Society osteopath Stephen Ward, who committed suicide after he was put on trial following the Profumo scandal in the 1960s, was innocent, according to a new book by a leading lawyer.
Geoffrey Robertson, QC, has conducted an examination of the trial of Ward, who committed suicide in despair after the judge's summing up and before his conviction on charges of living on the earnings of prostitutes.
It is claimed the book demonstrates Ward was innocent and that Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies were not prostitutes, and they lived off his earnings as a successful osteopath and portrait painter.
The author argues that Ward was made a scapegoat for his role in the Profumo affair by Home Secretary Henry Brooke, who improperly ordered the police to begin a witch-hunt.
Ward, Keeler and Rice-Davies were key figures in the 1963 sex scandal, which threatened to topple the Tory government of the time.
The book Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK, is being lodged today with the Criminal Cases Review Commission as an application to have Ward's conviction overturned.
Among those at yesterday's news conference were Rice-Davies and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has created a new musical, Stephen Ward, on the subject.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article