Facing jail, MP with child sex video on his computer

Labour’s Eric Joyce admits having vile film of children as young as 12 months

DISGRACED former Labour MP Eric Joyce was warned yesterday that he faces jail after he admitted having an extreme child abuse video on a computer.

The ex-shadow minister, who quit the party after drunkenly headbutting a Tory MP in 2012, had a 51-second film involving several children aged between 12 months and seven years old.

It was classed as Category A – the most serious level for indecent images of children which involves either sex, sadism or animals.

Joyce, who has a string of convictions, admitted searching for child abuse images on the internet while he was having problems with alcohol. Ipswich Crown Court heard that he claimed the vile footage arrived on his computer in a spam email – but confirmed he was aware of it.

The 59-year- old former MP for Falkirk in central Scotland pleaded guilty to making an indecent image of a child after the email was transferred between his computers when he ‘synced’ the devices.

Judge Emma Peters adjourned the case for pre-sentence reports but told Joyce she was making ‘no promises’ about his punishment for the ‘serious offence’, which has a starting point of a one-year jail term. He is due to be sentenced on August 7.

Warning him such images ‘fuel the abuse of children,’ she added: ‘It’s going to be a question of whether it’s immediate or suspended.’

Joyce, who was granted bail, was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register. How long he remains on it depends on his sentence. He wore a smart blue suit and tie to court yesterday and spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and nationality, and to admit the offence, which happened between August 2013 and November 2018.

Prosecutor Michael Proctor said the Crown had no evidence to challenge the defendant’s claim that he received the video in an email.

But he said Joyce had accepted in his basis of plea that he had carried out internet searches for ‘all categories’ of indecent images of children.

Judge Peters was told that, at the time of the offence, he was ‘drinking heavily’ but had since undergone work with an anti-child sex abuse charity, and seen a psychotherapist.

After the case, the NSPCC described the type of footage that Joyce had on his computer as being part of a ‘sickening online trade’. A spokesman said: ‘Within horrendous content like this are young victims of child sexual abuse who will take a very long time to recover from their ordeals.’

Joyce was not accompanied to court. He has been in a long-term relationship with author and journalist India Knight, 54, announcing his engagement to her in 2015.

It was not clear last night whether they are still together. The remote house they share in Worlingworth, Suffolk, was bought in Miss

‘Victims take a long time to recover’

Knight’s name for £1.35million in 2015. Born in Perth, Joyce obtained a BA in religious studies from Stirling University before attending Sandhurst. he served in the Army for 21 years, rising to the rank of major, before becoming the MP for Falkirk West in 2000.

Joyce’s former convictions include one from March 2012 after he went ‘berserk’ and assaulted four politicians in the Commons Strangers’ Bar.

Westminster magistrates fined him £3,000, ordered him to pay £1,400 compensation and imposed a 12-month community order after he lashed out when a group of Tories glanced over as one of his friends, amateur opera singer Stuart

Niven, began singing loudly. Conservative MP Andrew Percy was shoved up against a wall when he asked him to sit down.

Joyce then swore at eight police officers who tried to restrain him and headbutted Tory MP Stuart Andrew, leaving him with concussion and a bloody nose. As he was dragged away, he shouted: ‘You can’t touch me, I’m an MP.’ Joyce left Labour to become an Independent MP for Falkirk in 2012 and stepped down before the 2015 general election.

he had resigned as a Labour Northern Ireland spokesman in 2010 after he was fined £400 and banned from driving for a year for refusing to give police a urine sample. In 2014 he admitted a breach of the peace following an altercation with airline staff at edinburgh airport. he was fined £1,500 and ordered to pay £100 compensation.

And in 2015 he was given a ten-week jail sentence suspended for two years for common assault on two boys aged 14 and 15 in Camden, north London.