We have been working for the last few years to get my mother’s criminal conviction overturned and are now getting regular updates from the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission). They contacted me about a week or so ago to let me know that their investigations are continuing, and that they are looking at documents that Christine’s barrister from 1963, Jeremy Hutchinson, had left behind. So, fingers crossed, it’s not long now.
My mother went to prison on the 6th December 1963, so we are getting close to the 60-year anniversary. Secretly, I was hoping that we would have an answer by then, but maybe I need just a little more patience. In other news, I have been updating the timeline page on the website, naming the source for an event, and fixing some of the spelling! So far I am up to 1962. Another reason I am doing this is because I have started pulling this story together for a book I am writing. I want to tell the story about this campaign. My mother wrote a lot about the Profumo scandal, but very little about the events that sent her to prison. Going to prison bothered her more than anything else that happened. I wanted to say that, when in 2017 my mother wrote in her will, “Make sure that the truth is told about events of which I took part during my life,” I was one of the least qualified people to tell the true story of her life. But I had a lot of help from my mother’s friend, Desmond Banks. Then James Harbridge, a solicitor, saw the website and got in touch keen to help argue that, based on the facts, Christine should not have gone to prison. Dr Felicity Gerry KC, with James Harbridge, pulled everything together for a pardon application and then for an application to the CCRC, with help from Dr Rebecca Helm and Professor Mike McConville, who both wrote in support. With the research we were able to make what I believe is a convincing argument that, although my mother’s statement in court at Lucky Gordon’s trial that two people were not present in the flat when she was assaulted was not true, it was not material and it would not have changed the verdict, and that makes her innocent. I do go through some of the events from the Profumo scandal, because of their impact on her trial, when she went to prison. I try to answer questions like, who sent Lucky Gordon to my mother that night, why, and why it was impossible for her to get a fair trial. Really, my story is about who my mother was, what happened to her, why it was so unfair and what it was like to grow up being Christine Keeler’s son. In other news we also have close friends in Sydney, Australia - Julie & Eduard Otter, and they have built from scratch Otter Craft Distilling (OCD) and to go alongside their distillery, they are now launching Bar26 - an in-house Whiskey & Cocktail bar to showcase their range of OCD Vodkas & Whiskeys & Mary St Gins. Christine met Julie and Eduard years ago and would be so happy for them. In honour of my mother, they have created a cocktail in her name. It’s a whiskey based cocktail, because her drink of choice was Whiskey with Ice and a splash of water! We talked about a few flavor profiles together that Christine would like, and Eduard created the official Christine Keeler cocktail with OCD Whiskey + maple + bitters, garnished with a prosciutto crisp. There is an image of Christine in the bar with one of her favourite quotes ..” Discretion is the polite word for hypocrisy” to raise your glass to when you are having her cocktail! It is lovely that our friends bar in Australia is serving a cocktail in honour of her as she fell in love with Sydney when she went to publicise the film Scandal. So, if you are anywhere near Lilyfield in Sydney Australia, pop into Bar 26, say hello, get a Christine Keeler Cocktail and raise a glass to her.
1 Comment
4/11/2023 03:53:41 pm
Well done Seymour.I look forward to the book.Also your mother getting pardoned
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AuthorSeymour Platt - Son of Christine Keeler Archives
November 2023
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