Ex-wife to be retried in case that toppled UK minister - Oman Daily Observer

LONDON — The ex-wife of fallen British minister Chris Huhne will face a retrial for perverting the course of justice by helping him dodge a driving ban in 2003, after a jury failed to reach a verdict yesterday.
Huhne, once considered a likely successor to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg as leader of the Liberal Democrats, pleaded guilty to the charge on February 4.
Huhne has been warned to expect a prison sentence. His sentencing has been deferred until the end of the retrial of his ex-wife, Vicky Pryce, which is expected to start on Monday.
The inconclusive end of Pryce's first trial was the latest twist in a long-running scandal that toppled Huhne from his cabinet post and has gripped the British public with salacious revelations about the private lives of a once powerful couple.
The allegation against the estranged pair is that they falsely informed police that she was driving his car when it was flashed by a speed camera in March 2003. She took penalty points on her licence which, if he had taken them, would have resulted in a six-month driving ban.
The deception, which took place at a time when the couple were happily married, remained a family secret for eight years but came back to haunt Huhne after the acrimonious break-up of his 26-year marriage to Pryce.
He abruptly left her in June 2010 when his long-term affair with bisexual former aide Carina Trimingham was about to be exposed in the press. Details of the trio's private lives were splashed all over the newspapers for days.
Months later, Pryce told two newspapers about the 2003 points incident in what the prosecution at her trial described as an act of revenge against Huhne.
The jury were shown an email from Pryce to a journalist in March 2011 in which she wrote "I definitely want to nail him". — Reuters