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Chris Huhne 'constantly badgered' Vicky Pryce to take speeding points Chris Huhne 'constantly badgered' Vicky Pryce to take speeding points
(about 3 hours later)
Chris Huhne's ex-wife confided in her eldest daughter that he had forced her to take his speeding points, a court has heard. Chris Huhne's stepdaughter advised her mother, Vicky Pryce, not to take the former cabinet minister's speeding points after Pryce confided she was under pressure to do so, a court has heard.
Georgia Beesley, 37, a management consultant, said Vicky Pryce spoke to her in 2003: "I remember speaking to my mother and she told me that Chris had been caught speeding and was asking her to take the speeding points. He didn't want to lose his licence. He was standing for election and had to travel regularly to Eastleigh." Georgia Beesley, 37, a management consultant, said Pryce told her in 2003 that Huhne said if she did not take them it would ruin his chances of winning the Eastleigh constituency seat.
Her mother was "upset and angry", and did not want to take the points, she said. "We spoke about how she felt and what was happening at home and I remember her saying that every conversation Chris was insisting that she took those points. Beesley, the elder of two daughters by Pryce's first marriage, said Huhne, then an MEP, was "constantly badgering" her mother who felt "beleaguered".
"He would say to her that if she didn't take them he would not be able to drive, that he would lose his licence, and that it would be her fault if he didn't get elected. I know she felt pressured into signing the form." Her mother had felt "beleaguered", she added. "I remember speaking to my mother and she told me that Chris had been caught speeding and was asking her to take speeding points," she told a jury at Southwark crown court. "If he had taken the points he would have lost his licence. He was very insistent that she take them."
Pryce, 60, from Clapham, south London, has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice by taking Huhne's speeding points. Her defence is of marital coercion. Pryce, 60, a mother of five, has pleaded not guilty to a perverting the course of justice by taking the points in 2003, on the grounds of marital coercion, claiming she was pressured into it. Huhne, 58, has admitted perverting the course of justice and is awaiting sentence.
Huhne, 58, a former energy secretary, has pleaded guilty to the offence and is awaiting sentence, Beesley said of Huhne: "He didn't want to lose his licence, he was standing for election and had to travel regularly to Eastleigh. He would say to her that if she didn't take them he would not be able to drive, that he would lose his licence, and that it would be her fault if he didn't get elected."
Southwark crown court heard that Beesley, and her sister Alexandra, Pryce's daughters from her first marriage, were close to Huhne, who had raised them as his daughters and walked them down the aisle at their weddings. Her mother was "upset and angry" and Beesley had "definitely told her that she should not take the points", she said.
At the time of the speeding offence he was an MEP and seeking the Liberal Democrat nomination as MP for Eastleigh. She said Huhne had nominated her mother as the driver without Pryce's knowledge. Huhne was banned from driving shortly afterwards after being caught by police talking on his mobile phone in Old Kent Road, London, and lost his licence.
The court heard Beesley declined to make a statement to police when it began an investigation into the speeding allegations in May 2011. She later made a statement in September 2012. Beesley said there was "resentment" as Pryce ended up having to drive him around despite taking the points.
Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, asked why Beesley had advised her mother not take the points. "I was single, I didn't understand the pressure that someone could be under in a marriage," she said. "I did not appreciate at that time what it would be like to be living with someone constantly badgering you to do something that you know was wrong and feeling like you didn't have a choice." The court was told that when the allegations came to light in May 2011 Beesley contacted police from Athens to say she did not want to make a statement. She said she felt as if the family was being "hounded" by the press and "did not want to speak to anyone".
She said of her mother at the time: "She was on her own a lot of the time, dealing with the children, holding the family together while Chris was often away, trying make sure that everybody was going to be OK and it was a very emotional time and the family was the most important thing." She did "not appreciate" what was going on then and that her mother had been interviewed by police as "she wouldn't really talk to me about what was going on".
Beesley said her mother had not told her that Huhne had stood in the hallway "pen in hand" when he made her sign the form confirming that she was the driver of the car. Beesley eventually made a statement in September 2012.
Beesley was the final witness in the trial. The jury are expected to hear closing speeches on Tuesday. Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting, said: "You said that she was upset and angry about taking the points. You did not say she was frightened."
Beesley replied: "No, I did not say that she was frightened. I think she was frightened about the effect that this would have on the family, what it would do to the children, and being told that the reason he had not got elected was all her fault." Asked why she had advised her mother not to take the points, she said: "I was single. I did not understand the pressure someone could be under in a marriage. I did not appreciate what it could be like to live with someone constantly badgering you to do something you know is wrong and not feel like you have a choice."
Pryce had told the jury that she was presented with a "fait accompli, that the form had already been filled in and Huhne made her sign it as he stood by the hallway table with a pen in his hand.
Beesley told the court Pryce had not told her that detail.
The jury has heard that in a defence of marital coercion, the husband has to be "physically present" when the offence is committed.
Pryce had previously told the court Huhne had been happy to take on two stepchildren, and treated all the children equally, giving away both Beesley and her sister when they got married.
Beesley was the final witness in the case. The jury will hear prosecution and defence closing speeches, and the judge's summing upon Tuesday.