Editing Profumo affair (section)

==Exposure==
===Investigation and resignation===
Shortly after Profumo's Commons statement, Ward appeared on [[ITN|Independent Television News]], where he endorsed Profumo's version and dismissed all rumours and insinuations as "baseless".<ref>Irving et al, p. 110</ref> Ward's own activities had become a matter of official concern, and on 1 April 1963 the [[Metropolitan Police]] began to investigate his affairs. They interviewed 140 of Ward's friends, associates and patients, maintained a 24-hour watch on his home, and [[wiretapping|tapped]] his telephone—this last action requiring direct authorisation from Brooke.<ref name="Robertson44">Robertson, pp. 44–45</ref> Among those who gave statements was Keeler, who contradicted her earlier assurances and confirmed her sexual relationship with Profumo, providing corroborative details of the interior of the Chester Terrace house.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 166–67</ref> The police put pressure on reluctant witnesses; Rice-Davies was [[Remand (detention)|remanded]] to [[HM Prison Holloway|Holloway Prison]] for a driving licence offence and held there for eight days until she agreed to testify against Ward.<ref name="Robertson44" /><ref>Parris, pp. 164–65</ref> Meanwhile, Profumo was awarded costs and £50 [[damages]] against the British distributors of an Italian magazine that had printed a story hinting at his guilt. He donated the proceeds to an army charity.<ref>Denning, p. 63</ref>
This did not deter ''Private Eye'' from including "Sextus Profano" in their parody of [[Edward Gibbon|Gibbon]]'s ''[[Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]''.<ref>Profumo, p. 186</ref><ref name="Econ">{{cite news |date=16 March 2006 |title=Why the Profumo affair made the perfect political scandal |newspaper=The Economist |url=http://www.economist.com/node/5637716}}</ref>

On 18 April 1963 Keeler was attacked at the home of a friend. She accused Gordon, who was arrested and held. According to Knightley and Kennedy's account, the police offered to drop the charges if Gordon would testify against Ward, but he refused.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 170–71</ref> The effects of the police inquiry were proving ruinous to Ward, whose practice was collapsing rapidly. On 7 May he met Macmillan's private secretary, [[Timothy Bligh]], to ask that the police inquiry into his affairs be halted. He added that he had been covering for Profumo, whose Commons statement was substantially false. Bligh took notes but failed to take action.<ref name="DH287">Davenport-Hines, pp. 287–89</ref><ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 177–78</ref> On 19 May Ward wrote to Brooke, with essentially the same request as that to Bligh, only to be told that the [[Powers of the home secretary|Home Secretary had no power]] to interfere with the police inquiry.<ref>Robertson, p. 46</ref> Ward then gave details to the press, but no paper would print the story. He also wrote to Wilson, who showed the letter to Macmillan. Although privately disdainful of Wilson's motives, after discussions with Hollis, the prime minister was sufficiently concerned about Ward's general activities to ask the [[Lord Chancellor]], [[Reginald Manningham-Buller, 1st Viscount Dilhorne|Lord Dilhorne]], to inquire into possible security breaches.<ref name="DH287" />

On 31 May 1963 at the start of the parliamentary [[Whitsun]] recess, Profumo and his wife flew to [[Venice]] for a short holiday. At their hotel, they received a message asking Profumo to return as soon as possible. Believing that his bluff had been called, Profumo then told his wife the truth, and they decided to return immediately. They found that Macmillan was on holiday in Scotland. On Tuesday 4 June, Profumo confessed the truth to Bligh, confirming that he had lied, resigned from the government, and applied for the office of [[List of stewards of the Chiltern Hundreds|steward of the Chiltern Hundreds]] in order to give up his House of Commons seat. Bligh informed Macmillan of these events by telephone. The resignation was announced on 5 June, when the formal exchange of letters between Profumo and Macmillan was published.<ref>Davenport-Hines, pp. 290–91</ref><ref name="Irving137">Irving et al, pp. 137–38</ref>{{#tag:ref|Macmillan's reply to Profumo's departure, sent from his holiday address in [[Argyllshire]], begins: "The contents of your letter of June 4 have been communicated to me...", indicated that Profumo's letter was read to him over the phone.<ref name= Irving137/>|group= n}} ''[[The Times]]'' called Profumo's lies "a great tragedy for the probity of public life in Britain";<ref>{{cite news |date=6 June 1963 |title=A Shocking Admission |page=13 |newspaper=The Times}}</ref> while the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' hinted that not all the truth had been told and referred to "skeletons in many cupboards".<ref>Young, pp. 25–26</ref>

===Retribution===
Gordon's trial for the attack on Keeler began on the day Profumo's resignation was made public. He maintained that his innocence would be established by two witnesses who, the police told the court, could not be found. On 7 June, principally on the evidence of Keeler, Gordon was found guilty and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.<ref>Irving et al, p. 148</ref> The following day, Ward was arrested and charged with immorality offences.<ref>Irving, p. 149</ref>

