Mike Amesbury, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, has been sentenced to 10 weeks in prison for punching a man to the ground.
Amesbury, who was suspended by the Labour party after an investigation, last month admitted a single charge of section 39 assault in relation to the incident after a night out in his constituency.
Police interviewed the 55-year-old after footage of the incident, which took place on Main Street in Frodsham, Cheshire, in the early hours of 26 October last year, was published by MailOnline.
The video, taken from a CCTV camera, showed Amesbury hitting his victim, 45-year-old Paul Fellows, in the face, knocking him to the ground.
At Chester magistrates court, the deputy senior district judge Tan Ikram sentenced Amesbury to 10 weeks in jail. The judge told him he would serve 40% of the term in jail and the rest on licence.
The conviction could pave the way for a byelection in Amesbury’s constituency. Amesbury won his seat at the last general election 235 days ago.
The court heard Amesbury had been drinking before he arrived at a taxi rank, where Fellows approached him to remonstrate about a bridge closure in the town.
Footage showed Amesbury punching Fellows to the head, knocking him to the ground, then following him on to the road and starting to punch him again, at least five times.
He was then heard saying: “You won’t threaten your MP again will you, fucking soft lad.”
The sentence was met with apparent shock in the courtroom. Richard Derby, representing Amesbury, asked the judge: “Is that an immediate sentence?” The judge nodded, replied “yes” and left the courtroom.
Derby then requested the judge come back into court as he wished to make an application for bail for Amesbury, pending an appeal against his sentence. Ikram returned to court, sat down, paused briefly and said: “Application refused.”
A byelection would be triggered if Amesbury resigns as MP. As Amesbury’s sentence is less than a year, he is allowed to continue as an independent MP during any appeals he might make, but if those appeals are unsuccessful he would then be subject to a recall petition.
The petition would be open for six weeks and 10% of voters in his constituency would need to sign it to remove Amesbury as MP. If the threshold is met it would trigger a byelection.
Article by:Source: Jamie Grierson
