Archer will not give evidence

Lord Archer today declined to give evidence at his Old Bailey trial - but his barrister warned the jury not to draw any ‘‘adverse inferences’’ from his decision.

After announcing that he did not propose to call the novelist, Nicholas Purnell QC said that by not putting him in the witness box ‘‘the focus will not be on Lord Archer, it will be where it properly should be - on the evidence’’.

It would be ‘‘unfair’’, he said, for the jury to draw any ‘‘adverse inferences’’ from Archer’s failure to give evidence.

Archer, 61, and his former friend Ted Francis, 67, are accused of dishonesty over a 1987 libel case in which Archer was alleged to have had sex with a prostitute.

He successfully sued the Daily Star over the allegation and was awarded £500,000 damages by a jury at the High Court.

The former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party is now accused of faking diaries and asking Francis for a fake alibi.

Archer, who has homes in London and Cambridgeshire, had denied four counts of perverting the course of justice, two of perjury and one charge of using a diary as a false instrument.

On the direction of trial judge Mr Justice Potts, the jury today returned a not guilty verdict on one of the counts of perverting the course of justice, which alleged he had asked his secretary, Angela Peppiatt, to buy a 1986 Economist diary, intending to make false entries in it.

The judge told the jury that after hearing submissions from counsel, he found there was no evidence to say the diary was used in the libel proceedings.

At the start of the defence case, the judge asked Mr Purnell: ‘‘Have you advised your client that the stage has now been reached at which he may give evidence and that if he chooses not to do so, or having been sworn without good cause refuses to answer any question, the jury may draw such inferences as appear proper from his failure to do so.’’

Mr Purnell replied that he did not propose to call Archer.

The QC told the jury: ‘‘This is a unique trial, you may think. It concerns events which took place at another trial. The subject matter in each count is the administration of public justice.

‘‘It concerns an assertion during the trial in 1987 that he was someone who lied on oath.’’

The prosecution case was that he had lied in order to pervert justice and secure the trial.

Mr Purnell said: ‘‘A consequence of his not giving evidence means that you don’t shift the focus from the prosecution evidence to the defendant on trial.’’

He told the jury that once all the evidence was before them, he would ‘‘undertake an analysis of it’’ for them and then it would be up to them what to make of it.

Mr Purnell said there were many inconsistencies in the prosecution evidence, particularly that from Mrs Peppiatt.

Film producer Frank Marshall, whose credits include Back to the Future and Sixth Sense, who has known Archer since 1973, told the jury: ‘‘I have a great deal of respect for Jeffrey. He has always been a good friend.

‘‘He has been kind and generous and sincere and honest.’’

Barrister Gilbert Gray QC, who said he had known the novelist for almost 20 years, said Archer had always been ‘‘generous and trusting to others and worthy of trust himself’’.

Retired television producer Francis, of Cranleigh, Surrey, denies one charge of perverting the course of justice.

The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.