Friday 12 March 2010

Disgraced MPs forced to sit in the dock just like other criminals

Three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer were made to suffer the ignominy of sitting in the high security dock of a courtroom as they made a historic appearance before a magistrate.















Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield became the first parliamentarians to be charged with abusing public money as they pleaded not guilty to expenses fraud at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, a short walk from the Houses of Parliament. The MPs’ barrister, Julian Knowles, said they did not consider themselves to be “above the law” but nevertheless asked for special treatment with an application for them to be allowed to sit next to their lawyer in the well of Court No.1. The Chief Magistrate, Tim Workman, said he was not prepared to exempt the MPs from “the usual procedure” in his court, which was packed with more than 40 journalists and members of the public.

Read the full Telegraph article here