THE Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Ken Maginnis, has been questioned by Scotland Yard officers after allegedly punching his 65-year-old neighbour in the face during a row over noise at a block of flats close to the House of Commons.
A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed yesterday that Mr Maginnis had been questioned by officers for over an hour at Belgravia police station on Friday. However, he stressed that nobody had been arrested or charged.
Belgravia police are investigating an alleged assault on a 65-year-old man. Officers have spoken to all the parties involved and a report will be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, he added.
After studying the report the CPS will decide if there is enough evidence against Mr Maginnis to charge him over the alleged assault.
The alleged incident occurred late on Wednesday night after Mr Charles O'Byrne, a retired businessman, went to complain about the hammering and banging allegedly caused by Mr Maginnis's DIY work.
After knocking on the door of Mr Maginnis's first-floor Westminster flat, Mr O'Byrne claimed, he was punched in the mouth following a brief argument over the level of the noise. The police were called and, after questioning both men, they took Mr O'Byrne to St Thomas's Hospital, central London. He received nine stitches for his injuries.
Mr O'Byrne later made a formal statement to the police. Mr Maginnis, who uses the flat as a base in London when he is attending parliament, was unavailable for comment yesterday. It is understood he and his wife, Joy, are now on holiday in northern Cyprus.
One resident at the block of flats said there had been tension between Mr Maginnis and Mr O'Byrne for some time. "They have been getting on each other's nerves for a while. We don't know what the noise problem was," he added.
Mr Maginnis is the Ulster Unionist MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone and is the party's spokesman on security issues. In July 1987 he was jailed for five days after being convicted of failing to tax his car as part of a civil disobedience protest against the Anglo-Irish Agreement.