A British lawmaker pleads guilty to assaulting a man in the street

LONDON (AP) — A British lawmaker pleaded guilty Thursday to beating a man in a street during an incident captured on video.

Mike Amesbury, 55, a member of Parliament who was suspended by the ruling center-left Labour Party after the Oct. 26 incident, pleaded guilty in Chester Magistrates’ Court to assaulting a 45-year-old man.

Amesbury punched his constituent Paul Fellows in the head on a sidewalk in the town of Frodsham, in the northwest of England, and knocked him to the ground after Fellows complained to him about a bridge closure in town, prosecutor Alison Storey said. Amesbury then continued to hit Fellows at least five more times while he was down as others yelled for him to stop.

“You won’t ever threaten me again, will you?” Amesbury yelled at Fellows in a video circulated on social media.

Both men had been drinking before the incident that happened in the early morning.

Amesbury, whose constituency of Runcorn and Helsby includes Frodsham, had been at a meeting earlier that night about community safety and policing.

District Judge Tanveer Ikram said that while Fellows was not seriously injured, the additional punches were an aggravating factor that would be taken into consideration before Amesbury’s Feb. 24 sentencing.

Amesbury told reporters he was “sincerely sorry” for what happened to Fellows and called it “deeply regrettable.”

Defense lawyer Richard Derby said whatever punishment Amesbury receives will not exceed the shame and embarrassment he has suffered.

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