Disgraced former MP Eric Joyce has avoided jail having been convicted of attacking two teenagers in an “unjustified and unprovoked” assault in a Camden shop.
The 54-year-old was handed a 10-week jail term suspended for two years and fined £1,080 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court today for attacking two boys, aged 14 and 15, at News & Food Express in Chalk Farm Parade, Chalk Farm, on October 17 last year.
The former MP for Falkirk was also ordered to attend a rehabilitation programme which aims to reduce violent behaviour.
Joyce, of Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill, insisted at the trial earlier this month that he was performing a “citizen’s arrest” but the judge found him guilty of two counts of common assault.
Prosecutor Jonathan Swain told the court that it was an “unjustified and unprovoked assault on both boys”.
Speaking after the hearing, Joyce said: “I think that is a fair outcome.
“In the end it was a 14-year-old boy and that is a shame and a cause of considerable remorse and I have to both pay the price and make sure I don’t do it again.”
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