Three MPs and one peer to be charged over expenses

Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield face charges

Three Labour MPs and one Tory peer will face criminal charges over their expenses, Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer has said.

MPs Elliot Morley, Jim Devine, David Chaytor and Lord Hanningfield will be charged under the Theft Act.

All four have said they denied any charges and would defend their positions robustly.

Revelations about MPs' expenses emerged in May last year with the police going on to investigate a handful of cases.

Mr Starmer said there was "insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction" in the case of Labour peer Lord Clarke but said a sixth case remains under police investigation.

False accounting charges

Announcing the Crown Prosecution Service decision, Mr Starmer said: "In four cases, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges and that it is in the public interest to charge the individuals concerned.

"Accordingly, summonses in these cases have been obtained from the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court and will now be served on the individuals in question."

It means that the four will not be arrested but will be sent a summons to turn up on 11 March at the court - not far from Parliament.

All four Parliamentarians will face charges of false accounting made under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968. Anyone convicted faces a maximum sentence of seven years' imprisonment.

Former minister Elliot Morley, MP for Scunthorpe, will face two charges in relation to a total of £30,000 of mortgage interest claims on a property in Winterton, Lincolnshire between 2004 and 2007.

Mortgage claims

The charges allege he made claims "in excess of that to which he was entitled" and - for part of the period when "there was no longer a mortgage on that property".

David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, is accused of "dishonestly claiming" £1,950 for IT services and further sums of £12, 925 and £5,425 relating to rent claims on properties which he and his mother allegedly owned.

Livingston MP Jim Devine is accused of "dishonestly claiming" money for cleaning services and for stationery using false invoices.

Speaking outside his home he said it was the charges that were being brought were new and could be easily explained, adding: "I'm absolutely distraught and astonished at the decision that's been taken today."

In a joint statement, the three MPs said they were "clearly extremely disappointed" that charges were being brought.

"We totally refute any charges that we have committed an offence and we will defend our position robustly," the statement said.

"We are confident of our position and have been advised by eminent QCs."

'Vigorously' defend

They added that the issue should have been resolved by the Parliamentary Commissioner for standards and said while the expenses system had been "utterly discredited" they believed there had been "a complete inconsistency of approach to different individual cases".

Essex County Council leader Paul White - the Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield - is accused of "dishonestly" submitting claims "for expenses to which he knew he was not entitled" - including overnight stays in London.

CPS statement on MPs' expenses

He denied the charges and said he would "vigorously" defend himself against them adding: "All the claims I have ever made were made in good faith. I have never claimed more in expenses than I have spent in the course of my duties.

"To avoid any embarrassment or distraction for my party, I am standing down from my frontbench duties in the House of Lords with immediate effect."

The Conservatives said he had been suspended from the parliamentary party. David Chaytor and Elliot Morley were suspended from the parliamentary Labour party last May.

The solicitors acting for Lord Clarke said he was "hugely relieved that the nine month investigation into his claims under the House of Lords' Allowances Scheme has ended at last, and that he has been cleared of having committed any criminal offence".

Legal expert Joshua Rozenberg explains the charges

Legal analyst Joshua Rozenberg told the BBC that Keir Starmer and the MPs' joint statement implied that the issue of Parliamentary privilege might be used by defence lawyers.

It traditionally guarantees MPs and peers immunity from slander laws for statements in Parliamentary debate and also relates to access to the Parliamentary buildings.

But he said it appeared that lawyers had suggested it may extend to the charges faced - the MPs' statement said it was "an issue that should be resolved by the parliamentary commissioner who is there to enforce any breach of the rules".

In his statement Mr Starmer said: "We have considered that question and concluded that the applicability and extent of any Parliamentary privilege claimed should be tested in court."

US missionaries in Haiti charged with child abduction

US missionaries arrive at Haiti court

Haiti has charged 10 US missionaries with child abduction and criminal conspiracy for allegedly trying to smuggle 33 children out of the country.

Haitian officials said their cases would now be sent to an investigating judge who would decide how to proceed.

If convicted they face lengthy jail terms, says the BBC's Paul Adams, in Haiti's quake-hit capital city.

When stopped on the border last Friday, they said they were taking the children to a Dominican Republic orphanage.

But it has emerged some of the youngsters had parents who were alive.

'Kidnappers'

After the hearing the 10 missionaries were taken back to the jail where they have been kept since Friday.

Amid chaotic scenes, the group was bundled into a van outside the court.

"I feel good," the group's leader Laura Silsby told reporters. "I trust in God."

The five men and five women, most of them from Idaho, were due to have a hearing earlier in the week, but that was postponed because of a lack of interpreters.

Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has labelled the Americans "kidnappers".

Justice Minister Paul Denis said they should be tried in Haiti despite the damage done to the country's judicial infrastructure and casualties among judges and court staff.

There have been suggestions the 10 could be tried in the US.

"It is Haitian law that has been violated, it is up to the Haitian authorities to hear and judge the case," he told AFP news agency.

"I don't see any reason why they should be tried in the United States."

The US ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, met with the group at police headquarters after the hearing.

"We'd like to assure they get treated according to the law, the Haitian law, and that they get treated fairly," he said.

A state department spokesman in Washington said the US was watching the case closely and would continue to offer assistance, through its consulate, to the group.

'Single village'

The children, who are from aged from two to 12, are now in the care of the Austrian-run SOS Children's Village in Port-au-Prince.

The missionaries have said they were not trying to kidnap the children

Twenty-one of the children are from a single village outside the capital and were handed over willingly by their parents, says the BBC's Paul Adams, in Port-au-Prince.

Residents in the village of Callebas told an Associated Press news agency reporter they had handed their children over through a local orphanage worker who said he was acting on the Americans' behalf.

The worker is said to have promised the families that the missionaries would educate their children in neighbouring Dominican Republic.

A number of parents in the badly-damaged village said they would find it difficult to provide for their children if they came back.

Ms Silsby has said her group had met a Haitian pastor by chance when they arrived last week, and that he had helped them gather the children. She also admitted that they did not have the proper paperwork.

"Our intent was to help only those children that needed us most, that had lost either both their mother and father, or had lost one of their parents and the other had abandoned them," she said from her jail cell on Wednesday.