A Reform MP was jailed 18 years ago for repeatedly kicking his girlfriend, newly released court records have revealed.
James McMurdock, 38, the new MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, was convicted of assaulting his then girlfriend in 2006 while drunk outside a nightclub.
He spent 21 days in a young offenders’ institution after admitting to the attack.
Before he was elected as an MP, the investment banker had not publicly disclosed the conviction and when it emerged in July he had been jailed for attacking his girlfriend when he was 19 years old, he downplayed the incident as a “teenage indiscretion”.
But further details of what happened during the incident have now emerged after The Times applied to the court for information from the official record.
It says he received the custodial sentence for “kicking” the victim “around four times”, The Times reports.
In the magistrate’s sentencing remarks, it says he was given 21 days in a young offenders’ institution and “the sentence was not suspended in light of serious nature of the offence”.
It said the offence “requires immediate punishment” and a pre-sentence report indicated a “lack of willingness to comply”.
The report said there was “limited credit for guilty plea, plea entered late, would have been 28 days”.
MPs do not have to disclose previous convictions to the public when standing, with only people in prison at the time of the election for a sentence of more than a year barred.
McMurdock’s victim’s mother brought the incident to light a week after his election, saying he “left marks on her body” and “it took two security guards to pull him off her”.
When the allegations were revealed, McMurdock said the pair had argued and he had pushed her.
A Reform UK spokesperson at the time said they were aware of his conviction and jail sentence.
But…
