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Ex-MP faces trial over public order charges
FORMER Peterborough MP Helen Clark is to stand trial before a judge over allegations of drunken and abusive behaviour in the bar of a Peterborough hotel.
FORMER Peterborough MP Helen Clark is to stand trial before a judge over allegations of drunken and abusive behaviour in the bar of a Peterborough hotel.Ex-Labour politician, Mrs Clark has been accused of a public order offence and being drunk and disorderly, following an alleged altercation with staff at the Great Northern Hotel earlier this year.
The 53-year-old was due to appear at Peterborough Magistrates' Court yesterday to answer the charges but did not attend the hearing.
Instead, her solicitor pleaded not guilty to the allegations on her behalf, and the ex-MP will go on trial in December.
Magistrates heard that video evidence was likely to be shown at the trial, and almost a dozen witnesses are expected to be called to give their accounts of the alleged incident.
The court was told that Mrs Clark, of Huntly Grove, Peterborough, got drunk and abused workers at the hotel, which is opposite the city's railway station, on Sunday, June 15.
Anthea Harris, prosecuting, said: "The defendant was in a hotel. She was drunk and she was swearing and abusive to members of staff."
Mrs Clark faces two charges in connection with the alleged incident – using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour and being drunk and disorderly in a public place – both of which she denies.
She was due to appear before the court two weeks ago, but the hearing was adjourned until yesterday after she said she was not well enough to attend.
At the latest hearing her solicitor, Simon Milburn, said: "I have got full instructions from my client, and I'm instructed to enter not guilty pleas on her behalf.
"I would ask that the matter be listed for trial."
He added that she accepted she was at the hotel at the time of the alleged altercation, but said she was neither drunk nor abusive at the time.
Mrs Clark represented the city in Parliament for eight years after winning the seat in Labour's landslide election victory of 1997.
She was re-elected four years later, but lost out to the Conservative Party's current Peterborough MP, Stewart Jackson, in 2005.
Her trial is due to take place at the court on Wednesday, December 3, although the case will be heard by a district judge rather than magistrates.
The prosecution is likely to call five witnesses, including hotel workers and a police officer, while the defence will hear evidence from Mrs Clark, her husband and others.
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