The Soham murders was an English murder case in 2002 of two 10-year-old girls in the village of Soham, Cambridgeshire.

The victims were Holly Marie Wells and Jessica Aimee Chapman. On 4 August 2002, after going out to buy some sweets, the girls passed the home of local school caretaker Ian Kevin Huntley, who called them into his house and then murdered them, apparently in a fit of rage after an argument with his girlfriend.

Huntley disposed of the girls' bodies near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. In December 2003 he was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 40 years. His girlfriend, Maxine Ann Carr, who had provided Huntley with a false alibi, served 21 months in prison for perverting the course of justice.

Murders[link]

On Sunday, 4 August 2002, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both aged 10, had attended a barbecue at the Wells's family home. At around 6:15 pm they went out to buy some sweets. On their way back they walked past the rented house of local school caretaker Ian Huntley, in College Close. Huntley saw the girls and asked them to come into his house. He said that his girlfriend, Maxine Carr, was in the house too, but she had in fact gone to visit family in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. Shortly after the girls entered his house, Huntley murdered them.

Huntley's reasons for killing Wells and Chapman may never be known, but minutes before seeing them he had slammed the telephone down on Carr following a furious argument; Huntley had allegedly suspected Carr of cheating on him. The police suspected that Huntley killed the girls in a fit of jealous rage. Huntley's mother also said this.^[1] The police found no evidence of premeditation.^[2]

Investigation[link]

After the girls were reported missing, the police released photographs of them wearing Manchester United replica football shirts and a physical description of each of them, describing them as "white, about 4 ft 6 in tall and slim".^[3]

Meanwhile, Huntley appeared in television interviews on Sky News and the BBC's regional news programme Look East, speaking of the shock in the local community.

The girls' bodies were found near the perimeter fence of RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, on 17 August 2002. Twelve hours later, their clothing was discovered in the grounds of Soham Village College and Huntley was arrested. The girls had been missing for 13 days when their bodies were found, with police stating that both corpses were "severely decomposed and partially skeletonised". Huntley had set them alight in a bid to destroy forensic evidence.^[4]

The school caretaker was charged with two counts of murder on 20 August 2002^[5] and detained at Rampton Secure Hospital, Nottinghamshire, under Section 48 of the Mental Health Act, where his mental state was assessed to determine whether he suffered from mental illness and whether he was fit to stand trial. Consultant psychiatrist Dr. Christopher Clark carried out the assessment and stated:

Although Mr. Huntley made clear attempts to appear insane, I have no doubt that the man currently, and at the time of the murders, was both physically and mentally sound and therefore, if he is found guilty, carried out the murders totally aware of his actions.

This left Huntley facing life imprisonment if a jury could be convinced of his guilt.^[6] A judge ruled on 8 October 2002 that he was therefore fit to stand trial. Huntley was subsequently moved to Woodhill prison in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, where he attempted suicide on 9 June 2003 by taking 29 antidepressants which he had stashed in his cell. There were fears that Huntley could die as a result of the overdose,^[7] but within 48 hours he was back in prison and was later transferred to Belmarsh prison in London.^[8]

Ian Huntley[link]

Ian Kevin Huntley was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, on 31 January 1974, the first son of Kevin and Linda Huntley.^[9] He spent two months living in the village of Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk, and also spent time living in Scunthorpe, north Lincolnshire.

In February 1999, Huntley (then aged 25) met 22-year-old Maxine Carr at Hollywood's nightclub in Grimsby town centre.^[10] She later moved in with him at his flat in Barton-upon-Humber, a small town on the southern banks of the River Humber. Carr found a job packing fish at the local fish processing factory while Huntley worked as a barman. He also travelled to Cambridgeshire on his days off to help his father who was now working as a school caretaker in the village of Littleport near Ely.

In September 2001 Huntley applied for the position of caretaker at Soham Village College, a secondary school in a small town between Newmarket and Ely. The job had become vacant after the previous caretaker was dismissed for having an inappropriate relationship with a female pupil. Huntley was accepted for the post and began work on 26 November 2001.^[11]

Murder trial and subsequent revelations[link]

Huntley's trial opened at the Old Bailey in London on 5 November 2003. He was charged with two counts of murder. The families of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were present for the duration.

