'I'll sue Prescott if I am charged'

by ANDREW CHAPMAN and ALISTAIR SELF, Mail on Sunday

The farmworker sensationally punched by John Prescott today reveals his full, extraordinary story in The Mail on Sunday.

Craig Evans, 29, tells how he was so badly roughed up in the brawl that worried officers had to call a police surgeon to examine him.

Mr Evans threatens to launch a private prosecution against the Deputy Prime Minister - and reveals the unforgettable 'mad glint' that he saw in the eyes of the enraged politician.

'He was boiling with rage,' says Craig Evans in an exclusive interview. 'He didn't hit me in self-defence, or because he was scared.

'He hit me because he was angry. It was pure anger.'

Mr Evans, who threw the egg that provoked the Prescott attack, faces police action.

But his claim will intensify pressure on the police to also consider charges against Mr Prescott.

Labour has maintained that the Environment and Transport Secretary acted not out of temper, but from a controlled desire to protect himself.

Critics of Mr Prescott, who celebrates his 63rd birthday next week, will also question whether the former merchant seaman and amateur boxer only used reasonable force, which is all that is permitted by law.

Mr Evans reveals that he had a bloodied nose and bruising to his lip and shoulder. Officers who took him into custody were 'concerned' about his condition.

In today's interview, Mr Evans threatens that if he is prosecuted by the police and Mr Prescott is not, he will launch his own civil proceedings against the Deputy Prime Minister.

Well-wishers have besieged him with offers - of up to £50,000 - to fund such an action.

A spokesman for his solicitors said: 'If our client is prosecuted we will ask the police to bring proceedings against John Prescott for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, a more serious charge, in which case he should have been arrested when he hit Craig.

'He might have a case for provocation, but the issue under law would be a question of whether he used reasonable force.

'In this country, all men are equal before the law.' Mr Evans says he wishes he had not thrown the egg and does not want to be seen as a hero.

But he also describes the growing frustration within rural communities and their resentment at being ignored or patronised by the Government.

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