MS faces ban for touching women on night out

A politician is to be banned from the Senedd for six weeks after he was found to have inappropriately touched and swore at two women while he was drunk on a night out.

The Senedd's standards committee said Rhys ab Owen had shown "no remorse" for the events in Cardiff on 30 June 2021.

Rhys ab Owen denied "any improper conduct" towards the women, according to the committee.

Mr ab Owen apologised "to those who were affected by my behaviour".

The 42-day ban will need to be passed by the Senedd next week, and will mean that he will be stripped of his salary. It will not include recess.

It is the biggest sanction against a Member of the Senedd that has ever been implemented.

But because of the rules of the Welsh Parliament, and unlike Westminster, Mr ab Owen does not face a recall petition.

Mr ab Owen was elected as a Plaid Cymru Senedd member in 2021. He was suspended from the party group in November 2022.

Plaid said on Wednesday night that he was now suspended from the party itself.

In a statement, Mr ab Owen said it was "not up to the standard the public expects of a member of the Senedd, and for that I apologise unreservedly".

He added: "Whatever challenge I might have with the particulars of the complaint, or how it was subsequently investigated, is a separate matter on which I am considering my next steps."

The results of the investigation into Mr ab Owen's conduct come almost three years after the event took place, and more than a year since he was suspended from the Plaid Cymru group.

The call by the standards committee for Mr ab Owen to be banned from the Senedd follows an investigation by the standards commissioner Douglas Bain.

A Senedd spokesperson said: "The Senedd's Standards of Conduct Committee has taken time and a great deal of care to reach its conclusions on this complex and sensitive case.

"It is now up to Members of the Senedd to consider the Committee's findings ahead of the debate on 13 March."