Jonathan Aitken, once tipped as a future Conservative leader and prime minister, was on his way to Belmarsh Prison in London last night after being sentenced to 18 months for perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The former defence procurement minister's mother, Lady Aitken, burst into tears beside the dock of the No 1 court at the Old Bailey as Mr Justice Scott Baker pronounced sentence, telling Aitken: "For nearly four years you wove a web of deceit in which you entangled yourself and from which there was no way out unless you were prepared to come clean and tell the truth. Unfortunately you were not."
Mr Aitken's downfall began with but a single lie, his insistence that his wife had settled the bill for a family weekend spent at the Paris Ritz, which the Guardian newspaper maintained had been settled by a Saudi prince in breach of ministerial guidelines.
Aitken resigned as chief secretary to the cabinet in 1995 to concentrate on his libel action against the Guardian and a Granada TV World in Action programme. In typically swashbuckling style, his wife, Lolicia, and teenage daughter, Victoria, by his side, he told the assembled press at Conservative Central Office: "If it falls to me to start a fight to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country, with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play, so be it. I am ready for the fight."
But as he stood beneath the court's own sword of truth yesterday, the judge told him there were two particularly serious aspects to his offences: "First, this was no passing error of judgment; it was calculated perjury pursued over a period of time. Second, you swept others, including members of your own family, into it and most particularly one of your daughters who was only 16 at the time. That was a gross and inexcusable breach of trust."
Aitken's daughter Victoria, now 18, and her twin, Alexandra, broke down in tears as their father smiled and blew them a kiss as he was led away after sentencing.
The court had earlier heard of Aitken's "profound remorse" and shame for having implicated his daughter in the affair. Sir John Nutting QC, defending, said the former minister had lied about the stay at the Ritz to put the Guardian off the "false scent" of other allegations made against him at the time. But once he started lying, he was forced to continue, culminating in direct lies to the cabinet secretary and the prime minister, Mr John Major.
"It was a lie that started life for a different purpose," said Sir John. There had been no consideration of "a deliberate commission of serious crime". But when the lies were threatened with exposure at the libel trial, Aitken drew up a witness statement for Victoria, for which he now felt "profound remorse and shame."
The witness statement backed Aitken's false claim that he had spoken to his mother-in-law at a hotel in Switzerland at 10.15 a.m. on Sunday, September 19th, 1993, and not his wife, as was in fact the case.
Sir John continued: "The depth of that remorse and shame is really immeasurable. He finds it impossible to understand how, in the heat of this most bitter court case, he could have done such a thing. One thing is certain: his regret and mortification for his actions are genuine and heartfelt. It is the greatest consolation to him that he, the sole author of his misfortune, is to be punished alone."
Sir John told the court: "In a real and fundamental sense this defendant had brought about his real destruction. Not since the days of Oscar Wilde had a public figure who told lies in a libel case suffered such humiliation, public vilification and vindictiveness at the hands of some members of the press. The fall from grace has been complete. His marriage has broken down, he has lost his home, he is one of only three people this century forced to resign from the Privy Council, he is bankrupt and his health has suffered."
PA adds: The five women still in Jonathan Aitken's life, his mother, Lady Aitken, daughters, Victoria, Alexandra and Petrina, and his sister, the actress Maria Aitken, were all in court. His former wife did not appear. Petrina (19), who only found out recently that Aitken was her father, tearfully told a bystander to leave them alone.
Aitken's son, William (16), was also present all day.
The six had been with Aitken since early morning when they held a prayer meeting at the £2 million family home in Westminster.