Former Labour shadow minister Eric Joyce – who quit the party after head-butting two Tory MPs in Commons bar bust-up – admits making child porn ‘movie involving 12-month-old baby’
- Joyce, 59, had been charged with making an indecent photograph of a child
- Former minister from Worlingworth, Suffolk, was arrested in November 2018
- He served as the MP for Falkirk in Scotland between 2000 and 2012
Former Labour shadow minister Eric Joyce who quit the party after head-butting two Tory MPs in a Commons bar bust-up has pleaded guilty to making child porn images.
The 59-year-old, who was MP for Falkirk in Scotland between 2000 and 2012, has been ordered to sign the Sex Offenders register.
He pleaded guilty to making an indecent photograph of a child between August 7, 2013, and November 6, 2018, at Ipswich Crown Court.
Judge Emma Peters said that the single 51-second movie, found on the device, ‘depicts a number of children’.
‘Some are quite young, one is said to be 12 months old,’ she said. ‘Clearly a category A movie.’
Former shadow minister Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, was granted bail. Judge Peters instructed that a report be prepared before Joyce is sentenced on August 7.
Former Labour shadow minister Eric Joyce has pleaded guilty to making child porn images. He is pictured above at Westminster magistrates’ court in October
Joyce was arrested in November 2018 on the charges.
Joyce admitted four charges of assault in 2012 at Westminster magistrates’ court after a brawl in the Commons Strangers’ Bar.
He lashed out at Conservative MPs on 22 February 2012, at about 10.30pm, after one of his friends, Stuart Niven – an amateur opera singer – started to sing loudly in the bar, provoking startled glances from a neighbouring table of Conservatives.
Joyce, who had drunk a bottle of red wine, stood to warn Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke: ‘Don’t ever look at my guests in that way again’.
When another Conservative MP, Andrew Percy, asked him to sit down, Joyce shoved him up against the wall, shouting: ‘This bar is full of ******* Tories.’
When Mr Shelbrooke said: ‘You can’t treat an MP like that in a place like this,’ Joyce swung for the Tory, who ducked the blow. Joyce then punched Conservative councillor Luke Mackenzie, splitting his lip, before head-butting another, Ben Maney.
Labour whip Phillip Wilson then put a hand on Joyce’s shoulder and said: ‘Calm down Eric – what’s going on?’ Joyce responded by punching him in the face.
Eight police officers arrived to find Joyce smelling ‘strongly of alcohol’ with ‘glazed’ eyes. He continued his assault as the officers tried to restrain him, swearing at them before head-butting Tory MP Stuart Andrew, giving him a bloody nose and concussion.
Joyce, who one witness described as drunker than anyone he ‘had ever seen’, furiously kicked doors, breaking a glass pane, as he was dragged away by officers yelling: ‘You can’t touch me, I’m an MP.’
The MP even managed to snatch a constable’s notebook and scrawl: ‘We are a Tory nation, that cannot be forever …good cops unite…It’s surely …to hate the Tories.’
He claimed at Belgravia police station that someone else had started the fight, telling officers: ‘I think he was a silly fat Tory MP.
‘He was pushing like a girl and giving me a bear-hug. I nutted a guy. It was a wee scuffly thing…If people said I was hammered, that was probably true.’
Jeremy Dein QC, defending, said his client had little recollection of the events as he had not eaten all day and had been ‘working intently’ since 8.30am.
‘What accompanies his apology is an overriding sense of shame and embarrassment,’ he added.
The MP also has a conviction from 2010, for refusing to give police a urine sample.
He left Labour to serve as independent MP for Falkirk in 2012, stepping down before the 2015 general election. He spent 21 years in the army, and rose through the ranks to become a major.
This is a breaking news story. More follows…
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