Vicky Pryce: Huhne's Ex Is Found Guilty

Vicky Pryce has been found guilty of perverting the course of justice for taking her husband's penalty points a decade ago.

A jury of seven men and five women returned their verdict almost exactly 48 hours after going out to deliberate.

Pryce, 60, looked open-mouthed with shock as the foreman told Southwark Crown Court they had reached a unanimous guilty verdict.

Judge Mr Justice Sweeney granted bail until sentencing but warned she should be "under no illusions" about what punishment to expect.

The former couple are now both facing jail and will be sentenced together, at a date yet to be fixed.

As she left the court building, her solicitor Robert Brown said in a statement that Pryce was "naturally very disappointed to have been convicted".

She thanked "all those who have supported her during this difficult period, particularly her children, her friends and colleagues".

Former Cabinet minister Huhne, 58, last month admitted lying to police about who was driving just as he was about to go on trial.

His ex-wife and mother of his three children continued to protest her innocence, arguing that she had been forced to take the speeding points against her will.

She had to explain herself in two trials, after the first was abandoned because the jury was unable to reach a verdict.

The former Government adviser told the retrial Huhne had bullied her into pretending she was driving because he feared losing his licence would threaten his political career.

He was an MEP at the time and was trying to get selected as the Lib Dem candidate for Eastleigh in Hampshire.

Ironically, he was caught talking on his mobile while driving later that year, which meant he lost his licence anyway.

To illustrate the senior Lib Dem's hold over her during their 26-year marriage, Pryce told the court he had forced her to have an abortion in the 90s.

But prosecutor Andrew Edis QC called her a liar and described her as "manipulative and deceitful".

"She is one of the most powerful, talented, intelligent and trusted women in the country. She is not someone who could be reduced to a quivering jelly," he insisted.

He pointed out that Pryce had not argued she was given no choice when she was first arrested, instead refusing to answer police questions.

The points swap emerged only in 2011, when Pryce herself tipped off two newspapers because she was furious that Huhne had left her for another woman.

The Lib Dem abruptly walked out on their 26-year marriage in 2010 because his affair with PR adviser Carina Trimingham was about to be revealed by the press.

During Pryce's trial, the bitterness over their marriage split was laid bare and angry phone calls - taped in a bid to trap Huhne admitting his crime - were played to the jury.

Text messages between the politician and his then 18-year-old son Peter, in which the teenager said his father made him "sick", were also revealed.

The court heard Pryce had told Sunday Times political editor Isabel Oakeshott before the story broke that Vince Cable and his wife knew about the points swap.

"Actually I had told Vince and Rachel (Mrs Cable) about points before when the three of us were having supper about a month ago," she wrote.

"They were horrified at the time, but VC has probably forgotten it by now. He was very tired that night."

She also claimed to have told senior Lib Dem Lord Oakeshott and the party leader Nick Clegg's wife Miriam.

A spokesman for Mr Cable said: "Vince and Rachel have no recollection of the issue of points being raised with them over the course of dinner with Vicky Pryce on 28 January 2011.

"They have consulted their personal records, which confirm that the issue first came to their attention in May 2011 when the story broke in the press." 

Miriam Gonzalez also said in a statement: "I have never ever been told by Vicky or anybody else about the traffic points story. I got to know about this when everybody else did."

The CPS said in a statement afterwards: "Perverting the course of justice is a serious matter and the system relies on people being truthful to police. It is important that everyone should act within the law - whoever they are."