UK jury convicts ex-Cabinet minister’s ex-wife of obstructing justice in speeding ticket case
Posted Mar 7, 2013 10:10:38 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LONDON – The ex-wife of a former U.K. Cabinet minister was convicted on Thursday of perverting the course of justice for taking her husband’s speeding penalty in 2003.
Vicky Pryce — who had claimed that her husband, Chris Huhne, coerced her into taking the penalty for the speeding violation — will be sentenced at a later date alongside her ex, who earlier pleaded guilty to the same charge.
Huhne’s last-minute guilty plea last month was a surprise — he had protested his innocence for months — and shattered his once promising political career. Huhne, 58, resigned from Parliament the same day he pleaded guilty.
Pryce, 60, was found guilty in a retrial Thursday by a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court. A previous jury had failed to reach a verdict.
Judge Nigel Sweeney granted Pryce bail until sentencing, but warned her to be “under no illusions” about a possible sentence.
Perverting the course of justice usually carries a sentence of between four months and three years in jail.
The case riveted Britain as deeply personal and embarrassing revelations about the powerful couple’s 25-year marriage emerged.
Pryce — an economist who has worked as a senior adviser in both the private sector and in government — split from Huhne in 2010 after his affair with his public relations adviser was revealed.
