Son of late Christine Keeler says she may be cleared of conviction
Justice for Christine Keeler? Son of Profumo affair icon pushes for his mother to be posthumously cleared of conviction her family say was trumped up to discredit her amid sex scandal
- Christine Keeler’s son Seymour Platt says mum may have conviction overturned
The son of Profumo affair icon Christine Keeler has revealed that his late mother could finally receive justice 60 years after she was jailed for lying in court.
Seymour Platt, 51, is hoping that his mother’s conviction could be referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Case Review Commission within a few weeks.
He said a 200-page report will ensure that Ms Keeler’s conviction is posthumously overturned, a report said.
Ms Keeler died in 2017, aged 75.
The model was at the heart of Britain’s most infamous sex scandal after she and war minister John Profumo had an extra-marital affair when she was 19 years old.
Her family has maintained that unrelated charges brought against her were trumped up to discredit her amid the sex scandal which ultimately contributed to the downfall of Harold Macmillan’s Tory Government.
The son of Profumo affair icon Christine Keeler (pictured in 1964) has revealed that his late mother could finally receive justice ahead 60 years after she was jailed for lying in court
Seymour Platt (pictured), 51, is hoping that his mother’s conviction could be referred to the Court of Appeal by the Criminal Case Review Commission within a few weeks
Model Christine Keeler pictured in 1964 in a bathing suit, after she served a stint in prison
The model was at the heart of Britain’s most infamous sex scandal after she and war minister John Profumo (pictured in 1962) had an extra-marital affair when she was 19-years-old
Ms Keeler was handed a nine-month prison sentence for perjury in December 1963.
She said had been attacked by a stalker, Aloysius ‘Lucky’ Gordon in April 1963, but he won an appeal after it was discovered that she told the court two witnesses were not there.
However, her son’s legal team, which is led by top human rights barrister Felicity Gerry, say this was not relevant as the court had been told there was no was ‘no doubt’ that he assaulted her and that she lived in fear of him, the Mirror reports.
It was also alleged that Ms Keeler was pressured by the two witnesses who went on to admit they had seen Gordon attack her.
Her son told The Mirror that it was ‘wrong that she went to prison’ and that she was ‘exploited and abused by powerful men’.
Mr Platt vowed to ‘fulfil a promise to tell the truth about her life’ and to clear his late mother’s name.
Ms Keeler was branded a ‘prostitute’ in the press and as a ‘harlot’ by then-Prime Minister Harold Wilson after her affair with Profumo and Soviet attache Yevgeny Ivanov in the midst of the Cold War.
Staff at the CCRC have been trawling through archived notes from her barrister Lord Jeremy Hutchinson, who begged the judge not the jail her. They are also questioning top KCs who are connected to the case.
Mr Platt lives with his wife Lorraine, 49 and daughter Daisy, 15, in Longford, Ireland, said that his mother’s case is ‘just so sad’. ‘She shouldn’t have gone to prison and if she shouldn’t have gone to prison, she wasn’t a liar,’ he said.
Christine Keeler pictured in 2006 carrying a newspaper under her arm
Seymour Platt with a portrait of his mother, Christine Keeler, painted by Fionn Wilson
Cliveden House,in Buckinghamshire (pictured in 1963) where Ms Keeler caught Profumo’s eye when she swam naked
He said the men she was with in 1963 all saw her as ‘their property’ and exploited her.
Mr Platt said the documents prove that his mother was ‘beaten up in the street and she went to prison’.
He also slammed the accusations of her being a prostitute as ‘ridiculous’ as she was ‘broke’ and he went into poverty as she found it impossible to earn money.
The dutiful son revealed that his mother wrote in her will that she wanted him to share the truth about her life.
She was a dancer based in Soho, London when she met osteopath Stephen Ward, who introduced her into high society.
He took her to a gathering at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire in July 1961 where she caught Profumo’s eye when she swam naked.
Christine Keeler Christine Keeler on her way to the Old Bailey on June 7, 1963
Crowds outside the Old Bailey surge forward as Christine Keeler leaves court on July 23, 1963
Christine Keeler poses in a swimsuit on a sun lounger on a beach in Cannes in May 1963
After emerged the then 19-year-old Keeler had been sleeping with former Secretary of State for War John Profumo, then 48, at the same time a handsome Russian spy Evgeny Ivanov, Profumo lied to the House of Commons about his affair.
He was soon found out and Keeler sold her story to the News of The World for £23,000.
In June 1963, he quit in disgrace, amid allegations Keeler had been asked by Ivanov to discover from the War Minister when the West Germans might receive U.S. nuclear missiles to be stationed on their soil.
Profumo had been a rising star of the Tory Party, close to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, a favoured visitor at Buckingham Palace, a war hero and the dashing husband of actress Valerie Hobson, one of the great beauties of her day.
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