Huntley admitted that the girls had died in his house; he claimed that he accidentally knocked Wells into the bath while helping her control a nosebleed, and this caused her to drown. Chapman witnessed this and he claimed that he accidentally suffocated her while attempting to stifle her screaming. By the time he realised what he was doing, it was too late to save either of them. Based on this evidence, he admitted manslaughter.

The jury rejected his claims that the girls had died accidentally and, on 17 December 2003, returned a majority verdict of guilty on both counts of murder. Huntley was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term to be decided by the Lord Chief Justice at a later date.^[12]

After Huntley was convicted, it was revealed that he had been investigated in the past for sexual offences and burglary, but had still been allowed to work in a school as none of these investigations had resulted in a conviction.

In August 1995, when Huntley was 21 years old, a joint investigation was launched by police and social services in Grimsby, after a 15-year-old girl admitted that she had been having sex with Huntley. Police did not pursue the case against Huntley in accordance with the girl's wishes.

In March 1996, Huntley was charged in connection with a burglary at a Grimsby house which took place on 15 November 1995, when he and an accomplice allegedly stole electrical goods, jewellery and cash. The case reached court and was ordered to lie on file. Also in March 1996, Huntley was once again investigated over allegations of having sex with an underage girl, but again he was not charged.

A month later, Huntley was investigated once again over allegations of underage sex, but this allegation too did not result in a charge. The same outcome occurred the following month when he was investigated over allegations of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

In April 1998, Huntley was arrested on suspicion of raping a woman. He admitted having sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. The police decided not to charge Huntley.

A month later, Huntley was charged with rape and remanded in custody after an 18-year-old Grimsby woman claimed to have been raped by him on her way home from a nightclub in the town. The charge was dropped a week later after the Crown Prosecution Service examined CCTV images from the nightclub and determined that there was no chance of a conviction.

In July 1998, Huntley was investigated by the police on allegations that he indecently assaulted an 11-year-old girl in September 1997. However, he was never charged. He was investigated over allegations of rape on a 17-year-old woman in February 1999, but no charges were made against him.

The final allegation came in July 1999, when a woman was raped and Huntley – by now suspected by local police as a serial sex offender – was interviewed. He supplied a DNA sample and had an alibi provided by Maxine Carr to assert his innocence. The woman subsequently said that Huntley was not the rapist. This was the only case where the victim had not identified or named Huntley as the attacker.^[13]

Home Secretary David Blunkett ordered an inquiry into these revelations, chaired by Sir Michael Bichard, and later ordered the suspension of David Westwood, Chief of Humberside Police. The inquiry criticised Humberside Police for deleting information relating to previous allegations against Huntley and criticised Cambridgeshire Constabulary for not following vetting guidelines. An added complication in the vetting procedures was the fact that Huntley had applied for the caretaker's job under the name of Ian Nixon, although he did state on the application form that he was once known as Ian Huntley. It is believed that Humberside Police either did not check under the name Huntley on the police computer — if they had then they would have discovered a burglary charge left on file — or did not check either name.

Sentence[link]

Huntley was sentenced to life imprisonment and on 29 September 2005 his minimum term was decided. On this date, the High Court announced that Huntley must remain in prison until he has served at least 40 years; a minimum term which will not allow him to be released until at least 2042, by which time he will be 68 years old. In setting this minimum term, Mr. Justice Moses stated: "The order I make offers little or no hope of the defendant's eventual release."^[14]

Huntley was among the last of more than 500 life sentence prisoners waiting to have minimum terms set by the Lord Chief Justice after the Home Secretary's tariff-setting procedures were declared illegal. Anyone who committed a murder after 18 December 2003 would have a minimum term set by the trial judge.^[15]

Maxine Carr[link]

Maxine Carr initially provided a false alibi to police for Huntley, claiming to have been with him at the time of the murders when she was in Grimsby. She was charged with perverting the course of justice and assisting an offender. She pleaded guilty to the first charge and not guilty to the second.

