And Profumo was still enjoying high society. On 22 April he attended a ball to celebrate the wedding of Angus Olgilvy and Princess Alexandra and dined with the Queen Mother. Two days later, he was at the top table of the Rose Ball held at Grosvenor House, and by the weekend he was at Chequers.2
According to Keeler, Profumo’s change of heart was because, by 4 April, aware of the police investigation into him, Ward was threatening to expose Profumo.3 On 7 May, Ward made an appointment to see Timothy Bligh, Macmillan’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, who he told he was unhappy to continue lying to cover for Profumo.4 Ward complained the investigation was hurting his professional reputation. Ahead of their meeting, Bligh had informed Redmayne and Macmillan of Ward’s request, and spoken to Simpson, who told Bligh that the investigation into Ward was ongoing with an arrest possible, although the case was weak.5
During the meeting, which was also attended by MI5 Officer Lieutenant Colonel Malcolm Cumming, who secretly taped the proceedings, Ward said that Profumo’s personal statement to the Commons was a lie, and that the police harassment of him was politically motivated. During the recording, Ward explained that the material, which he had a lot of, was dangerous for the government, which was viewed as an attempt to blackmail the politicians into bringing an end to the criminal investigation he was under.6 Bligh reported what Ward had said to Macmillan as a blackmail threat, Macmillan asked for Profumo to be questioned again, but he still stuck to his story that he had not had an affair.
Knightley and Kennedy, however, also think that during his conversation with Bligh, Ward may have thought the police were unaware that he was (in his mind) working for MI5, and that if those at the top were reminded and told the police this, the investigation would be called off.7
Ward’s next move was to write a formal letter to Henry Brooke at the Home Office on 19 May saying that the investigation was damaging, had clearly been instigated by the Home Office and Profumo had lied because he had been involved with Keeler, just as Ward had informed the security services at the time. Brooke asked his office to reply by letter the next day, explaining that the police did not act under his direction.
Ward also sent details of the letter’s contents to the Press Association and other news agencies. He wrote to his own local MP, Wavell Wakefield, about the matter too, outlining that he thought the Home Office was behind the police pursuit of him. Wakefield passed the letter onto the Chief Whip, unsure of how he should respond.
Keeler says Ward also wrote to Harold Wilson with what he knew about Profumo’s relationship with her. Wilson passed a copy of the letter to Macmillan, meeting him and the Chief Whips Redmayne and Herbert Bowden on 27 May to discuss. Wilson made it clear to the PM he would continue to ask questions in the House until appropriate inquiries were made into the matter, focusing on the security risks involved and asking why Ward was allowed to mix so easily with ministers. Diary entries show Macmillan still believed Ward to be more pimp than spy, but that he realised something needed to be done to limit damage to the Conservative Party.8
Fearing that Wilson and his party would keep up the pressure, on 29 May, Macmillan instructed Lord (Reggie) Dilhorne, the Lord Chancellor, to investigate the security risk claims only.9 The investigation, starting the next day, was duly announced and Profumo was warned he would be questioned as part of the proceedings. Since Parliament was about to go on Recess for the Whitsun holiday, Macmillan headed to Inverness by train for a break, feeling he had done enough to satisfy Wilson.
On 31 May, the Profumos left for a holiday in Venice. Over a bellini10 on the first night of the break, Profumo, realising that as soon as he returned to face the investigation, he’d have to come clean, told his wife the truth about his affair with Keeler. Knightley and Kennedy also suspect Profumo had been told about the existence of the taped interviews Keeler had given Robin Drury. These tapes gave a full account of her affair with Profumo including the fact that it had gone on for far longer than people realised. The police knew of these tapes and daily reports were being fed back to those such as Henry Brooke at the Home Office.11
By 4 June, Profumo was back and ready to hand in his resignation letter. Macmillan was said to have been read the letter in Argyll, where he was staying, and reportedly made a comment that he was glad that the affair had at least been with a woman,12 presumably in reference to the previous sex spy scandals involving homosexuality that had rocked his party. In turn, a statement and a copy of Profumo’s resignation went out to the press on 5 June. The Profumo family headed to the country before the announcement that evening. It was the same day that Lucky Gordon appeared in court, charged with assaulting Keeler.
