An MP's wife appeared before magistrates today charged with burgling the house of her husband's lover and stealing a tabby kitten worth £20.

Christine Margaret Hemming, wife of the Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, John Hemming, was not required to enter a plea during a brief appearance at the city's magistrates court.

Hemming, of Moseley, Birmingham, is alleged to have burgled the home of Emily Cox on the night of 29 September. The MP fathered a child with Cox, a researcher, in 2005.

Magistrates granted Hemming, 52, conditional bail until a committal hearing for crown court trial on 16 December.

The MP, elected in 2005, was unavailable for comment.

The fate of the cat was not made clear in court, but a picture of the animal, apparently called Beauty, was posted on the MP's blog under the heading "kitten missing" at 8.07am today. The photograph was accompanied by a message which read: "If anyone has seen this kitten please contact me at the House of Commons. There is a reward for its return."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/2 ... -cat-theft

I would have thought that the cat would have been chipped. That would resolve the ownership issue.

I quite like a potato chipped, not sure how I feel about chipped cat....

A case of hello,hello,hello kitteh?

I doubt you'd chip animals when they were newborn. There's not much of them to put the chip in.

No pussy jokes!