Vicky Pryce speaks in court at speeding offence trial

Former UK minister forced me into abortion, ex-wife says

LONDON — A former British Cabinet minister pressured his ex-wife into an abortion because having the baby would have damaged his career, she told a criminal court yesterday.

On the second day of Vicky Pryce’s trial, which is evolving into a cautionary tale of sex, deception and politics, she said Chris Huhne had told her of the affair that was to shatter her marriage while she was watching a World Cup soccer match.

Huhne was considered a contender to succeed Deputy PM Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats until he pleaded guilty on Monday to perverting the course of justice. He was charged in 2012 over an incident in 2003 in which Pryce took penalty points on her driving licence for a speeding offence he had committed, so he could avoid a driving ban. Huhne is awaiting sentence and has been warned he faces imprisonment.

The 2003 incident came to light because Pryce told a newspaper about it in 2011 in what the prosecution has described as an act of revenge over the breakdown of her 26-year marriage to Huhne. He left Pryce for his mistress Carina Trimingham in June 2010, just weeks after he became energy minister in the new Conservative-LibDem coalition. Huhne resigned his Cabinet post in February 2012 when he and Pryce were charged.

Pryce’s defence says she took his penalty points but he had used “marital coercion” to make her do it.

Pryce said that she had angrily resisted Huhne’s attempts to persuade her to take his speeding points. Pryce said he had then gone behind her back and filled in a police form saying she had been driving his car when it had been caught speeding by a speed camera.

She also told the court that in 1990 she had accidentally got pregnant and wanted to have the baby. “He absolutely resisted it, saying it was bad timing, bad financially, bad for his career to be tied down again,” Pryce said. “And despite my protestations, he got me to have an abortion, which I have regretted ever since,” she said, fighting back tears as she spoke.

Pryce said this fait accompli had put her in an “impossible situation” because her only options were to go along with the lie or to reveal to the police that her husband had lied.

The trial continues today.

Reuters