The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Assault claim against council finance chief
A city councillor has accused a leading member of the cabinet of assaulting him at a meeting with rolled-up pieces of paper.
Labour’s Ed Murphy has reported the incident to police alleging that Conservative cabinet member David Seaton hit him on the back of the head.
Police are now investigating, although Cllr Seaton strenuously denies the claims.
The alleged assault took place when both men - who are members of the council’s ethics committee - were in the public gallery at Monday’s Adults and Communities Scrutiny meeting. Cllr Murphy said Cllr Seaton sat behind him and kept “barracking me from behind as I spoke”.
He added: “I suddenly felt somebody hit me sharply on the back of my head from behind. I turned around and there was Cllr Seaton holding what appeared to be a rolledup set of documents with which he had slapped me on the back of the head.
“Before I could do or say anything Cllr Seaton quickly got up and left the chamber. I was genuinely shocked and I have a bruise on the back of my head. I decided to report the matter to the police as an assault.”
Cllr David Seaton denied the accusation and said he left the meeting because of comments Cllr Murphy was making. He said: “I most certainly didn’t hit him with anything over the back of his head and anybody who was there could see that I only had a very thin collection of papers with me at the time and that I left those on the desk when I walked out of the chamber.
“Besides, I’m head of the council for the standards committee so I would hardly ‘slap’ another councillor across the back of the head.” Police confirmed they had received a report of the alleged incident. The council said: “As a police investigation is currently underway it would be wrong for us to comment at this time.”