R vs LORD ARCHER ( 2001 )

Guilty Archer gets four years

DAILY MAIL online

19th JULY , 2001.

Millionaire novelist Lord Archer was jailed for four years today after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice and perjury at the Old Bailey.
Before sentencing him the judge Mr Justice Potts told Archer: "These charges represent as serious an offence of perjury as I have had experience of and have been able to find in the books."
The jury found him guilty of lying and cheating in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star. He was convicted on two counts of perverting the course of justice and two of perjury.
His former friend and co-defendant Ted Francis was cleared of perverting the course of justice by providing Archer with a false alibi.
Archer was cleared of one count of perverting the course of justice. The jury took 23 hours and 39 minutes to reach its unanimous verdicts on each count.
Archer, 61, used false diaries and concocted a bogus story in his defence of the newspaper's claims he slept with prostitute Monica Coghlan. Both men had denied the charges.
The judge said Archer would have to serve at least half of the four year sentence and also ordered him to pay £175,000 costs within 12 months.
He told the peer: "Sentencing you Lord Archer gives me no pleasure at all , I assure you.
"It has been a extremely distasteful case, I can tell you."
The judge, who was conducting his last case, said it was the most serious case of perjury he had come across.
He said he had to bear in mind that Archer had resumed his political career and gone from "strength to strength" after committing the crime.
Archer, who was ordered to pay £175,000 costs within 12 months, was told by the judge he would have to serve at least half of his sentence.
He was sentenced to two years for the first count of perverting the course of justice, four years for a second similar charge, three years for count five of perjury and four years for count six, also of perjury. The sentences are to run concurrently.
There was a shout of "yes" from the public gallery as Archer's first guilty verdict was delivered by the jury foreman.
The novelist showed no reaction as he stood in the dock. His wife Mary, Lady Archer, who was sat at the back of the court inches away from the packed press area, remained composed. She stared slightly downwards, sitting with her hands clasped on her knees and her legs crossed.
She was accompanied by their 29-year-old son William, who was perched on the edge of his chair as he listened to the verdict. He also showed no reaction.
As Francis was cleared of his charge, Archer pursed his lips.
Retired television producer Francis, 67, of Cranleigh, Surrey, was instructed to sit back down and he remained in the dock with his head bowed.
Outside court, Mr Francis said: "I'd just like to say that as you can imagine I'm enormously relieved that the whole business is over and done with.
"I'd also like to say a great deal of thanks to my wife and my family, my friends, for all the support and help they've given me and for never doubting that it will turn out all right."
Archer's youngest son James, 27, was not in court for the verdict. His eldest son William sat by his mother with their heads bowed.
James then pushed his way to where his mother and brother were sitting in the packed court room. The three put their heads together in a huddle for whispered conversation. Lord Archer continued to stare ahead.
Archer was found guilty of two charges of perjury and two of perverting the course of justice.
The first charge was that he perverted the course of justice by asking Ted Francis to give him a false alibi.
The second guilty verdict was on a charge that he perverted the course of justice by using a fake diary in the libel trial.
He was found to have perjured himself in an affidavit to the High Court for the libel action. He was also found to have perjured himself on oath during the libel trial.
He was cleared of a final count of perverting the course of justice in relation to a diary used in the libel case, in which he was awarded £500,000 after the Daily Star claimed he slept with a prostitute.
Prosecuting, David Waters QC, told the judge Mr Justice Potts the minimum cost of the Old Bailey trial would be £256,000.
As the verdicts were given in the modern courtroom number 8, Archer moved slightly back and forwards in the dock.
Earlier, in the anxious minutes leading up to the foreman's announcement, Archer, dressed in a grey suit, tie and lilac shirt, sat back on his seat.
To his left his co-defendant Francis who had earlier mingled with journalists waiting outside the court, leaned forward in anticipation.
Lady Archer, a 56-year-old Cambridge don, whispered to her son William at the back of the court.
