Labour council
In 2004, he was mocked by a Sheriff Court judge after charges against two anti-war protesters were dropped after an altercation with the two protesters and a Labour council candidate. McAveety had claimed they had put him through the "worst intimidation in his life" during an altercation in the southside of Glasgow. In dismissing the case however, Sheriff Graeme Warner said that McAveety "must have lived a very sheltered life" and had "completely blown his credibility".