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| Eric Joyce: Ex-Labour MP sentenced for child sex offence | Eric Joyce: Ex-Labour MP sentenced for child sex offence |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Ex-Labour MP and former Army officer Eric Joyce has received a suspended sentence after he admitted making an indecent image of a child. | Ex-Labour MP and former Army officer Eric Joyce has received a suspended sentence after he admitted making an indecent image of a child. |
| Joyce, 59, had a film on a device that "depicts a number of children" with one said to be 12 months old, Ipswich Crown Court heard. | Joyce, 59, had a film on a device that "depicts a number of children" with one said to be 12 months old, Ipswich Crown Court heard. |
| The former shadow minister and ex-MP for Falkirk was arrested in 2018. | |
| He was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and must complete 150 hours of unpaid work. | He was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and must complete 150 hours of unpaid work. |
| The court heard the 51-second category A film - the most serious there is - was accessed by Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, between August 2013 and November 2018. | |
| It featured what appeared to be seven different children, aged between 12 months and seven years. | |
| Sentencing Joyce, Judge Mr Justice Edis said the film showed the "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," he added. | |
| "If there was no market, those children wouldn't be subjected to these very serious offences." | |
| Joyce was the MP in Stirlingshire between 2000 and 2012 before leaving the party to serve as an independent. | |
| He held the post of shadow Northern Ireland minister in 2010 and stepped down before the 2015 general election. |