The family of Christine Keeler, central figure in the Profumo scandal, is preparing a fresh bid to posthumously overturn her 1963 perjury conviction, citing newly uncovered MI5 documents that cast doubt on a key witness.
Seymour Platt, Keeler's son, has long campaigned to clear her name following a deathbed note in which she asked him to "tell the truth about my life." He has now uncovered archived MI5 reports that he says undermine the testimony of Robin Drury, her former business manager, whose evidence at the Old Bailey was pivotal in her conviction.
Drury's testimony and the conviction
Drury claimed that Keeler admitted lying in court to send her ex-lover Aloysius "Lucky" Gordon to jail. The confession was allegedly made during a lengthy tape recording session while they worked on her memoirs. Months later, Keeler struck a deal and admitted perjury, receiving a nine-month sentence.
However, a Special Branch report from July 12, 1963, details an interview with Drury in which an intelligence officer expressed doubt about his reliability, describing it as a "matter of conjecture" whether Drury was telling the truth or acting out of "rancour and vindictiveness." The officer called Drury an "aggressive and truculent character" and a "drug addict" with a string of convictions, adding, "I have been told on reliable authority that he would still be Keeler's manager were it not for his extreme financial greed."
Family's ongoing fight
The officer also stated, "My personal impression of Drury is that he is an unscrupulous rogue who cannot be trusted, and that he would descend to any depths in order to make easy money." Keeler had sacked Drury after he allegedly tried to overcharge her on a £15,000 book fee, and she had demanded he destroy their recordings, but he kept copies.
Seymour has previously seen a dossier submitted to the Criminal Case Review Commission dismissed and an appeal for a Royal Pardon rejected by the Ministry of Justice. He is now planning to submit a fresh application to the MoJ, saying he has "new documents" and "new evidence."
Background and impact
The Profumo scandal erupted in 1963 when it emerged that Keeler, then 19, had been involved with War Minister John Profumo and Russian naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov. Keeler was jailed for perjury after testifying in an assault case against Gordon, who had attacked her in April 1963. Gordon was convicted in June but appealed, leading to the overturning of his conviction after it emerged that two witnesses had not been called.
Keeler died in 2017 at age 75. The Ministry of Justice acknowledged she had experienced an "injustice" but refused a pardon, stating it is "neither possible nor practical to reassess past events through the lens of today's justice system." Seymour, now living in Longford, Ireland, with his wife Lorraine and daughter Daisy, 18, said the campaign continues, with a new application highlighting the significant new evidence found.
