Ex-Labour shadow minister Eric Joyce – who quit the party after head-butting two Tory MPs in Commons bar bust-up – faces jail after admitting he had ‘spam’ child porn film involving baby
July 8, 2020 · By LUKE ANDREWS FOR MAILONLINE for www.dailymail.co.uk
Disgraced former shadow Labour minister Eric Joyce has been warned he could face at least a year in jail after admitting to having child pornography on a computer.
The ex-Labour MP for Falkirk, Scotland, had a 51-second clip depicting ‘a number of children’ including a 12-month-old baby. The oldest was seven years old.
It was classed as a Category A offence – the most serious kind of indecent image, which involve either penetrative sex, sadism or animals.
The father-of-two, 59, told Ipswich Crown court that he had searched for indecent images of children while he was having issues with alcohol abuse.
He claimed the footage arrived on his computer in a spam email, but admitted that he had knowledge of it.
The former shadow minister for Northern Ireland was a Labour MP from 2000 to 2012, before becoming an independent and stepping down in 2015. He spent 21 years in the army, and rose through the ranks to become a major.
He stepped back from Labour following a fight in the Commons Strangers bar where he headbutted two Conservatives and punched a Labour whip in the face.
Former Labour shadow minister for Northern Ireland Eric Joyce has pleaded guilty to making child porn images.He is pictured above today outside Ipswich Crown court
The ex-MP was engaged to Sunday Times columnist India Knight in 2015.
Joyce’s address was given as the country home of Ms Knight in Worlingworth, Suffolk.
Nobody was this afternoon answering the door of the secluded property, which sits at the end of a 300-yard driveway.
Joyce was previously married to childhood sweetheart Christina, who died. His second wife Rosemary was the headmistress of Tonbridge Grammar School.
In court he pleaded guilty to one count of making an indecent photograph of a child between August 7, 2013, and November 6, 2018.
Judge Peters warned that the offence crosses the custody threshold, with the starting point for Category A being one year in jail.
‘It’s going to be a question of whether it’s immediate or suspended,’ she said.
‘You will be required to sign paperwork today acknowledging that you are immediately on the sex offenders register.
‘The court takes (making an indecent image of a child) very seriously because such images fuel the abuse of children.’
Defence barrister Mark Shelley said Joyce had shared the file between his devices when he ‘synced’ his new Macbook Air and a number of old emails.
‘He was unfortunately aware of it and the other searches,’ he said.
Joyce will be sentenced on August 7, after a pre-sentence report is prepared. He has undergone work with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation and a psychotherapist.
Joyce was fined £3,000 and given a 12-month community order in 2012 by Westminster magistrates’ court after he admitted drunkenly assaulting four politicians in the Commons Strangers’ bar.
He headbutted Conservative MP Stuart Andrew during the brawl, giving him a bloody nose and concussion, punched Tory councillor Luke Mackenzie, splitting his lip, and headbutted Tory councillor Ben Maney. Joyce also turned on Labour whip Phillip Wilson, punting him in the face.
He was ordered to pay £1,400 to each of his victims, following the fight on February 22 after 10.30pm.
He ‘went beserk’ after Conservatives at a neighbouring table glanced over when his friend Stuart Niven – an amateur opera singer – started singing loudly in the bar.
Witnesses said Joyce, who had drunk a bottle of red wine, had ‘glazed over’ eyes.
Eight police officers arrived to find Joyce smelling ‘strongly of alcohol’. They tried to restrain him as he swore at them and furiously kicked doors, breaking a glass pane.
As he was dragged away by officers he shouted: ‘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.’
The former MP also has a conviction from 2010, for refusing to give police a urine sample.
A statement published on his website last month said: ‘I will make no comment from now until all legal processes are at a close. At that point, I will make a full statement.’
The former politician, today told he could be jailed for at least a year, started life in a very different place to where he is today.
As a teenager he joined the army and in 1987 was accepted into the prestigious Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, an institution reserved for the army’s very best and royalty – including Prince William and Prince Harry.
It was to be the start of a 21-year career of dedicated service – that would see him posted in Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Germany and Central America.
He was even promoted to captain in 1990, and then major in 1992.
But in 1998 he came to the attention of commanding officers, after branding the military ‘snobbish and rife with racism and sexism’ in a series of articles written for left-wing pamphlet the Fabian Society.
He then began to make regular media appearances and launched a magazine, the Armed Services Forum, which contained severe criticism of the forces.
This proved all too much for the higher ranks, which suspended him before the end of the year.
They requested his resignation in January 1999, to be handed in by 13 March. He resigned from the forces on March 12.
Catapulted to fame by the dispute, he made it onto Labour’s candidate list for the first Scottish Parliament elections in 1999.
He was then put forward for the 2000 by-election in Falkirk, triggered when popular MP Dennis Canavan quit the party to stand as an independent. He won – but with a 705-vote majority.
Once in parliament he had a successful career, serving as an aide to four ministers, including two defence secretaries.
He became known as the UK’s ‘most expensive MP’ after his repeated flights between London and Falkirk led to him having the largest expenses of any minister.
In 2009, he quit his defence role over the Afghanistan campaign, saying the UK could no longer justify growing casualties in the area.
When Labour was pushed back into opposition he appeared to make a comebaack, when in 2010 he was promoted to shadow Northern Ireland minister.
But it was to be short lived – he was arrested in November 2010 after he refused to allow police to test his breath following a driving incident.
He was banned from driving and fined £400 after admitting the charge – triggering the new leadership to remove him from his shadow cabinet post.
It was to be the beginning of a slippery slope that would see Joyce hauled before courts four more times in his last years as an MP.
Joyce has previously been sentenced in Westminster Magistrates’ court (stock image)
In 2012 he would have the Labour whip removed after he ‘went berserk’ in a London bar, attacking three Tories and a Labour whip while declaring there are ‘too many’ Conservatives in the room.
Next he was arrested at Edinburgh airport in 2013 after drunkenly abusing staff when he tried to get back on the plane.
They had demanded to see flight details to let him back onboard, following the trip from London.
Edinburgh Sheriff’s court took a dim view of the incident, fining him £1,000 and ordering him to pay £150 to victims.
In 2014 he was arrested twice, for putting an officer in a headlock outside a Westminster Karaoke bar, and carrying out an ‘unprovoked’ attack on a teenager at a food store in North London.
There was a brief respite in 2015, when it was announced that he was engaged to Sunday Times columnist India Knight.
But in 2018 he was arrested by police on charges of making child pornography.
The charge says the video was made between August 2013 and November 2018.
He will be sentenced on August 7 at Ipswich Crown court.
