Expenses case ex-MP ‘suicidal’

Former Labour MP Margaret Moran will not face a jury on charges of fiddling her expenses, after a judge determined that she is not fit to plead.

Former Labour MP Margaret Moran will not face a jury on charges of fiddling her expenses, after a judge determined that she is not fit to plead.

Mr Justice Saunders said the 56-year-old would not have to appear in court, after hearing evidence from consultant forensic psychiatrist Philip Joseph that Moran, who was described as a “broken woman”, was suffering from a depressive illness and extreme anxiety and agitation.

He considered reports from doctors for both the prosecution and the defence.

Dr Joseph told Lewes Crown Court, East Sussex, that the stress of the proceedings and allegations Moran was facing made it impossible for her to participate in court proceedings.

He said: “There have been concerns at times that she has been suicidal and concerns about attempts to harm herself.”

Dr Joseph told the court that the former MP felt feelings of abandonment and rejection by the Labour Party and shame that her career was over.

Moran was described as weeping inconsolably when she appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court last year on 15 charges of false accounting and six of using a false instrument relating to expense claims totalling about £80,000.