On 9 June, freed from Profumo's libel threats, the ''News of the World'' published "The Confessions of Christine", an account which helped to fashion the public image of Ward as a [[sexual predator]] and probable tool of the Soviets.<ref name="Robertson52">Robertson, pp. 52–55</ref> The ''Sunday Mirror'' (formerly the ''Sunday Pictorial'') printed Profumo's "Darling" letter.<ref>Young, pp. 28–29</ref>

{{Quote box|width=250px|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|align=left|quote=I myself feel that the time will come very soon when my right hon. Friend [the prime minister] ought to make way for a much younger colleague. I feel that that ought to happen&nbsp;... perhaps some of the words of Browning might be appropriate in his poem on "The Lost Leader", in which he wrote:
<poem>"Let him never come back to us!
There would be doubt, hesitation and pain.
Forced praise on our part—the glimmer of twilight,
Never glad confident morning again!"</poem>|salign = left |source= Nigel Birch, House of Commons, 17 June 1963<ref name= Hansard/> }}

In advance of the House of Commons debate on Profumo's resignation, due 17 June, David Watt in ''[[The Spectator]]'' defined Macmillan's position as "an intolerable dilemma from which he can only escape by being proved either ludicrously naïve or incompetent or deceitful—or all three".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Watt |first=David |date=13 June 1963 |title=The Price of Profumo |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/14th-june-1963/4/political-commentary |magazine=The Spectator |page=4 |access-date=22 June 2016}}</ref> Meanwhile, the press speculated about possible Cabinet resignations, and several ministers felt it necessary to demonstrate their loyalty to the prime minister.<ref>Young, pp. 32–33</ref> In a [[BBC]] interview on 13 June [[Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone|Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone]], holder of several ministerial offices, denounced Profumo in a manner which, according to ''[[The Observer]]'', "had to be seen to be believed".<ref>{{cite news |last=Richardson |first=Maurice |author-link=Maurice Richardson |date=16 June 1963 |title=Lord Hailsham Hits His Wicket |page=25 |newspaper=The Observer}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Hailsham's performance was generally condemned by opponents and colleagues.<ref>Levin, p. 65</ref> In the subsequent Commons debate he was described by Wigg as "a lying humbug" (Davenport-Hines wrongly ascribes this comment to [[Reginald Paget, Baron Paget of Northampton|Reginald Paget]]).<ref name= Hansard>{{cite web|publisher= Hansard online|title= Security (Mr Profumo's Resignation)|url= https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1963/jun/17/security-mr-profumos-resignation#S5CV0679P0_19630617_HOC_296|volume= 679|pages= cols. 34–176 |date= 17 June 1963|work= [[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]|access-date= 22 June 2016}}</ref><ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 301</ref>|group= n}} Hailsham said that "a great party is not to be brought down because of a squalid affair between a woman of easy virtue and a proven liar".<ref>Young, p. 34</ref>

In the debate, Wilson concentrated almost exclusively on the extent to which Macmillan and his colleagues had been dilatory in not identifying a clear security risk arising from Profumo's association with Ward and his circle.<ref>Young, pp. 42–46</ref> Macmillan responded that he should not be held culpable for believing a colleague who had repeatedly asserted his innocence. He mentioned the false allegations against Galbraith, and the failure of the security services to share their detailed information with him.<ref>Young, pp. 50–52</ref> In the general debate the sexual aspects of the scandal were fully discussed; [[Nigel Birch, Baron Rhyl|Nigel Birch]], the Conservative MP for [[West Flintshire (UK Parliament constituency)|West Flintshire]], referred to Keeler as a "professional prostitute" and asked rhetorically: "What are whores about?"<ref name="KK195">Knightley and Kennedy, p. 195</ref> Keeler was otherwise branded a "tart" and a "poor little slut".{{#tag:ref|The "poor little slut" comment was made by [[Ben Parkin]], the Labour MP for [[Paddington North (UK Parliament constituency)|Paddington North]], in a speech that was generally sympathetic to Keeler and "the many other women like her", and condemned the "Pharisaical denunciations" of other members.<ref name= Hansard/><ref>Young, pp. 61–62</ref>|group= n}} Ward was vilified throughout as a likely Soviet agent; one Conservative referred to "the [[treason]] of Dr Ward".<ref name="Robertson52" /> Most Conservatives, whatever their reservations, were supportive of Macmillan, with only Birch suggesting that he should consider retirement.<ref name="KK195" /> In the subsequent vote on the government's handling of the affair, 27 Conservatives abstained, reducing the government's majority to 69. Most newspapers considered the extent of the defection significant, and several forecast that Macmillan would soon resign.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 196</ref><ref>Irving et al, pp. 175–76</ref>

