The Aitken affair: The four charges

JONATHAN AITKEN pleaded guilty to one charge of perjury: that between 4 and 14 June 1997, having been sworn as a witness in a judicial proceeding in which he was plaintiff and Peter Preston, David Pallister, Guardian Newspapers and Granada Television Ltd were defendants, made a statement which he knew to be false, namely that on 19 September 1993 his wife, Lolicia Aitken, was in Paris and paid to the Ritz hotel the sum of 4,257 francs in part payment of his bill at that hotel.

He also pleaded guilty to acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice by drafting a witness statement in the name of Victoria Aitken and obtaining her signature to that statement on 17 June 1997. The statement contained a version of events which he knew to be false relating to the trip to Paris in September 1993. The statement was submitted to the High Court.

Aitken pleaded not guilty to a charge that with another man between 9 April l995 and 21 June l997, he conspired together with Lolicia Aitken to pervert the course of justice by signing witness statements and allowing the statements to be submitted on his behalf in the High Court action in which he was plaintiff... Aitken, Lolicia Aitken and the other man were said to have done so knowing that the statement contained a false version of events relating to the Paris trip.

He also pleaded not guilty to acts tending or intended to pervert the course of justice in signing a witness statement and causing it to be submitted to the High Court knowing that it contained a false version of events relating to the payment of a bill at the Paris Ritz.