[Durham Giant]

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:31 pm  

Looking at the story in a bit more detail here it is clear that she deserves the clink as much as he does.

There was nothing noble about her telling the truth, no remorse for lying nothing.

She just wanted to nail him and allowed herself to get marriage guidance counselling from a Sunday times reporter. Stupid cow.

She has destroyed him and seriously damaged her son by her actions.

I can understand revenge but to think about it the way she did and still pursue her course of action was bonkers.

No winners here but a good example to us all that if you cannot keep it in your trousers things will come back to haunt you eventually.

[DaveO]

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:34 pm  

I hadn't realised he was on 9 points already when he got his wife to take the rap so I was wondering what the motive was for this. I was wondering if it just a case of a public figure being paranoid that any offence even a 3 point motoring offence would be seriously damaging to his political career. We do seem to expect public figures to have zero flaws and perfect character but as he was deliberately trying to avoid a driving ban that is that excuse out of the window.

Didn't work anyway as he was pulled over some time later for using a mobile phone while driving. That suggests to me he has a general disrespect for the law and add that to his attempts to get the case thrown out, his persistent protestations of innocence puts this right up there if not worse than the expense rows.

He was being told in private by friends (including a judge) the case would be thrown out so I reckon one reason he took it as far as he did was bad advice but even so, given he clearly knew he was guilty taking that tack was a desperate and yet calculated move to try and bury the whole thing. That should mean he does not have a way back into politics ever.

[DaveO]

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:06 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

Looking at the story in a bit more detail here it is clear that she deserves the clink as much as he does.

There was nothing noble about her telling the truth, no remorse for lying nothing.

She just wanted to nail him and allowed herself to get marriage guidance counselling from a Sunday times reporter. Stupid cow.

She has destroyed him and seriously damaged her son by her actions.

I can understand revenge but to think about it the way she did and still pursue her course of action was bonkers.

No winners here but a good example to us all that if you cannot keep it in your trousers things will come back to haunt you eventually.

What offence did she commit by spilling the beans whether she did it for revenge or not?

She is charged with perverting the course of justice, not "revenge". Her defence is she was coerced by her former husband into committing the crime.

The prosecution has already mentioned the revenge aspect presumably to try and say she was at the time a willing partner in the deception and only became "unwilling" and ready to expose him because of her husbands infidelity not because she was an unwilling partner to the cover up.

Given the circumstances of their separation I am surprised she didn't just chop his manhood off!

Apparently he got a phone call off the News of the World saying they were going to expose him as having an affair while his wife was watching a world cup football game. He told her at half time he was having an affair and he had 30 minutes to head off the damage so went to his study, decided to leave her, drafted a letter saying he was in a meaningful relationship with Carina Trimingham then went off to the gym. Absolutely ruthless treatment of his wife to save his career.

So I for one fully understand the revenge motive for his ex wife speaking to the Sunday Times but it doesn't mean she wasn't coerced into the crime in the first place. The jury is being asked to decide if coercion is credible or not.

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:08 pm  

DaveO wrote:

I...
He was being told in private by friends (including a judge) the case would be thrown out so I reckon one reason he took it as far as he did was bad advice ...

Maybe, IF he told them he actually did it, but do you think he mentioned that bit? Or that if he couldn't get the case halted, he would plead guilty?

The relevant advice must surely have been that of his legal team, anyway. I don't think for a second that anything in a conversation with some mate, judge or not, would exactly carry much weight against a top team of lawyers headed by a £20K-a-day QC. And we don't know, nor ever will, what they advised.

[DaveO]

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 4:04 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Maybe, IF he told them he actually did it, but do you think he mentioned that bit? Or that if he couldn't get the case halted, he would plead guilty?

I doubt he did but all I am saying is his mates including a judge thought the case would be thrown out presumably based on the arguments of not getting a fair trail and because the evidence of the speeding offence no longer existed. They won't have assumed it would be thrown out if he told them he did it would they.

The relevant advice must surely have been that of his legal team, anyway. I don't think for a second that anything in a conversation with some mate, judge or not, would exactly carry much weight against a top team of lawyers headed by a £20K-a-day QC. And we don't know, nor ever will, what they advised.

We know what tack his legal team took already. I would suggest such comments from his mate the judge would have just reinforced his belief that the tack his legal team had taken was going to work. Hence another reason to keep going with the lie.

It would be interesting to know if his legal team did know if he was guilty and so designed a defence they felt would get him off.

