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Judge Constance Briscoe charged with perverting course of justice Judge Constance Briscoe charged with perverting course of justice
(35 minutes later)
One of the country's most prominent black female judges has been charged with perverting the course of justice in connection with the case of the former minister Chris Huhne and his estranged wife Vicky Pryce. The barrister and bestselling author Constance Briscoe has been charged with intending to pervert the course of justice over allegations she lied to police in connection with the speeding points case against the former cabinet minister Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce.
Constance Briscoe is accused of two counts of the offence, relating to statements that were made to Essex police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said. Briscoe, 55, a part-time crown court recorder and criminal lawyer, was arrested in October and was immediately suspended from the judiciary.
The first count alleges that, between May 2011 and last October, she provided police with two statements that were inaccurate. She is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 24 June.
The second alleges that on 6 October she produced a copy of her witness statement that had been altered and maintained that it was the correct version. Briscoe issued a statement saying she was "deeply distressed" at the decision and pledged to fight the allegations.
Briscoe is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 24 June, the CPS said. In a statement, Deborah Walsh of the Crown Prosecution Service said: "We have today authorised the Kent and Essex police serious crime directorate to charge Constance Briscoe with two counts of intending to pervert the course of public justice.
The CPS senior lawyer Deborah Walsh said: "We have today authorised the Kent and Essex police serious crime directorate to charge Constance Briscoe with two counts of intending to pervert the course of public justice. "The first allegation is that, between 16 May 2011 and 6 October 2012, Constance Briscoe provided Essex police with two statements which were inaccurate. The second allegation, dated 6 October 2012, is that Constance Briscoe produced a copy of a witness statement that had been altered and that she maintained was the correct version.
"The first allegation is that, between 16 May 2011 and 6 October 2012, Constance Briscoe provided Essex police with two statements which were inaccurate. "This decision was taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors. We have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that these charges are in the public interest."
"The second allegation, dated 6 October 2012, is that Constance Briscoe produced a copy of a witness statement that had been altered and that she maintained was the correct version. Briscoe, who is one of Britain's most prominent black female judges and has appeared on BBC TV's Question Time, played a major – but absent – role in the trial of Pryce.
"This decision was taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors. In a statement issued through her solicitors, Briscoe said: "I am deeply distressed at the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service to charge me today. I have not committed the offences alleged against me and I will fight the allegations in court.
"We have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that these charges are in the public interest. "There is a great deal more I would like to say now but I have been advised that I should not do so at this stage. I ask only that no judgment is reached against me on the basis of this prosecution decision and before the full facts are heard."
"Constance Briscoe will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 24 June 2013." Huhne, 58, pleaded guilty at the beginning of his trial to perverting the course of justice by asking Pryce, 60, then his wife, to take three speeding points for him a decade ago to prevent him facing a driving ban. Pryce pleaded not guilty, citing a defence of marital coercion, but was convicted following a retrial. Both were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, and were released after serving two months under the home curfew detention scheme.
Both Huhne and Pryce received eight-month sentences after it emerged that she had taken speeding points for her former husband a decade ago. The former energy secretary pleaded guilty on the first day of a planned joint trial in February, and Pryce, an economist, was later convicted by a jury. It was to Briscoe, a mother of two, that Pryce, a mother of five who lived three doors away in Clapham, south London, turned for help after Huhne, her former husband, left her for the PR adviser Carina Trimingham, 46, the jury in Pryce's trial heard.
Briscoe, a barrister and part-time judge, 56, from Clapham, south London, won a libel case in 2008 when her mother sued her over claims made in her "misery memoir" Ugly. She and Pryce shared late-night chats "about each other's misfortunes". While Huhne had left Pryce, Briscoe's partner of 12 years, Anthony Arlidge QC, had left her for a 25-year-old barrister.
Briscoe was arrested on October 2012 and suspended by the Office of Judicial Complaints. A judicial press office spokeswoman said: "The lord chief justice and lord chancellor have suspended Constance Briscoe from the judiciary pending the outcome of the police investigation into the allegations against her." Briscoe, a graduate of Newcastle University, had a high media profile. This was augmented further when her mother unsuccessfully sued her for libel over claims in her 2006 memoir Ugly that she had neglected her daughter.
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