Chch councillor seeking help after alcohol-related incident

  • 12/02/2016
Jamie Gough (Facebook)
Jamie Gough (Facebook)

Christchurch city councillor Jamie Gough will escape disciplinary action after an alcohol-fueled incident earlier this week.

Mr Gough was at Aikmans Bar in Merivale on Monday where he was accused of being foul and sexist towards a group of women.

Sam Emerson, who was at the same bar as Mr Gough, posted on his public Facebook page:

"Hey mate, you were absolutely disgusting at Aikmans last night. Your attitude to the girls in my group was foul and incredibly sexist. Clean your act up."

Under the council's code of conduct they can't discipline Mr Gough as he is not a chair person of any council committees. He has decided to seek professional help after the incident.

Mr Gough has since apologised for the incident and released this statement:

"Rather than talking about the incident covered in The Press this morning, with the support of my family, I have made the decision to get professional help as there is a problem and it is time to deal with it properly.  I am really sorry for the hurt I have caused those closest to me and for any offence I have caused anyone.  I am respectfully asking that I be given the privacy to deal with this with professional help and out of the spotlight. I appreciate that as a Councillor there is an expectation of a standard of behaviour at all times -- I have fallen well short of that.  More importantly to me though is the impact on those I love and that's also why I am getting help and asking for privacy to do that.  My priorities at the moment are getting this help, focusing on my loved ones and doing my job as a Councillor.  I hope you can understand and respect this. I will be saying the above to any media that approach me and I won't be undertaking any further interviews on this.  Thank you for your consideration."

It's not the first time Mr Gough has made the headlines for the wrong reasons after he was kicked out of the Cancer Society Ball last year for being too intoxicated. There was also a run-in on the previous year with a taxi driver for not having his wallet on him to pay the fare.

Mr Gough has since apologised for the incident and says he needs to "smarten up his act".

Newshub.