She was wearing an immaculate navy blue jacket and dress adorned with a silver cross necklace and matching navy blue high-heeled shoes.
She initially sat with her feet firmly together and her head raised as she looked around the room.
Millionaire novelist Archer glanced in the direction of his wife and up to public gallery as he waited for the judge and jury to enter.
Archer was found guilty of dishonesty by an Old Bailey jury which had been told he was "the author of his own misfortune".
David Waters QC, prosecuting, said Archer was a man who was ruled by ambition - and resorted to dishonesty mixed with arrogance when obstacles were put in his way.
"Whatever successive allegation or obstacle he faced, his instinct and solution was to manipulate events and fabricate a dishonest answer," Mr Waters had told the jury.
Mr Waters said Archer had intended that the Ted Francis alibi would be used in the libel action "to avoid disastrous consequences to his political ambitions".
The court was told that Archer used faked diaries to win the case after the Star said he had slept with prostitute Monica Coghlan while deputy chairman of the Conservative Party in September 1986.
Archer asked his friend Francis for a false alibi when lawyers made a mistake over the date.
Francis said he agreed to say that he was having dinner with Archer in the Sambuca restaurant in Chelsea because he thought the author was in trouble with Lady Archer for having been with his mistress, Andrina Colquhoun.
But the date was then changed back to the previous night, when Archer said he was with his film agent Terence Baker.
However, solicitors asked for records and Archer was forced to produce diaries to back Mr Baker's testimony in court in July 1987.
In order to cover up a contradictory entry for Mr Baker in his main office diary at Conservative Central Office, he substituted it with a blank A4 diary.
He gave it to his secretary Angela Peppiatt and ordered her to copy a list of entries which he had written.
But she had misgivings, and made photocopies at various stages of the diaries and got another secretary to counter-sign a note which said that she was acting on her boss's orders.
The diaries were produced in the libel trial with pages partially covered.
Archer made a sworn statement shortly before the libel case stating that there were no other diaries in existence.
Francis showed the News of the World alibi letters he had written in 1999 in order to stop Archer continuing his bid to be Mayor of London.
Archer stood down saying he had lied to protect Miss Colquhoun - but was arrested after it turned out she was in Greece at the time.
Mrs Peppiatt became the star prosecution witness at the Old Bailey when she produced her photocopies and the genuine 1986 office diary.
She denied defence claims that she was trying to frame her former boss to cover her tracks after being sacked for fiddling her expenses.
Archer decided not to give evidence and called Lady Archer to refute allegations about their marriage, and to say she remembered an A4 diary being in use in 1986.
Mr Francis looked delighted as he left the court. He shook hands with his lawyers and smiled at waiting journalists, giving some the occasional wink.
The retired television producer walked from the courtroom dressed in a blue blazer and carrying his now trademark holdall over his shoulder. He declined to comment on the outcome, but his representative said they would be giving a statement later on.
In court Nicholas Purnell QC in mitigation said of Lord Archer: "He has over a period of a long and impressive career given much of himself both to the political party he supported and perhaps more important in the pursuit of charitable aims."
But Mr Justice Potts said in sentencing: "You went on to win (the 1987 libel case) having persuaded the judge and the jury of your case and I can't overlook the fact that there is evidence before me that had the court and the jury in July 1987 known the facts, it's unlikely in the extreme that you would have succeeded.
"Since then I can't overlook the fact that you have gone from strength to strength."
The judge added that at some stage Archer had become a Lord and said that being a noble had to be taken into account in sentencing.
Mr Justice Potts said: "I cannot overlook the fact that there is evidence before me that if the court and jury in July 1987, had known the facts, it is unlikely in the extreme that you would have succeeded.
"Since then I cannot overlook the fact that you have gone from strength to strength. You have resumed your political career and you were ennobled and became a member of the House of Lords."
The judge added that he regarded the way in which Archer had obtained the services of his secretary Angela Peppiatt "very seriously indeed".
Archer is to lodge an appeal against his conviction, his solicitor Tony Morton-Hooper said.