MP’s aide tackles yob… Hot Fuzz-style!
HELPING to write speeches, handling calls and letters and general ‘ bag carrying’ are among the many duties of Parliamentary assistants.
But when a yob put a brick through a car belonging to Tory MP Andrew Rosindell, his assistant added action man to the list.
Army reservist Chris Muspratt, 25, sprinted after the vandal, who blundered through a garden trellis. In a scene likened to the film Hot Fuzz, where Nick Frost’s policeman character demolishes a fence trying to vault over it, the suspect then leapt a fence only for Mr Muspratt to crash through, bringing the panel down on top of his quarry.
The chase continued through several gardens before the vandal eventually escaped in a friend’s car – but CCTV footage helped police identify him as Kieron Nickles, 18. The teenager admitted damaging the car and fence as well as breaching a youth rehabilitation order when he appeared at Barkingside Magistrates Court this week.
Recalling the incident while campaigning on May 15 in the East London constituency of Romford in the run-up to the general election, Mr Muspratt said he acted on ‘autopilot’ and added: ‘He seemed a lot more scared than I was.’
Nickles was placed under a community order and must pay £300 damages for the car and £21.36 for the fence.