The first instalment of what the prosecution described as the ╥somewhat sordid story╙ of Stephen Ward was told yesterday in Marylebone magistrates╒ court ╤ a building designed originally for the district╒s public wash-houses.
It was heard by nearly fifty reporters crammed in an L-shaped gallery against the ceiling of the small blue-and-white court room, and by some twenty members of the public who had queued in early morning rain, passing the waiting hours by swapping tales of experiences at other hearings. The preface was written by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Mervyn Griffith-Jones, and on this first day the main chapters came from Miss Christine Keeler and Miss Marilyn (╥Mandy╙) Rice-Davies. Among the names mentioned during more than four and a half hours of examination and cross-examination were those of Lord Astor, Mr Douglas Fairbanks, Mr Profumo, Ivanov, a business man named James Eylan, and another man named Charles who lives somewhere off Park Lane. Several more were masked by letters picked at random from the alphabet.
Ward, a fifty-year-old osteopath, bespectacled and wearing a dark grey suit and brown tie, appeared before the magistrate, Mr Leo Gradwell, to face eight charges: two of knowingly living wholly or in part on the earnings of the prostitution of Miss Keeler and Miss Davies; one of inciting Miss Keeler to procure a Miss ╥R,╙; another of attempting to procure a Miss ╥X╙; and a fifth of conspiring to procure others. Further charges alleged that he had been a party to unlawful abortions of a Miss ╥W╙ and a Miss ╥M,╙ and that he had kept a brothel at 17 Wimpole Mews, W.1.
Ward stroked his chin, scribbled notes and, later in the day, appeared to do a little of the sketching for which he is known, as Mr Griffith-Jones outlined the case and Miss Keeler and Miss Rice-Davies gave evidence.
Miss Keeler, in an off-white suit and cool self-confidence, told how she met Ward at Murrays Club where, after a little indecision, she said she had been employed as ╥an artist.╙ She then added: ╥I was a showgirl.╙
Her words were repeated by the clerk into a dictaphone as she went on to describe her relationship with Ward:
╥We were like brother and sister╔ My life really used to revolve around Stephen. He had full control of my mind. I used to do more or less everything that he said. I thought I could never stand on my feet unless he was there and supporting me mentally.╙
Miss Keeler said that money for the rent of one flat she occupied was paid for by Ward with a cheque from Lord Astor ╤ ╥though there was no ulterior motive in that.╙ She had made love with Ivanov and with Mr Profumo, who gave her money for her mother. She had received money also from Eylan ╤ ╥some hundreds╙ ╤ and given some of it to Ward. These meetings occurred when Ward said he was short of money; and she had met, at his suggestion, a man called Charles in a mews house off Park Lane. He had given her ú50.
╥I never considered myself a prostitute or a call-girl. Stephen said that you have to have the mentality of a prostitute, which I didn╒t have, and it was not quite so wrong just once or twice sleeping with a man and having some money from him: a man I knew and liked.╙
Miss Keeler described how she had taken work as a model and introduced some of the girls she met to Ward:
╥I introduced them because he liked girls. He used to tell me which girl he liked in a shop and say ╘Go and get her╒.╙
After relating preparations at Ward╒s flat for an abortion and after a short cross-examination by Mr James Burge, representing Ward, in which she said that police had taken twelve statements from her and interviewed her twice a week during the last few months, Miss Keeler left the witness-box.
She was replaced by Miss Rice-Davies in a black coat, flowery hat and white gloves, who said she had been introduced to Ward by Miss Keeler. There had been frequent intercourse between Ward and herself, she said. He had suggested they ought to get married some time.
╥He always said that he did not have any money but had lots of friends. He mentioned Lord Astor╒s name and said we have always got Bill who can help us.╙
The only other friend of Ward╒s whom she knew was Douglas Fairbanks, Jun. Ward╒s inference had been ╥fairly obvious ╤ Lord Astor had already paid Christine╒s and my rent.╙
Miss Rice-Davies said that for some time she had lived with a Mr Peter Rachman, but after his death in October, 1962, had gone to live with Ward at Wimpole Mews.
