Lawyer’s book puts case for Profumo ‘scapegoat’

A BOOK which claims society osteopath Stephen Ward, who committed suicide after he was put on trial following the Profumo scandal in the 1960s, was innocent has been lodged with the Criminal Cases Review commission as an application to have his conviction overturned.
By The Newsroom
Published 3rd Dec 2013, 00:01 BST

Lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC has conducted an examination of the trial of Ward, who committed suicide before his conviction on charges of living on the earnings of prostitutes.

According to the publisher, Biteback Publishing, he demonstrates that Ward was innocent – Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies were not prostitutes, and they lived off his earnings as a successful osteopath and portrait painter.

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Ward, Keeler and Rice-Davies were key figures in the 1963 sex scandal, which threatened to topple the Conservative government of the time.

Ward is said to have introduced John Profumo, who later resigned as secretary of state for war, and showgirl Keeler at a party at Cliveden.

He took an overdose of sleeping tablets on the last day of his trial and was found guilty while in a coma.

Mr Robertson argues that Ward was made a scapegoat by Home Secretary Henry Brooke, who improperly ordered the police to begin a witch hunt. The book, called Stephen Ward Was Innocent, OK was being lodged with the Criminal Cases Review Commission.