Former MP Eric Joyce found guilty of 'unprovoked' assault on two teenagers in a shop

The former MP for Falkirk told the court he was performing a 'citiizens' arrest'

Eric Joyce (Getty Images)

Former MP Eric Joyce has been found guilty of assaulting two teenagers at a shop in Camden, north London.

Mr Joyce, who sat as a Labour MP from 2005 and then an independent from 2012, was convicted at Westminster magistrates’ court.

The court heard how Mr Joyce knocked one of the two boys to the floor after coming into contact with them in the small newsagent.

Giving evidence via a videolink, one of the two boys said he had visited the shop to buy a chocolate milkshake and had tried to squeeze past Mr Joyce in an aisle.

“He thought I was talking to him and he started getting aggressive,” the boy said. “He turned around and started saying things like; ‘You talking to me? You trying to embarrass me?’ The man grabbed me and would not let me leave. He started shouting in my face.”

The boy was assisted by his friend who was then elbowed and winded by Mr Joyce, the court heard.

After the incident Mr Joyce told the police he was headbutted by one of the teenagers. The incident was caught on CCTV, however.

“It’s the crown’s case that the actions taken by Mr Joyce constituted an unjustified and unprovoked assault on both boys,” crown prosecutor Jon Swain said.

“Nothing either did warranted the level of violence demonstrated.”

Giving evidence, shopkeeper Ali Fahan told the court that Mr Joyce had asked him to call the police.

“The boy was crying, saying he wanted to go home,” he said. “I told the man to let him go because he was crying.”

Mr Joyce told the court that the boys had knocked over a display in the shop and that he had been trying to perform a citizens’ arrest.

Mr Joyce has been previously convicted of four common assaults in a House of Commons bar and of a breach of the peace at Edinburgh airport.

In one incident in February 2012 Mr Joyce was heard to observe “There are too many f*****g Tories in here,” referring to the patrons of parliament’s Strangers’ Bar.

The former army major was convicted of starting a fight in which he shoved a Conservative MP against a wall, swung a punch at another, and headbutted another.

In that incident he also split the lip of a Conservative councillor and also punched a Labour whip in the face. He was ultimately arrested by police.

Additional reporting by PA