Former
Labour MP Eric Joyce has been sentenced 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.
The sentence means that the 59-year-old will not spend time in prison, although if he fails to comply with the judge’s requirements or commits any further offences he could spend the remainder of his term behind bars.
Joyce – who was the MP for Falkirk between 2000 and 2015 – had a 51-second film on a device which depicted a number of children, one of which was said to be 12 months old.
Joyce, of Worlingworth, Suffolk, pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to the offence, which took place between August 2013 and November 2018.
He was required to sign the sex offenders register after his admission.
Joyce, who became a Labour MP in 2000, left the party to serve as independent MP for Falkirk in 2012, stepping down before the 2015 general
election.
He spent 21 years in the Army, rising to the rank of major.