Natalie Elphicke's £25,000 payout for articles about ending marriage to 'naughty Tory' husband Charlie Elphicke after he was convicted for sex attacks
11:23, 01 October 2020
updated: 13:43, 01 October 2020
Tory MP Natalie Elphicke was paid £25,000 for a tell all article after "naughty Tory" husband Charlie Elphicke was convicted of sex assaults.
Minutes after Mr Elphicke, her predecessor as MP for Dover and Deal, received the guilty verdict on July 30, Mrs Elphicke announced on Twitter that she had ended her 25-year marriage.
Days later, she revealed in The Sun how she had found texts he sent to a victim after reading through court documents ahead of the trial.
That interview resulted in a payment of £25,000 according to a parliamentary register of interests logged on September 14.
The document lists the transaction as 'payments and earnings' for 12 hours work and two resulting articles published on August 2 and 3.
Mrs Elphicke said this afternoon: "These payments have been promptly and transparently declared on the Members Register of Interests, as is rightly required of all MPs."
Her statement and the members register did not say whether the payment will be kept as income or donated to charity.
Mr Elphicke served as MP for Dover and Deal from 2010 until last year when he stood down amid the impending trial.
As a result of the accusations, the parliamentary whip was twice suspended. First in November 2017 when it was revealed he was being investigated by police for serious allegations - the nature of which he wouldn't learn until the next year.
The whip was reinstated before Theresa May's vote of confidence in December 2018.
It was then suspended again when Mr Elphicke was charged on July 22, 2019.
After a three-week trial at Southwark Crown Court, he was convicted on July 30.
Mrs Elphicke, who was elected as his replacement in December's general election, tweeted after the verdict: "Today’s verdict is one that brings profound sorrow. It ends my 25-year marriage to the only man I have ever loved."
The interview with The Sun revealed she had told him that the marriage was over in a private room in the court moments after he was branded a sexual predator by Judge Mrs Justice Whipple.
He was jailed for the offences on September 15 at the same court.
Mrs Elphicke then revealed she would be helping him appeal the sentence.
In a statement to the press, she said: "I fully support Charlie in his appeal against both his convictions and today's excessive sentence.
"The court seems to be on a bit of a mission, it entirely ignored the report of a highly experienced probation officer as well as sentencing guidelines.
"There is no doubt that Charlie behaved badly. However, everyone, Charlie included, has the right to a fair trial, and I don't believe that he has had one."
Today Mrs Elphicke said: "These payments have been promptly and transparently declared on the Members Register of Interests, as is rightly required of all MPs.
“As I have written since the trial, I believe that Charlie’s conviction was a terrible miscarriage of justice. Having read all the evidence, including elements which the jury did not see, I continue to support him in every way possible in his appeal against both conviction and sentence.
“Substantive appeals have now been lodged and I hope others may join me in supporting Charlie’s legal fight to clear his name.”
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