Eric Joyce: Former Labour MP sentenced over making indecent image of child

Former shadow minister had pleaded guilty to offence

Former Labour MP Eric Joyce has been sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court to eight months in prison suspended for two years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work for making an indecent image of a child.

Joyce, who served as the Labour MP for Falkirk between 2000 and 2012, had on a device a 51-second film depicting seven different children, aged between twelve months and seven years old.

The former MP had previously pleaded guilty to the offence, which took place between August 2013 and November 2018. He was required to sign the sex offender's register after his admission.

Mr Justice Edis, sentencing the former shadow minister on Friday, said: "You have pleaded guilty to an offence which involves the possession of a category A film of a little less than a minute's duration."

"That film showed the penetrative sexual abuse of very young children. That these acts of abuse happened is because there are people like you who want to watch these films."

But, the judge added: "You have sought help from people well able to provide it and there's evidence before the court that that has had an effect on helping you reduce, perhaps completely, your impulsive behaviour, and that's happened over a significant period due to the delay in these proceedings."

Mr Justice Edis also sentenced Joyce to a sexual harm prevention order, which will last until further order of the court. He was also given an 18-day rehabilitation activity requirement and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £1,800.

Joyce was elected Labour MP for Falkirk in a 2000 by-election and briefly served as the shadow minister for Northern Ireland in 2010. He resigned from the party in 2012 after admitting to common assault in a House of Commons bar, going on to serve as an independent MP before standing down ahead of the 2015 general election.

He had previously spent 21 years in the army, rising to the rank of Major.