The resignation drew headlines all across the globe and the press pack sought comment from Ward and Rice-Davies. Keeler sold an interview to the News of the World for £23,000 and the Sunday Mirror ran the ‘Darling’ letter. Keeler also spoke to the Express. Lord Hailsham criticised Profumo for his behaviour on the BBC’s Gallery programme.13 Calls for Macmillan’s resignation were made. On 20 June, Profumo was officially censured in the House.
For Keeler, Profumo’s resignation meant her world imploded. She says at the time of Ward’s trial, the public hated her, throwing eggs and screaming at her when she arrived, making a police escort necessary and eventually forcing her to sneak in via the judges’ car park.14
The newspapers received two separate calls that threatened to ‘destroy’ and attack her, while London police stations received similar calls. More anonymous calls came to her home phone line. The police advised her to stay indoors, posting a guard at her home and patrolling the streets outside.15
Rather than curse his own life, Profumo’s resignation had triggered the end for Ward.
Now the facts were laid bare, the potential for scandal was obvious. The government needed someone to blame and something to divert the public’s attention away from any further ministerial ineptitude. The public loved a spy story, yes, but they also loved a sex scandal. This drama combined them both!
Ward appeared on This Week and was interviewed by Desmond Wilcox the evening after Profumo’s resignation. Two days later, he was arrested and charged under the Sexual Offences Act.
Profumo’s confession and subsequent resignation also spelled trouble for Macmillan, who had just learnt Kim Philby had been discovered in Moscow. It was another spy scandal the government would have to face. Party members rightly questioned if Macmillan’s advisors, or the PM himself, had too readily accepted Profumo’s initial denial, and acted too slowly to protect the country, and the party itself. In a later June debate, Macmillan was quoted as saying: ‘On me, as head of the Administration, what has happened has inflicted a deep, bitter, and lasting wound’ and continued: ‘I could not believe that a man would be so foolish, even if so wicked, not only to lie to his colleagues in the House but be prepared to issue a writ in respect of a libel which he must know to be true.’16
And the interest in the Profumo scandal spilled over into an interest into Keeler’s love life. When she attended Gordon’s trial on 5, 6 and 7 June, the press was there to take pictures and listen to everything that was said. Gordon self-represented and mentioned both Ward and Profumo. He spoke about sex, interracial relationships and even sexually transmitted diseases. He made the fact that Ward was being investigated for pimping public (Ward appeared on This Week to deny the claim, mentioning that he had told MI5 about Profumo and Keeler early on in the sequence of events).17 The house of cards was collapsing.
Gordon was found guilty of assault and sentenced to three years, but it wasn’t the end of the impact he would go on to have upon Keeler’s life.
Chapter 13
Ward is Arrested and Put on Trial
Author Robertson says that Sir Henry Brooke, the Home Secretary, initially chose Ward as a scapegoat after the affair between Keeler and Profumo was revealed and the ensuing scandal looked impossible to contain. Ward’s meeting with George Wigg at the House hadn’t gone unnoticed, and the Tory Party leaders began to worry about how Profumo’s actions might affect it, particularly if the Opposition decided to expose a Tory MP’s lies. How might Ward be silenced or discredited?
On 27 March, Brooke met with Sir Charles Cunningham (Permanent Under-Secretary at the Home Office), Hollis, the head of MI5, and Sir Joseph Simpson (the Met Police Commissioner). The meeting would seal the fate of Ward, and since it was established that Ward couldn’t be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, an alternative had to be found. Would living off immoral earnings stick? For a married Christian who had already made it clear he hated ‘moral laxity’, it was easy for Brooke to believe anyone that enjoyed sexual promiscuity was a sexual criminal in some way too.
