Christine Keeler hated being called a prostitute, claims her son who’s campaigning to clear her name

SUNDAY night drama The Trial Of Christine Keeler has been a Christmas TV hit.

It tells the true story of how Christine rocked the British government after having an affair with a minister when she was 19 and was sent to jail two years later for lying to a court about a separate case.

Now, nearly 60 years after she was banged up in Holloway prison, her son Seymour Platt is campaigning to have the conviction quashed.

Seymour, 49, wants Home Secretary Priti Patel to re-examine the case and overturn Christine’s conviction.

He says the establishment was “protecting its own” and his mum was “badly advised” by cops to plead guilty to perjury.

He says detectives led her to believe she would get a fine — but she ended up with nine months inside.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Seymour adds: “I grew up with people believing Christine was sent to prison for prostitution. This is wrong.

A LOT OF ANIMOSITY

“Being called a prostitute was very painful to her. She went to prison for perjury, for lying about her former boyfriend Lucky Gordon, who was a nasty piece of work.

“The trauma my mum suffered at his hands was so bad that all her life she lived in fear of him.

“When I was young, everywhere she went she would check the security, even if it meant putting curtain rails over windows, to give her a false sense of having bars for protection.

“I remember going into school saying, ‘I’ve got a real gun that I play with’. My mother always told me, ‘if Lucky Gordon ever comes here I will show him I have that gun and I will protect you’.

“All her life she was terrified of him and he only died nine months before she did.”

Christine was a showgirl in London’s Soho in 1961 when she and her friend Mandy Rice-Davies met well-connected osteopath Stephen Ward.

This led to Christine having an affair with John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War. She was also sleeping with a Russian spy.

Two years later, when the scandal broke, the Profumo Affair threatened to topple the Government.

In the opening episode of the six-part BBC drama shown last Sunday, nearly five million viewers saw Sophie Cookson play Christine as she was terrorised by Aloysius “Lucky” Gordon, an obsessed stalker who kidnapped, beat and raped her.

In October 1962, Gordon and another of Christine’s boyfriends, Johnnie Edgecombe, had a bust-up at a club in Soho where Gordon’s face was slashed.

When the 17 stitches were taken out, he posted them to her and warned her that for each stitch he had sent she would get two on her face in return.

Six months later he attacked Christine. With the encouragement of cops, the terrified girl saw a chance to get him off the streets by lying about the circumstances of the assault.

TERRIFIED

Government officials knew Christine had told the police about her affair with Profumo, who had been tipped as a future Prime Minister.

Faced with the prospect of her blurting out details in the witness box, the minister was forced to resign on the first day of Gordon’s trial — June 5, 1963.

Gordon maintained his innocence but was found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail.

However, his conviction was overturned in the Court of Appeal the following month, when two witnesses came to light who proved that much of Christine’s evidence was false.

In December 1963 — just weeks after the Conservative government had been damaged by the scandal and went on to lose at the next election — Christine was given a nine-month jail sentence for lying to the court about the attack.

For the rest of her life Christine, who died in 2017 aged 75, raged that she had been the victim of a crooked legal system.

Seymour, who lives in Ireland, says: “She was very badly advised to plead guilty. Nowadays, as a victim of a hideous crime, she would have been treated much more fairly by the courts.

“My mum should definitely not have gone to prison and I don’t even believe she should have been allowed to plead guilty to perjury because of the police involvement in the case.

“Christine was led to believe that by pleading guilty the worst she should get was a fine. But she was sentenced to nine months in Holloway.

“The establishment was protecting its own. It was a bit too perfect making my mum a liar because it meant everything she had to say about the Profumo Affair was brought into question.”

Christine, who sold her story at the height of the scandal for £450,000 in today’s money, was married twice — briefly.

Her son Jimmy, from her first marriage, was brought up mainly by her mum, Julie.

Her second husband, businessman Anthony Platt, walked out after a year to leave Christine to bring up their son, Seymour.

He says: “It was just my mum and me. My earliest memory is that we were well off and living in her house in Chelsea.

THIS IS WRONG

“When I was five we went to Brazil, where she was doing some interviews. When we were out there everything fell to pieces.

“All the money was suddenly gone and the Revenue were after her for a lot of tax. She was utterly broke.”

They ended up in a council flat in South West London.

Seymour remembers only once meeting Christine’s friend Mandy Rice-Davies, who emigrated to Israel and became a millionairess.

He recalls: “She came to the estate and wanted to have a chat with Christine. Heaven knows what they talked about.

“I was nine, so it must have been around 1980. She took out a £50 note and said, ‘Get whatever you want’.

“So I took the money, went up the road to the toy shop and picked a toy, went to the counter to buy it and the £50 note was gone.

“Somewhere between the toy shop and home it had vanished. I had to go back really sheepishly, but by the time I got back Mandy was gone.”

Seymour says his mum struggled financially and would have to give up jobs as soon as people found out who she was due to, “a lot of animosity”.

At one point she even became an agony aunt for a porn magazine to earn money.

But Seymour only properly learnt who his mum was when he went with her in 1989 to the premiere of the movie Scandal, in which Joanne Whalley played Christine.

The producer was now-disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Seymour says: “She made nothing out of that film whatsoever.

“I think Harvey Weinstein’s firm made the money in the States. She was going to get a percentage of the movie but not a penny came in.

“Christine was never the one who made any money out of her name. Other people did.

“Occasionally there were days when there wasn’t any food, but some people were much worse off than us.

“Christine was a wonderful, loving mother and I grew up unaware of all of that pain.

“She protected me and she loved me, so I don’t think of myself as a victim at all.”

Speaking about his bid to get a review of his mum’s conviction, Seymour says: “At the time of her trial she was very young and very naïve.

“By today’s measure the outcome of that would be very different.

“We don’t punish victims in the same way that we did back then. She deserves a posthumous pardon.”

• Christine’s life story – Secrets And Lies: The Trials Of Christine Keeler by Christine Keeler with Douglas Thompson is published by Bonnier Books, £8.99.

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