White-collar crime - Time for a new process

DISGRACED press baron Conrad Black was jailed for six-and-a-half years by Judge Amy St Eve in the US District Court in Chicago yesterday, following his conviction on three charges of fraud and one of obstructing justice. Black, who still insists he is innocent of all charges, was cleared of racketeering and tax evasion.

Once a voluble pin-up in Thatcher’s Britain, the Canadian fraudster — the Right Honourable The Lord Black of Crossharbour, PC, OC, KCSG to give him his full handle — says he will be able to cope with prison. “Jail will... compound the injustice of this entire vendetta. Prison would be a bore, but quite endurable... and I don’t consider prison shaming.”

Black, infamous for extravagances that would make a Paris Hilton blush, has said that he is taking comfort in God and the writings of “ecclesiastical authors, especially Cardinal Newman”.