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Prescott faces charges over sex
07/05/2006 14:09 - (SA)
London - Scotland Yard said on Sunday it would consider a complaint from a retired police officer that deputy prime minister John Prescott had broken the law by having sex with his civil service secretary.
"We will consider it in due course", said a police spokesperson. Any decision on further action would be made in consultation with the Crown Prosecution Office (CPS), she said.
Tracey Temple, Prescott's former secretary, says the couple had sex in his Whitehall office while they were both meant to be working.
Prescott, who was stripped of his ministerial department in a government reshuffle on Friday, has admitted the affair but says many of Temple's recollections are untrue.
Alistair Watson, a former Glasgow police officer, said he was making the complaint "in the interest of equality of justice", the Sunday Times reported.
Watson wrote to Ian Blair, Britain's most senior police officer, to say that Prescott may have committed the offence of misconduct in public office, the paper said, an offence carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
In his letter, Watson refers to a former Greater Manchester constable who was sentenced to 200 hours of community service last year for misconduct of public office after having sex with a woman at her home three times while on duty.
Watson also said Temple should forfeit any money she was paid for selling her story to newspapers.
"This is not malicious," said Watson. "If there are rules that apply to ordinary people, John Prescott should be treated the same, or more harshly."
In guidance on its website, the CPS says a charge of misconduct in public office "should be reserved for cases of serious misconduct or deliberate failure to perform a duty which is likely to injure the public interest".
The Office of the deputy prime minister said: "The matter is being looked at. There will be a response to parliament in due course."
- Reuters
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