Her failure to expose Huntley's lies in the early stages of the investigation (before either of them was arrested) meant that police initially eliminated Huntley as a suspect. But, due to her false statement, it took the police nearly two weeks to arrest and charge him.^[16]

The court accepted that Carr had only lied to the police to protect Huntley because she believed his claims of innocence and so found her not guilty of assisting an offender. She was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison^[12] and was released on probation on 14 May 2004 after serving 21 months (including 16 months on remand). She was given a new secret identity to protect her from threats of attack from members of the public that had been made during her remand, as well as during and after the trial.^[17] After release, Carr and her family were negotiating towards an autobiographical book deal, but Gateshead based publishers, Mirage Publishing, withdrew after receiving scores of objections after a feature on BBC Radio Newcastle.^[18]

Post-trial[link]

The Wells and Chapman families received £11,000 in compensation for the death of their daughters. This was a statutory payment administered by a Non-departmental Public Body the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. The compensation tarifs are set by the UK Parliament and administered by the Civil Service. The compensation was widely criticised in the media; the director of the Victims of Crime Trust, Clive Elliott, described it as a "pittance".^[19]

Following the announcement of Huntley's conviction, it emerged that various authorities were aware of allegations, from a number of sources, that he had committed one act of indecent assault, four acts of underage sex and three rapes.

The only one of these allegations that resulted in a charge was a rape, for which he had been remanded in custody but released when the Crown Prosecution Service determined that there was not enough evidence for a conviction. Huntley had also been charged with burgling a neighbour in Grimsby but he was not convicted, although the charge remained on file.

On the day of Huntley's conviction, the Home Secretary David Blunkett announced an inquiry into the vetting system which allowed Huntley to get a caretaker's job at a school despite four separate complaints about him reaching social services. One of the pertinent issues surfaced almost immediately when Humberside Police (where all the alleged offences had taken place) stated that they believed that it was unlawful under the Data Protection Act to hold data regarding allegations which did not lead to a conviction; this was contradicted by other police forces who thought this too strict an interpretation of the Act.

There was also considerable concern about the police investigation into the girls' murders. It took nearly two weeks before the police became aware of previous sexual allegations against Huntley, and despite him being the last person to see either of the two children, his story was not effectively checked out early during the investigation.

Huntley had not been convicted of any of the underage sex, indecent assault or rape allegations, but his burglary charge had remained on file. Howard Gilbert, then headteacher of Soham Village College, later said that he would not have employed Huntley as a caretaker if he had been aware of the burglary charge, as one of Huntley's key responsibilities in his role was to ensure security in the school grounds. The Soham murders led to a tightening of procedures in the Criminal Records Bureau system which checks the criminal background of people who work with children, following criticism that the system had weaknesses and loopholes.^[20][21]

Huntley in prison[link]

On 14 September 2005 Huntley was scalded with boiling water when another inmate, Mark Hobson (serving life for a 2004 quadruple murder in Yorkshire), attacked him.^[22] A prison service spokesman said that due to the nature of high-security prisoners, "it's impossible to prevent incidents of this nature occasionally happening", but Huntley alleged that the prison authorities failed in their duty of care towards him, and launched a claim for £15,000 compensation. Huntley was reportedly awarded £2,500 in legal aid to pursue this claim, a move strongly criticised by the Soham MP James Paice, who insisted on tight restrictions on the use of public money for compensation, and said, "The people I represent have no sympathy for him at all". Huntley's injuries meant that he did not attend the hearing at which his minimum term was decided.

On 5 September 2006, Huntley was found unconscious in his prison cell, thought to have taken an overdose. He had previously taken an overdose of antidepressants in prison in June 2003 while awaiting his trial.^[23] He was under police guard in hospital for two days, before being returned to Wakefield prison, prompting much reaction from many present at the scene as well as making the front pages of many of the UK newspapers the next morning. Following this attempted suicide his cell was cleared and a tape was found which was marked with Queen on one side and Meat Loaf on the other. This tape is thought to contain confessions from Huntley on what he did and how he did it. It is believed that Huntley made the tape in return for antidepressants from a fellow prisoner, who hoped to obtain and later sell the confession to the media upon his release.^[24] On 28 March 2007, The Sun began publishing transcripts of Huntley's taped confession.^[25]

In April 2007, Huntley confessed to have sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl after dragging her into an orchard in 1997. His victim won the right to damages against Huntley. Huntley was believed to be insolvent so unlikely to pay any damages, but she claimed to feel "a massive sense of relief" at his confession.^[26] This followed repeated denials by Huntley that there had been a sexual element in the Soham murders, which the sentencing judge described as likely but not proven, and which if proven would have led to Huntley receiving a whole life prison term.^[27]

On 23 January 2008, Ian Huntley was moved to Frankland prison near Durham.

