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MP’s son guilty of club assaults
THE son of Maidstone and Mid- KentMPHelen Grant has pleaded guilty to assault. Benjamin Grant (22),was cleared
of causing grievous bodily harm to Ryan Behn (19), but ad- mitted as- saulting two other men – Jack Yarde (20) and Cur- tis Wenham (19),
which he was given a two-
year conditional discharge by the trial judge because of “very excep- tional circumstances”. Grant, a former Royal Marine,
who gave his address as the MP’s Surrey home in the stockbroker belt of Kingswood, Tadworth had just returned from a four-week exercise on Salisbury Plain with the Com- mando Logistics Brigade, where he served as a driver, when the inci- dent occurred in November last year. He and co-accused James Stott
(30), from York, went out with friends in Barnstaple, Devon where their fracas outside a nightclubwas captured on CCTV. The cameras recorded the son of
the sport and tourism minister in an argument with Mr Yarde, who, he
said, repeatedly racially insulted him.
for
Grant told the court: “I don’t take offence at racial banter but it is dif- ferent if someone you don’t know says it in a nasty way.” He said he would have walked away if Mr Yarde had apologised. CCTV showed Mr Yarde shout something asMrWenham stepped in to keep them apart. Grant then pushed him away before punching Mr Yarde in the face and grabbing Mr Behn in a headlock and drag- ging him to the ground, leaving himwith a broken jaw. Defence barristers had argued it
was impossible to say who had in- flicted the broken jaw and that both were acting either in self defence or in defence of the other. Following a week-long trial, a
jury at Exeter Crown Court cleared Grant and Stott of causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Behn. Judge Phillip Wassall accepted
Grant had suffered “extreme racist provocation” and said further pun- ishmentwould be inappropriate. Grant had left the Royal Marines
since the incident. Hewasworking and his girlfriendwas heavily preg- nant.
Minister Helen Grant MP de- scribed seeing her son awarded his green beret three years ago as “one of the proudest days of her life”.
Tories drop their bid to replace planning chief
THEConservative group on Maid- stone Council has failed to gain a stranglehold on the planning com- mittee after deciding not to pursue a proposal to remove chairman Cllr Clive English. Due to the Conservatives losing
four seats at theMay election and a delay in Cllr Richard Ash register- ing his membership of the party for the forthcoming year, the Lib Dems were able to garner enough support to vote in Cllr English as the chairman of the committee. The role is a key one, because if
votes are split the chairman has the casting vote. Members of all politi- cal groups deny that the planning committee is whipped, but they tend to vote along party lines. It is thought the Conservatives
felt the committee’s decision in July to refuse a proposal for 220 homes on the playing fields at New Line Learning Academy in Boughton Lane,Maidstonewas motivated by politics, to ensure the Lib Dems re-
tained the support of the North Loose Residents’ Association. Lib Dem councillors voted to re-
fuse the scheme while the Conser- vatives were in favour, apart from Cllr Mike Hogg, a localward mem- ber, who voted against his party to help scupper the proposal. But with Cllr Ash now signed
into the committee as a Conserva- tive, and confidence within the group that it could win support from UKIP Cllr Christine Ed- wards-Daem, the Tories arranged an agenda item – Removal of chair- man – for a planning committee meeting inmid August. However, Cllr Dennis Collins,
the Conservative spokesman for planning, said he did not want to pursue the item.He said: “We have every confidence he will make de- cisions on the merits of the appli- cations and not for political gain.” Cllr English said: “The item was withdrawn so I don’t intend to worry about it any more.”
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