Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce Jailed
Southwark, London The 11th of March 2013 AD
Even that fine and appropriately Greek word hubris fails to do justice to the activities of then husband and wife Chris Huhne and Athens-born Vicky Pryce when in 2003 the two of them attempted to beat the system that had been so wonderful for them both.
As subsequently revealed, then MEP Huhne was driving from Stansted Airport to London on March 12 2003 when his car was recorded travelling above the speed limit. Given any additional points meant he potentially faced losing his licence, not good for any politician, he persuaded his wife the economist Vicky Pryce, to take them as if she had been the driver. They perverted the course of justice.
And they would have got away with it if it hadn’t been for – not those pesky kids, but the affair that with their divorce in 2011 ended the marriage. Hell hath no fury etc. Rumours about Huhne having cheated the law appear to have been started by his ex-wife. When they became very public his office said: 'The allegations made against Chris Huhne are simply incorrect.’ Wrong.
The until recently Secretary of State for Energy Huhne pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice on February 4 2013. His wife accepted that she had taken the points for him, but this corporate big-hitter used the defence of marital coercion. The jury in her first trial failed to reach a verdict. A retrial followed swiftly with no such difficulties, that jury unanimously finding her guilty.
Huhne and Pryce were both given eight-month prison sentences beginning on March 11. They were, however, released on May 13. Soon after his release Huhne was given airtime on Today and The Sunday Politics Show, and a regular Guardian column. Ms Pryce inevitably published a book linked to her imprisonment, and in July appeared as an expert witness before a House of Lords sub-committee. She too featured on Today. Like Jonathan Aitken before them the pair have apparently been welcomed back by the establishment.
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