Sir: I do not believe Mr Jonathan Aitken and his
wife and daughter knowingly swore false affidavits about the payment of his bill at the Paris Ritz. It is easy for busy people to get into a muddle about travelling and the travelling expenses of several years ago. Solicitors draft affidavits and they are sworn carefully and as a matter of routine. And it is easy to imagine that dishonest people might wish to lay false evidence against a Conservative minister.
However, if Mr Aitken is tried and con- victed, I suggest he should have a statue next to that proposed for Oscar Wilde, whose odious behaviour brought misery to his family and friends. The site should not be outside Charing Cross station, as has been proposed, which would be an insult to rail travellers and to the people who fre- quent the Strand, but in front of the Old Bailey. Both men have certainly been bene- factors of our noble legal profession. The last time Mr Aitken was tried there he was very properly acquitted.
Martin Russell
Dungrove Farm House, Tarrant Gunville, Blandford, Dorset
Previous page
