Archer rejects chance to speak for himself in court

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Archer testimony 'would distract from evidence'

Jeffrey Archer refused to give evidence in his own defence yesterday against allegations of perjury and forgery.

The trial judge, Mr Justice Potts, told the Old Bailey jury it can draw "whatever inference as appears proper" from the silence of the former deputy Tory chairman after his counsel Nicholas Purnell QC said he did not intend to call his client as a witness.

Mr Purnell told the jury later that he would not put Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare on the stand because his "performance in the witness box" could be a distraction from the evidence and there could also be comparisons with "his performance" in the l987 libel trial in which he won £500,000 in damages from the Daily Star.

The QC asked the jury not to draw any "adverse inferences" from the Tory peer's failure to appear in the witness box.

"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 justice," he told the jury. "It concerns an assertion that during the trial in 1987 that he was someone who lied under oath."

On the direction of Mr Justice Potts, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on one of the counts of perverting the course of justice faced by Lord Archer. It was alleged that he had asked his secretary, Angela Peppiatt to buy a 1986 Economist Diary in January 1987, intending to make false entries. But, Mr Justice Potts told the jury, that after legal submissions from counsel, he had decided there was no evidence to prove that diary was used in the 1987 trial.

Lord Archer denies three further counts of perverting the course of justice, two of perjury and one charge of using a diary as a false instrument. His fellow defendant and former friend Ted Francis denies one charge of perverting the course of justice. The case continues.