On 21 March 2010, Huntley was taken to hospital, with media reports stating that his throat had been slashed by another inmate; his injuries were not said to be life-threatening.^[28] The prisoner who wounded Huntley was later named as fellow life sentence prisoner and convicted armed robber Damien Fowkes. Huntley applied for a £20,000 compensation payout for his injuries.^[29] On 11 June 2011, the Daily Mirror reported that Fowkes may not be tried over the attack on Huntley amid concerns about his mental health.^[30] However, in October 2011, Fowkes pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to the attempted murder of Huntley, as well as the manslaughter of Colin Hatch, a repeat child sex offender then imprisoned for murdering a seven year old boy, at Full Sutton prison in February 2011.^[31] Fowkes received a second life sentence for the two attacks.^[32]

Carr after release[link]

Maxine Carr was released from prison on 14 May 2004 and immediately received police protection. She won an injunction on 24 February 2005, granting her lifelong anonymity on the grounds that her life would otherwise be in danger from lynch mobs. The costs of this have been reported by different tabloid newspapers as being between £1 million and £50 million, costs that would possibly have been unnecessary were it not for what former Daily Mirror editor Roy Greenslade described as tabloid newspapers "whipping up the kind of public hysteria guaranteed to incite misguided people to take the law into their own hands".^[33]

Some tabloids have taken to writing inaccurate articles designed to smear her, possibly because of her unusual legal position. She has been variously accused of receiving thousands of pounds worth of dental treatment at the taxpayers' expense, applying for a childcare course, negotiating a £1 million book deal with a publisher and making a series of sensational demands in order to live abroad. All these stories were untrue, but Maxine Carr was unable to make any formal response to them without jeopardising her anonymity.^[34]

At least a dozen women have been attacked and persecuted as a result of lynch mobs "enraged by fake stories about Carr published by red-top papers", as Greenslade said.^{[34][35][36][37][38]} Channel 4 released a documentary describing this as a modern witchhunt against unknown women of similar appearance to Carr who have recently moved into an area.^[39]

Bichard inquiry[link]

An inquiry was announced on 18 December 2003, and Sir Michael Bichard was appointed as the chairman. The stated purpose was:

The inquiry opened on 13 January 2004. The findings of the Bichard inquiry were published in June that year.^[40] The Humberside and Cambridgeshire police forces were heavily criticised for their failings in maintaining intelligence records on Huntley.

The inquiry also recommended a registration scheme for people working with children and vulnerable adults such as the elderly. The development of this recommendation led to the foundation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority. It also suggested a national system should be set up for police forces to share intelligence information. The report said there should also be a clear code of practice on record-keeping by all police forces.

Police Reform Act 2002[link]

Bichard's report severely criticised the Chief Constable of Humberside Police, David Westwood, for ordering the destruction of criminal records of child abusers. Though supported by the Humberside Police Authority, he was suspended by then Home Secretary David Blunkett using powers granted under the Police Reform Act 2002 to order suspension as "necessary for the maintenance of public confidence in the force in question". The suspension was later lifted, with Westwood agreeing to retire a year early in March 2005.

The Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Tom Lloyd, was also criticised as his force had failed to contact Humberside Police during the vetting procedure. Lloyd was censured by the police inspectorate for being slow to cut short a holiday after the investigation had become the largest in the force's history. The inspectorate also criticised a "lack of grip" on the investigation, which included nationally televised appeals by footballer David Beckham, and Detective Superintendent David Beck who announced that he had left a message for abductors on Jessica's mobile phone before the case was taken from him.

Another complication was that two Cambridgeshire police officers involved with the families of the murdered girls had become Operation Ore suspects a month before the murders. Antony Goodridge, one of the exhibits officers, later pleaded guilty to child pornography offences and was given a six-month sentence. Detective Constable Brian Stevens, who had spoken at the memorial service, was cleared of all charges of indecent assault and child pornography offences when no evidence was offered by the prosecution.

See also[link]

• Timeline of young people's rights in the United Kingdom

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Wells, Kevin (2005). Goodbye, Dearest Holly. Psychology News Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-907633-02-0. 

External links[link]

• BBC News – Huntley ordered to serve 40-year minimum term
• BBC News report from the time of Huntley's arrest
• BBC News report on Huntley's conviction
• BBC News report on Blunkett's inquiry
• BBC News report detailing previous allegations against Huntley

Margaret Moran (born 24 April 1955) is a former Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Luton South from 1997 to 2010.