According to Robertson, Brooke instructed Hollis and the Police Commissioner to target Ward – for any offence that might stick. Detective Chief Inspector Samuel Herbert and Detective Sergeant John Burrows were given the operation, working eighteen-hour days. Reports were filed every day, and copies were distributed to the PM and Harold Wilson. Permission was given for Ward’s phone to be bugged, his home and work to be put under surveillance and everyone that visited his clinic to be questioned. The police also interviewed prostitutes that Robertson says were forced to denigrate Ward and interviewed Keeler an exhausting twenty-four times.1 Between 125 and 140 people were questioned. It was essentially a witch hunt.2
The cover-up didn’t end there, though, Robertson argues. Inside the court, the Lord Chief Justice and two appeal judges made sure the jury didn’t hear evidence that might persuade the jury to acquit Ward and that the trial judge misdirected the jury.3
How and why would this happen? The simple answer is that it was a time of panic, moral and political, and something had to be shown to be done. Someone had to take the blame, and that person was Ward.
On 8 June, Ward was charged with the following five offences:
That between 1 June 1961 and 31 August 1962, he knowingly lived wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution.
That between 1 September 1962 and 31 December 1962, he knowingly lived wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution.
That between 1 January 1966 and 8 June 1963, he knowingly lived wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution.
That between 1 May 1961 and 30 June 1961, he incited Christine Keeler to procure a girl then under twenty-one years to have unlawful sexual intercourse with a third person.
That on 3 January 1963, he attempted to procure a girl then under twenty-one years to have sexual intercourse with a third person.
Ward was refused bail and remained in prison for a month.
Following Ward’s arrest, the News of the World ran Keeler’s ‘Confessions’ story, which was not at all flattering to Ward, throwing up questions about both his morality and patriotism. Keeler was often referred to as a prostitute by MPs and within the media as they debated the issues. Harold Wilson openly criticised Ward, aligning him to Soviet sympathies, and Viscount Lambton said Ward had committed treason.4 Society was being shown a certain image of Ward that he was in no position to alter or dispute.
Robertson argues that the Committal Hearing that begun on 28 June allowed all the Crown’s prejudicial evidence, regardless of whether it would be admissible at the actual trial, to be heard in public and printed in the newspapers. In particular, the initial hearing included three other charges that were dropped before the case came to trial; one included being involved in the arranging of an abortion. Allowing these charges to be read out meant that despite the fact there was not enough evidence to charge Ward, they were still ‘heard’ and associated with him. Public opinion was already forming (or being formed).
Ward’s legal team then had just nineteen days to prepare for the trial proper; a request to postpone until September was rejected. It was a fast turnaround. The open criticism of Ward was still fresh in everyone’s mind. Time was short in which to form a case for the defence and few witnesses to support Ward’s good character could be found. When Ward was at his lowest, his socialite friends who had so enjoyed his company and consorts seemed to abandon him rather than be associated with scandal. Despite a later admission that Ward had been involved with MI5 in some capacity, at the time the intelligence services that could also have corroborated his evidence remained elusive.
Ward appeared at the Court No. 1 at the Old Bailey on 22 July 1963. It was a court usually reserved for crimes such as murder. Ward pleaded not guilty.
Keeler thought Ward’s trial was as a miscarriage of justice, one unrivalled in British history.5 She would know, for example, as Robertson points out in his book,6 that the dates concerning her (Count 1) coincide with when she was seeing Profumo, making it highly unlikely she was a working prostitute at that time (if indeed at any time). While her version of events is entirely different from Robertson’s, since Keeler said Ward was a Russian spy, while Robertson argues that Ward was helping MI5, clearly, they both agree very much on one thing – the charges of pimping brought against Ward were nothing more than a smokescreen.
Davenport-Hines describes Ward as a ‘scapegoat’ for the Profumo scandal and reminds us that even the night before his trial opened, tabloid newspapers painted Ward as a deviant because his pyjamas were blue and his bedroom window featured a pink curtain in a golden frame.7
Davenport-Hines believes that during just that one year of 1963, Ward was targeted by politicians, set up by the police, abandoned by his patients, betrayed by girlfriends, disparaged in court and then denigrated by Lord Denning.8
