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As the world marks international women’s day, a top barrister has issued a new plea for the reputation of Christine Keeler, the model at the heart of Britain’s most notorious sex scandal, to be cleared.
Felicity Gerry KC has been fighting the case to clear Ms Keeler’s name for the past five years and spoke to The Independent about how the young model best known for her brief relationship with former war secretary John Profumo may finally have her reputation restored.
The Profumo scandal, often described as Britain’s first modern political sex scandal, saw the 1963 resignation of then secretary for war John Profumo after he lied to parliament about his affair with Ms Keeler. The model was later pursued in court on unrelated charges.
“She was only 19 when all this happened and she had to live with it for the rest of her life with people saying and reporting what they wanted about her, most of it not true,” Dr Gerry said.
Dr Gerry is acting pro bono on behalf of Ms Keeler’s son, Seymour Platt, who made a death-bed promise to his mother in 2017 to have her exonerated. The pair have issued a petition of mercy, which would revoke or provide a full pardon for her alleged crimes if successful.
The case was referred to the Criminal Case Review Commission by the last Tory government but has not progressed.
Ms Keeler’s legal troubles began when a former lover, a Jamaican jazz singer called Lucky Gordon, attacked her in the street. At the trial he was allowed to defend himself and question her in the stand.
Dr Gerry said victims now are protected from their alleged abusers being able to question them in court. “He’s really aggressive in his cross examination of her,” she said.
Gordon appealed his conviction after Keeler revealed she had not mentioned the names of two men present during the attack, leading to Gordon being cleared and Keeler being accused of lying to the court.
Dr Gerry said that by the time Ms Keeler’s trial came up in December 1963 “she had lost the will to fight and pleaded guilty [to perjury] out of exhaustion.”
She said that neither Lucky Gordon’s appeal nor Keeler’s trial would have been accepted now under modern guidelines regarding abuse. “It is incredible that the man who attacked her should walk away free but she should go to prison,” she said.
Around the same time, Stephen Ward, an osteopath who had introduced Ms Keeler to Mr Profumo, was tried over several counts of living off the earnings of prostitution and of procuring immoral earnings. The allegations were the basis of false claims made about Ms Keeler, who was forced to give evidence during the trial, being a prostitute.
Before the trial concluded Ward was found dead in his flat, having overdosed.
But Dr Gerry, a renowned international lawyer, described Ms Keeler’s convictions in 1963 as “classic victim blaming” in a misogynist legal system with an establishment “undoubtedly” bent on revenge for the Profumo scandal which in effect brought down Harold MacMillan’s government.
“What people don’t realise is that Christine was not convicted for the Profumo affair. She was falsely described as a prostitute, people spat at her in the street. She was just 19 at the time and she had to live with that for the rest of her life,” she said.
Dr Gerry compared the situation to John Profumo, the minister who had an affair with Keeler and resigned in disgrace for lying about it in parliament.
“He has been rehabilitated. He got himself a plum job, as these men do, on some charity, and does great work for that charity, because that’s what the aristocrats do is they have enough money to work for charity.
“She could not get a job, or if she did and they found out who she was, she would lose it.”
Now, Dr Gerry is hopeful that with a female lord chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, and the first ever female lord chief justice Dame Sue Carr, that these women can deliver justice for Ms Keeler.
“If a lady chief justice were to give justice to Christine Keeler it would be a great thing. And this lady chief justice has the guts to do it. She really has. So we’re hopeful that the criminal Cases Review Commission will refer it to the Court of Appeal and we will finally clear Christine’s name.”
