Archer witness 'told trial lies'

The jury could consider a verdict this week

Lord Archer's lawyer has accused a key witness in the novelist's perjury trial of telling lies.

Nicholas Purnell QC said Lord Archer's former personal assistant, Angela Peppiatt, was "vague" about dates in her evidence and he said a statement she wrote contained "lies".

The defence counsel also stressed that £12,000 Lord Archer had given his friend and co-accused Ken Francis was a "repayable loan" not a reward for a bogus alibi, as alleged by the prosecution.

They are not inaccuracies, they are lies

Nicholas Purnell QC

The case resumed for closing speeches at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, after the hearing was adjourned on Monday because a juror was ill.

Mr Purnell tore into Mrs Peppiatt's evidence that she had signed an official statement for Lord Archer's solicitors saying she had filled in dates in a blank diary under his instructions.

She had told the jury she prepared the statement as a kind of protection for herself because she feared the politician was involving her in "deception" in his libel action.

'Not just inaccuracies'

But Mr Purnell dismissed the prosecution's admissions that there were some inaccuracies in her evidence.

"They are not inaccuracies, they are lies," he said.

Angela Peppiatt gave evidence against her former boss

Referring to the charges that LordArcher perverted the course of justice, Mr Purnell added: "If there is a question mark over these documents then that question mark spears its way right through each of those counts on the indictment."

The six men and six women on the jury are expected to retire later this week to consider verdicts on six charges against Lord Archer in relation to his successful 1987 libel action against the Daily Star, which had claimed he had slept with a prostitute.

He denies six charges of perverting the course of justice, perjury and using a diary as a false instrument.

The judge, Mr Justice Potts, has already directed that Lord Archer be cleared of a further charge of perverting the course of justice.

Ted Francis denies perverting the course of justice

His co-defendant, former television producer Ted Francis, 67, of Cranleigh, Surrey, denies one charge of perverting the course of justice in providing him with a false alibi.

The prosecution has alleged that Lord Archer had given Mr Francis £12,000 for a project after the television producer agreed to give him a bogus alibi for the night he was supposed to have been with the prostitute.

Mr Purnell said he did not dispute that the two actions could have been linked.

But he said human nature made Lord Archer more likely to help someone who had helped him, but insisted it was not a reward or a pay-off, but a repayable loan.

The trial continues.