Christine Keeler

Christine Keeler was a teenage runaway when she arrived in London and took a job as a topless hostess in the infamous Murray's Cabaret Club. She was befriended by the resident pimp Stephen Ward and she became one of 'Ward's Girls'.

At a party at the home of Lord Astor, 'Cliveden' she was introduced by Ward to John Profumo, the Conservative Government War Minister and Captain Eugene Ivanov, a Russian Spy masquerading as a businessman. Within days Ward began orchestrating meetings between Keeler and both men and she embarked on clandestine affairs with the Spy and the War Minister - an arrangement that would become disastrous for them all.

Caught in a world of sex, drugs and political intrigue, Keeler was out of her depth and unaware of the growing scandal that was about to engulf her.

Things came to a head when her live-in lover, John Edgecombe, an Afro-Caribbean from Antigua, was involved in a fight at a nightclub with another Afro-Caribbean called Lucky Gordon. Gordon had previously held Keeler captive in his flat naked for two days. In the fight Gordon's face was cut. Keeler under Ward's influence was told to leave Edgecombe because the police were looking for him. Edgecombe tracked her down at Ward's London flat and fired several shots at the lock in an effort to get in. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder.

This was just what the Labour opposition wanted because it meant Keeler could be called to give evidence under oath and she could let the cat out of the bag regarding the extra curricular activities of Conservative Ministers particularly Profumo.