Vicky Pryce trial jury continue considering verdict (From Andover Advertiser)
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Vicky Pryce trial jury continue considering verdict
6:07am Tuesday 19th February 2013 in News
Vicky Pryce trial jury continue considering verdict
The jury in the trial of Chris Huhne's ex-wife Vicky Pryce will continue its deliberations today.
Pryce, 60, is charged with perverting the course of justice by taking speeding points for the former Cabinet minister a decade ago.
She pleaded not guilty on the grounds of marital coercion, saying her then husband forced her to take the points.
Huhne, 58, is facing jail after pleading guilty to the offence on the first day of their trial at London's Southwark Crown Court.
The jury of eight women and four men retired on Thursday to consider a verdict in the case and, after not sitting on Friday, continued yesterday.
Jurors will return today at 10am to continue their deliberations.
The charge dates back to 2003 when Huhne's BMW was clocked speeding on the way back from Stansted Airport.
He already had nine points on his licence and faced a driving ban, which he thought would affect his chances of being nominated as the Lib Dem candidate for Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Pryce, who had a clean licence at the time, claims her then husband forced her to take the points, nominating her as the driver then making her to sign a second form confirming she was.
Huhne lost his licence anyway that year after being caught talking on his mobile phone while driving but was still nominated as the Eastleigh candidate and went on to win the seat in 2005.
The points-swapping allegations became public in May 2011 - a year after Huhne left Pryce for PR adviser Carina Trimingham, ending their 26-year marriage.
During Pryce's trial it was revealed that the economist was speaking to journalists for several months before the story was published.
She first spoke to the Mail on Sunday through a freelance journalist in late 2010, claiming Huhne bullied a constituency aide into taking the points.
When that did not work, she spoke to Sunday Times political editor Isabel Oakeshott in March 2011, planning to ''nail'' her ex husband.
The pair exchanged a series of emails, and tried unsuccessfully to record Huhne confessing.
The story ran in both newspapers on May 8, 2011, and it was revealed that it was Pryce who had taken the points.
She and Huhne were arrested, then charged in February last year.
The then energy secretary stepped down from the Cabinet, vowing to fight the charges, but dramatically changed his plea on the first day of trial.
Mother-of-five Pryce has told the jury that her husband of 26 years put his political dreams first throughout their marriage, while she was often forced to compromise her own successful career.
She revealed that he demanded she have an abortion in 1990 because it was bad for his career. But when he made the same demand two years later she resisted, giving birth to their youngest child, she said.
Huhne left Pryce in June 2010, during half-time of a World Cup football match, as his affair was about to be exposed by a newspaper.
Pryce, of Crescent Grove, Clapham, south London, told jurors she wanted to expose her ex-husband's wrongdoing, but never wanted to end his career.
The jury at Southwark Crown Court will continue deliberating at 10am today.
