Former Labour shadow minister Eric Joyce pleads guilty to making child porn image
Former Labour shadow minister Eric Joyce – who quit the party after head-butting two Tory MPs in Commons bar bust-up – admits downloading child porn ‘movie involving 12-month-old baby’
- Joyce, 59, pleaded guilty to making indecent child photography at Ipswich court
- Former minister from Worlingworth, Suffolk, was arrested in November 2018
- He served as the MP for Falkirk in Scotland between 2000 and 2015
By Luke Andrews For Mailonline
Published: 05:54 EDT, 7 July 2020 | Updated: 10:15 EDT, 7 July 2020
Disgraced former shadow 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 court heard that the single 51-second movie, found on the device, ‘depicts a number of children’ including a 12-month-old baby. Joyce is pictured above today outside court
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.
The ex-MP had been engaged to Sunday Times columnist India Knight in 2015.
He was previously married to childhood sweetheart Christina, who died. His second wife Rosemary was the headmistress of Tonbridge Grammar School.
Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, has been granted bail ahead of his sentencing on August 7
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.’
Joyce was first arrested in November, 2018, and granted unconditional bail before the hearing. He is pictured above outside Ipswich Crown court before the pre-trial hearing
The 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.’
From drink driving, to a brawl in Westminster and child pornography: The six times Joyce has been hauled before the courts
Eric Joyce has been hauled before the law six times for offences involving drink driving, fights and now child pornography.
November 2010: The MP for Falkirk was stripped of his licence for a year and fined £400 after he admitted failing to provide a breath test.
Police were called by Ineos petrochemical refinery in Grangemouth after he arrived there smelling of alcohol and they heard what ‘sounded like heavy metal rubbing very loudly’, suggesting he had hit something.
March 2012: Joyce was arrested by police and spent the night in cells after brawling with fellow politicians at the Strangers bar in Westminster.
He was fined £3,000 and given a 12-month community order by Westminster magistrates’ court after he admitted drunkenly assaulting four politicians in the Commons Strangers’ bar.
In the fight he headbutted Conservative MP Stuart Andrew, giving him a bloody nose and concussion, punched Tory councillor Luke Mackenzie, splitting his lip, and headbutted Tory councillor Ben Maney. He also turned on Labour whip Phillip Wilson, punching him in the face.
August 2012: Joyce was called back to court after using scissors to remove the electronic tag that had been fitted to his leg as part of a community order. He was fined £600.
May 2013: Joyce was arrested at Edinburgh airport after he had an argument with airline staff.
He had become abusive towards them when they asked for flight details as he tried to get back onto the plane, which had arrived from Heathrow, to get his mobile phone.
He admitted one charge of breaching the peace at Edinburgh Sheriff court and was fined £1,000. He was also ordered to pay £100 to an airport worker and £50 to a police officer.
March 2014: Joyce was arrested for a disturbance at a karaoke event in the sports and social bar of the House of Commons, where he was seen wrestling with two police officers and holding one in a headlock.
The Office of the speaker decided to ban him from purchasing or being served alcoholic beverages in the Palace of Westminster, including its eight bars.
October 2014: Police charged Joyce with two charges of common assault following an ‘unjustified and unprovoked’ attack on two boys, aged 14 and 15, in a food store in north London.
Westminster magistrates’ court heard how one boy had been trying to pass Joyce in a narrow aisle and after an exchange of words was knocked to the floor.
He was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to ten weeks in jail, suspended for two years. Joyce was also ordered to pay a £1,080 fine and attend a rehabilitation course which aims to reduce violent behaviour.
November 2018: Joyce is arrested over child pornography. He has pleaded guilty to one charge of making an indecent image of a child between August 7, 2013, and November 6, 2018, at Ipswich Crown court.
