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Ex-MP Avoids Jail For Attacking Teenagers

Ex-MP Avoids Jail For Attacking Teenagers

Former MP Eric Joyce has avoided jail for attacking two teenage boys in a shop - three years after his conviction for assaulting four people in the House of Commons bar.

The 54-year-old was sentenced to a 10-week prison term, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

He was also fined £1,080 and ordered to attend a rehabilitation programme designed to reduce violent behaviour.

Joyce had been convicted of an " unjustified and unprovoked assault" on boys aged 14 and 15 at News and Food Express in Chalk Farm, north London, on October 17.

The former Army major had claimed he was performing a citizen’s arrest but a jury found him guilty of two counts of common assault.

Sentencing him, district judge John Zani said: "In my view the evidence against you was very overwhelming and the defence that you put forward was lacking in any credibility, particularly when one looks at the CCTV evidence and your interpretation of what that demonstrated, I'm afraid, vastly differed from the way I saw the events portrayed.

"The events in October 2014 did you no credit. Your reaction to what you perceived was happening in the shop was entirely unacceptable."

He added: "I'm just able in all the circumstances here to suspend the term of imprisonment.

"I consider that you have dealt with your alcohol problem and you need to focus on dealing with situations where there is a requirement for you not to resort to violence."

Speaking outside the court, Joyce said he felt the sentence was a "fair outcome".

Asked if he felt any remorse, he said: "Of course.

"In the end it was a 14-year-old boy and that is a shame and a cause of considerable remorse and I have to both pay the price and make sure I don't do it again."

In 2012 Joyce was convicted of four counts of common assault following a fight in a House of Commons bar.

The following year he was convicted of breaching the peace after being " threatening and abusive" to staff at Edinburgh airport .

Joyce, who has spoken of his problems with alcohol, served as Labour MP for Falkirk West between 2000 and 2005, and then as MP for Falkirk until 2015, when he stood down.

He had resigned from the Labour Party following the House of Commons fight in 2012.