[Durham Giant]

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 5:05 pm  

DaveO wrote:

What offence did she commit by spilling the beans whether she did it for revenge or not?

She is charged with perverting the course of justice, not "revenge". Her defence is she was coerced by her former husband into committing the crime.


So I for one fully understand the revenge motive for his ex wife speaking to the Sunday Times but it doesn't mean she wasn't coerced into the crime in the first place. The jury is being asked to decide if coercion is credible or not.

By spilling the beans she also admitted her role in the conspiracy.

Her defence is unlikely to stand up to much i would have thought. Intelligent, successful career Civil Servant so is unlikely to get away with the doormat defence does not. Also the evidence from the sunday times states she did it out of revenge AND that she seemed to be ignorant of the consequences. There is nothing in there that says she was coerced. We will see when the defence get going but i think that she is going to struggle to mount a credible defence.

I wonder if anyone has asked the question yet of whether if you were co-erced by a bullying nasty abusive manipulative * delete as appropriate man why did you not do anything for the next 9 years and only waited until he dumped you. Therefore if he was so (bullying nasty abusive manipulative etc) why did you not take any steps to leave him, challenge him, expose him etc.

I dont really have much time for Huhne in this but his exes actions seemed to have potentially destroyed his, her and their sons life. Revenge is a dish eaten cold. Hers was straight out of a 300 degree oven.

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:26 pm  

DaveO wrote:

I doubt he did but all I am saying is his mates including a judge thought the case would be thrown out presumably based on the arguments of not getting a fair trail and because the evidence of the speeding offence no longer existed. They won't have assumed it would be thrown out if he told them he did it would they.

Well, exactly, whatever they said was (presumably) based on being told a great big whopping lie. We may never know, but had he told them he was actually guilty, I somehow doubt they'd have offered the same opinion.

DaveO wrote:

We know what tack his legal team took already. I would suggest such comments from his mate the judge would have just reinforced his belief that the tack his legal team had taken was going to work.

No, I don't buy it at all. We are talking a man with a first from Oxford, and with multi-millions to buy the top legal advice. I seriously doubt he would set much store by unbriefed informal tittle tattle from chats with mates.

DaveO wrote:

It would be interesting to know if his legal team did know if he was guilty and so designed a defence they felt would get him off.

Can't be done. Once they were told he had done it, they could not allow him to advance any positive case that he didn't do it. All they could then have done is put the prosecution to proof. They couldn't, for example, have him stand in a witness box and give evidence which they knew to be false. It's a perfectly permissible, and indeed normal, defence to say to the prosecution "Prove it". However if they knew he was guilty it is simply impossible that they would allow him to lie in court.

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:42 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Can't be done. Once they were told he had done it, they could not allow him to advance any positive case that he didn't do it. All they could then have done is put the prosecution to proof. They couldn't, for example, have him stand in a witness box and give evidence which they knew to be false. It's a perfectly permissible, and indeed normal, defence to say to the prosecution "Prove it". However if they knew he was guilty it is simply impossible that they would allow him to lie in court.

Nonsense, m'learned friends encourage defendants and witnesses to lie in court on a routine basis. A friend of mine was charged with serious fraud and his barrister coached him in what to say in court on a version of events that was very far removed from the actual events. The barrister knew my friend was guilty but invented a scenario that was false and that was used as a defence after a not guilty plea. Happens day in, day out in every court in the land.

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:42 pm  

Huhne is a lying toad. He was prepared to keep lying to save his arrogant skin even at the risk of having his ex wife put in prison had he won (or lost)

Although she is also guilty as charged I feel sure that there would have been coercion by the ambitious LibDem leader in waiting (what is it about Liberals?) Therefore the court will take into account her plea in mitigation.

He committed the driving offence, he cheated on his wife (with a lesbian! ... yes what is it with Liberals?) he lied and lied and lied again (he probably lied about climate change too! ) and in doing so put his family in a terrible mess. So no sympathy for this little creep please.

Re: Huhne was lying : Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:54 pm  

Derwent wrote:

Nonsense, m'learned friends encourage defendants and witnesses to lie in court on a routine basis. A friend of mine was charged with serious fraud and his barrister coached him in what to say in court on a version of events that was very far removed from the actual events. The barrister knew my friend was guilty but invented a scenario that was false and that was used as a defence after a not guilty plea. Happens day in, day out in every court in the land.