HC Deb 20 June 1963 vol 679 cc629-31
18. Mr. Lipton

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was to public funds of the measures taken by the Metropolitan Police to ensure the return of Miss Marilyn Rice-Davies from Majorca to London on 2nd June.

Mr. Brooke

Miss Rice-Davies was asked by the police to return to this country because her evidence was considered essential in the proceedings against Dr. Ward. She agreed to make arrangements to do so, provided that the police refunded her expenses. The amount was £62. Her attendance in London as the case proceeds may, of course, involve additional expenditure.

Mr. Lipton

If the object of all this expenditure was to retain her services as a witness, how is it that the first intimation that she or anyone else had that she was on a charge came in an intervention by the Attorney-General during some remarks I made in the Profumo debate on Monday? Does it not strike the right hon. Gentleman as rather curious?

Mr. Brooke

The position is that she is not on a charge. My right hon. and learned Friend was answering a question at short notice. She is not on a charge. She actually has entered into recognisance to appear at St. Marylebone police station on 28th June.

Miss Bacon

Can the right hon. Gentleman say under what authority this woman was brought back and prevented from leaving the country? Is he aware that in March, when I sought to question him as to why he did not take the same steps that he has now taken with regard to Miss Keeler, he took the view that he was not responsible because there was no warrant out for Miss Keeler's arrest? If this action can have been taken now, why was it not taken than?

Mr. Brooke

The difference is exactly as was explained by my right hon. and learned Friend on Monday. In the one case Miss Rice-Davies was regarded as an essential witness. In the case of Miss Keeler, it was not considered that she was an essential witness for the furtherance of the case. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]

Miss Bacon

Is the right hon. Gentleman really saying that, on the previous charge, when Miss Keeler was a witness, it was not essential that she should give evidence when someone had shot at her?

Mr. Brooke

It is no responsibility of mine—[HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."]—to seek to bring back witnesses from abroad. I have answered the Question by the hon. Member for Brixton (Mr. Lipton) and have explained what I believe to be the difference between the circumstances in these cases.

Mr. Gardner

Is it not a fact that, in the case where Miss Keeler was required to return to give her evidence at the Central Criminal Court, the case succeeded for the prosecution, although she did not appear?

Mr. S. Silverman

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the House and the public are deeply disturbed and anxious about the question of propriety of some of these proceedings? When he says that Miss Keeler was not an essential witness in the previous case, is not he overlooking the fact that the prosecution withdrew, and the jury were directed to acquit on, the two main charges for the sole reason that they were unable to be proceeded with without Miss Keeler's evidence? Does it not therefore follow, and does not the right hon. Gentleman appreciate, that Miss Keeler was indeed an essential witness in the case—far more so, one would judge, than Miss Rice-Davies in any subsequent case?

Does not the right hon. Gentleman also appreciate that Miss Keeler was already under recognisance to give evidence, because she had given evidence on committal and had entered into a warrant to appear at the subsequent trial? Does not the right hon. Gentleman perceive that the whole complex of these matters is one that gives rise to really deep anxiety as to whether the cause of justice is not being perverted by people whose duty it is to protect it?

Mr. Brooke

Without endorsing one word of what the hon. Gentleman has said, everything contained in his supplementary question appears to be a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General and not for me.

Several Hon. Members

rose—

Mr. Speaker

Order. We must get on.

Mr. Lipton

Will the Home Secretary please explain—

Mr. Speaker

Order. We really must get on.