Government MP Arthur Pitcher walked out of Magistrates' Court a happy man yesterday after being cleared of assaulting one of his construction workers.

Magistrate William Francis said he did not believe Mr. Pitcher had used excessive force when he pushed worker Ryan Fox out of his face and walked him out of the door following a row at the Southside housing development in August last year.

Mr. Francis said a doctor for Mr. Fox had stated that although he suffered a neck sprain, probably the result of a whiplash motion caused by the alleged push, it had likely been brought on by the fact that he had suffered serious neck injuries in a road accident years earlier.

The doctor said any normal person would probably not have suffered the same kind of sprain after being pushed away.

Mr. Francis said: "The only reason this man suffered this was because of his prior injury."

The magistrate said he had doubts about the version of events given by the alleged victim and his colleague Anthony Foggo, who both claimed that Mr. Pitcher had flown at Mr. Fox in a rage and thrown him several feet across a room into a wall, causing him to collapse to the ground.

He added: "I have doubts about the version of events put forward by the prosecution witnesses. I give the benefit of the doubt to the accused and find him not guilty."

Outside the court, Mr. Pitcher, who is MP for St. George's South, said he was happy it was all finally over.

"I always believed that there was no case here and I felt confident all along that I would be found not guilty," said Mr. Pitcher.

"The community was encouraging me to hang in there and they gave me the strength I needed. They knew the characters involved in this and they believed in me.

"I was not only surprised when this case came about, I was amazed. I thought that after he (Mr. Fox) left the site that day after I fired him, that would be the end of it. I had even offered to pay him right until the minute he left.

"This incident has not been a major thing on my mind for the past year because I felt the judgement would be in my favour, but I'm glad it's over."

The court had heard earlier how Mr. Pitcher had returned to the site to find a specific task not completed by Mr. Fox, and instead the worker was sleeping through his lunch break. The MP had said it was not the first time that something like that had happened.

Mr. Pitcher said he was prepared to let the incident go, as Mr. Fox had a young family, but the worker began to get abusive to him, and came up into his face shouting profanities.

In the end, he said he pushed Mr. Fox out of his face, and then frog-marched him to the door and told him he was sacked.

He said although Mr. Fox had fallen to the ground after being pushed away, he believed the labourer had been acting and had deliberately stumbled to make the incident look worse.

Yesterday Mr. Pitcher said: "I have never had anything like this happen to me before. I'm mild-mannered, and most people in the community know me as mild-tempered. I'm always willing to give people an opportunity in life, especially those finding it difficult to get work.

"But this has been a costly lesson. I tried to be a social worker and a businessman at the same time. I have finally realised that I can't be both, although I will continue to try to help people."