After the parliamentary debate, newspapers published further sensational stories, hinting at widespread immorality within Britain's governing class. A story emanating from Rice-Davies concerned a naked masked man, who acted as a waiter at sex parties; rumours suggested that he was a cabinet minister, or possibly a member of the Royal Family.<ref>Parris, p. 168</ref> [[Malcolm Muggeridge]] in the ''Sunday Mirror'' wrote of "The Slow, Sure Death of the Upper Classes".<ref>Davenport-Hines, pp. 306–08</ref><ref name="Muggeridge">{{cite news |last=Muggeridge |first=Malcolm |author-link=Malcolm Muggeridge |date=23 June 1963 |title=The Slow, Sure Death of the Upper Classes |page=7 |newspaper=Sunday Mirror}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Muggeridge wrote: "The Upper Classes have always been given to lying, fornication, corrupt practices and, doubtless as a result of the public school system, sodomy".<ref name= Muggeridge/>|group= n}} On 21 June Macmillan instructed Lord Denning, the [[Master of the Rolls]], to investigate and report on the growing range of rumours.<ref>Denning, p. 1</ref> Ward's committal proceedings began a week later, at Marylebone [[Magistrates' court (England and Wales)|magistrates' court]], where the Crown's evidence was fully reported in the press.<ref>Robertson, pp. 55–64</ref> Ward was committed for trial on charges of "living off the earnings of prostitution" and "procuration of girl under twenty-one", and released on bail.<ref>Summers and Dorril, p. 281</ref>

With the Ward case now ''[[sub judice]]'', the press pursued related stories. ''[[The Sunday People|The People]]'' reported that [[Scotland Yard]] had begun an inquiry, in parallel with Denning's, into "homosexual practices as well as sexual laxity" among civil servants, military officers and MPs.<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 311</ref> On 24 June the ''Daily Mirror'', under a banner heading "Prince Philip and the Profumo Scandal", dismissed what it termed the "foul rumour" that the prince had been involved in the affair, without disclosing the nature of the rumour.<ref>Parris, p. 169</ref><ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 344</ref>

Ward's trial began at the [[Old Bailey]] on 28 July. He was charged with living off the earnings of Keeler, Rice-Davies and two other prostitutes, and with procuring women under 21 to have sex with other persons.<ref>Irving, pp. 193–94</ref> The thrust of the [[prosecution]]'s case related to Keeler and Rice-Davies, and turned on whether the small contributions to household expenses or loan repayments they had given to Ward while living with him amounted to his living off their prostitution. Ward's approximate income at the time, from his practice and from his portraiture, had been around £5,500 a year, a substantial sum at that time.<ref>Robertson, pp. 80–81</ref> In his speeches and examination of witnesses, the prosecuting counsel [[Mervyn Griffith-Jones]] portrayed Ward as representing "the very depths of lechery and depravity".<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 324</ref> The judge, [[Archie Marshall (politician)|Sir Archie Marshall]], was equally hostile, drawing particular attention to the fact that none of Ward's supposed society friends had been prepared to speak up for him.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 243</ref> Towards the end of the trial, news came that Gordon's conviction for assault had been overturned; Marshall did not disclose to the jury that Gordon's witnesses had turned up and testified that Keeler, a key prosecution witness against Ward, had given false evidence at Gordon's trial.<ref>Robertson, pp. 92–95 and 101</ref>

After listening to Marshall's damning summing-up, on the evening of 30 July Ward took an overdose of sleeping tablets and was taken to hospital. On the next day, he was found guilty ''[[Trial in absentia|in absentia]]'' on the charges relating to Keeler and Rice-Davies, and acquitted on the other counts. Sentence was postponed until Ward was fit to appear, but on 3 August he died without regaining consciousness.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 243–47</ref> On 9 August, a [[coroner's jury]] ruled Ward's death as suicide by [[barbiturate]] poisoning,<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 247</ref> though some biographers consider the possibility that he was murdered.{{#tag:ref|In the 1989 edition of their book ''Honeytrap'', Summers and Dorril add a postscript that provides extra details of Ward's last hours, his movements and his visitors. The postscript includes details of an interview with "a former [[MI6]] operative" who asserted that Ward had been murdered by an agent working on behalf of MI6. The main motive for the killing was, supposedly, Ward's continuing ability to embarrass the government and the Royal Family. There is no direct evidence to support this story. The reporter [[Tom Mangold]], one of the last to see Ward alive, dismisses the murder theory, while allowing that there are unexplained circumstances relating to Ward's death.<ref>Summers and Dorril, pp. 316–23</ref><ref>{{cite news|last= Tweedie|first= Neil|title= The Profumo Affair: 'It was decided that Stephen Ward had to die'|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10488686/The-Profumo-Affair-It-was-decided-that-Stephen-Ward-had-to-die.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10488686/The-Profumo-Affair-It-was-decided-that-Stephen-Ward-had-to-die.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|newspaper= The Daily Telegraph|date= 2 December 1913|access-date= 22 June 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref> |group= n}}