Archer found guilty of perjury

Millionaire novelist Jeffrey Archer was facing jail today after being found guilty of lying and cheating in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star.

The jury at the Old Bailey found the peer guilty on two counts of perverting the course of justice and two of perjury.

His former friend and co-defendant Ted Francis was cleared of perverting the course of justice by providing Archer with a false alibi.

Archer was cleared of one count of perverting the course of justice.

The jury took 23 hours and 39 minutes to reach its unanimous verdicts on each count.

Archer, 61, used false diaries and concocted a bogus story in his defence of the newspaper’s claims he slept with prostitute Monica Coghlan.

Both men had denied the charges.