expanding on his thoughts.

“Suicide is a mix of the most tragic, most selfish, most terrible (and I want to believe preventable) acts out there,” Barton wrote.

His comments were met with a barrage of abuse from fellow users of the social networking site, his remarks deemed ‘insensitive’, ‘unnecessary’, ‘heartless’, ‘ignorant’ and ‘uneducated’.

One branded Barton a ‘pr..k’ and then found himself caught up in a Twitter war with the famous footballer after the comment made it into the press.

A furious Barton fired back: “Look mate uve had ur 5 mins in the daily st*r (newspaper), highlight of ur life no doubt. Now crawl back under ur stone. U have no clue …”

“A small minority as usual strongly disagree with what I said. If they read carefully or had half a brain, they’d understand.’

The former England international also turned on the media for reporting on his comments, posting: “(I) take exception to these mindless idoits (sic) that write or create this nonsense. Infact i go as far to say i despise ur being, nothing but rats.”

Barton’s comments were condemned by suicide counselling groups and the Football Supporters’ Federation.

But while the Rangers star came in for some heavy criticism, he also garnered support from several readers who have suffered from a suicide in the family.

One wrote: “Commenting as someone whose partner took his own life I’m sorry to say Joey Barton is right. There is a touch of selfishness in suicde (sic) especially when you are faced with the horror of finding them.”