Moran was involved in the 2009 Parliamentary expenses scandal, when the Daily Telegraph revealed she had claimed £22,500 on expenses to treat dry rot in a house 100 miles from her constituency. As a result she announced that she would stand down at the 2010 election.^[1] The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards began an investigation into her conduct.^[2] Moran was also caught up in another scandal in March 2010 when she was one of four retiring Labour MPs who were found to have offered their services as paid lobbyists to an undercover reporter. According to the Telegraph on 13 October 2010 detectives from the Met Police had spent several months looking into expenses claims made by her and she was expected to be charged within weeks^[3] for false accounting or fraud.^[4] She would have been the fifth Labour MP to be charged, the others being former Labour MPs David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Eric Illsley and former Labour Minister Elliot Morley, whilst a sixth serving Labour MP and former Minister Denis MacShane has been suspended from the Labour Party as well.

On 6 September 2011 it was announced by the Crown Prosecution Service that Moran would face 21 criminal charges for wrongful expense claims. She has, however, been assessed as unfit to plead but a jury will still consider whether she carried out the alleged wrongful acts.

Early life[link]

Moran was born in Bethnal Green to Irish parents Patrick and Mary.^[5][6] She went to St Ursula's High School (now St Ursula's Convent School), a Roman Catholic girls' school in Greenwich, and then to St Mary's College (now St Mary's University College), a Roman Catholic college in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham. She subsequently attended the University of Birmingham, gaining a Bachelor of Social Science degree in Geography and Sociology in 1978.^[5]

Before Parliament[link]

From 1984, Moran was a local councillor of the London Borough of Lewisham Council, and leader of the council between 1993 and 1995.^[5] At the same time, Moran stood in the 1992 general election in Carshalton and Wallington, finishing in third place.^[7] Moran was also the director of a Housing Association, national President of the housing branch of the NALGO trade union, vice chair of the association of London Authorities Vice and Chair of the Association of Metropolitan Authorities.^[5][8]

Parliamentary career[link]

For the 1997 election, she was selected to stand for Labour in Luton South through an all-women shortlist.^[9]At the election she was elected, gaining the seat from the Conservatives.

Following her re-election in the 2001 election she was promoted to the position of assistant whip attached to HM Treasury between 2003 and 2005. While serving as a whip, Moran was obliged to vote along with the Government line, and did so.^[10] She was re-elected for a third term in the 2005 election, with a reduced majority. There had been significant opposition among Luton's large Muslim population to her support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[11] Moran supported plans to negotiate with Spain over the status of Gibraltar, describing Gibraltar as "effectively an outpost colony within a major European partner", although she accepted that any change must have the consent of Gibraltarians.^[12] From 2006,^[10]

Moran was a member of the Home Affairs Committee, where she took an interest in helping female victims of domestic violence and in issues of child protection. She was for a time chairwoman of the All-Party Group on Domestic Violence and worked with Women's Aid to launch online projects such as WomenSpeak and KidSpeak.^[13][14]

Moran's interest in child protection led her to go to the Internet Governance Forum at Rio de Janeiro in November 2007 and was involved in the launch of the UK Internet Governance Forum.^[15] on 6 March 2008. Moran became a member of the Hansard Society Commission on the Scrutiny of Parliament.^[16] She also worked with the Fawcett Society producing a publication on women's participation on the internet.^[17]

Expenses controversy[link]

Moran's claims for expenses have regularly drawn press attention. Her claims peaked in the period 2004-05, totalling £168,569, which was the second highest of any MP, and the highest of any to be re-elected.^[18] Her claims for 2004-05 were £73,198 higher than Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins.^[19] However, it was not until May 2009 that the full details of her claims were revealed.

Revelations of the expense claims caused Moran to announce she would not stand in the 2010 general election, and she was later barred from doing so by the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party. Speaking in Parliament, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown described Moran's behaviour as "totally unacceptable".^[20]

Unsolicited mail and stationery costs[link]

Moran had particularly high spending on stationery and postage and on staff costs.^[19]

In the run up to the 2005 general election, Moran sent out thousands of unsolicited letters to her constituents. Following a complaint to the Commons authorities about one of the letters, the Assistant Serjeant at Arms Mark Harvey said the letter was "a reasonable solicited response", but was against the spirit of the regulations. He went on to say, "Having discussed this with Ms Moran, I'm confident that there will be no repetition in future."^[21] The regulations have since changed and there is now a limit on the amount of postage an MP can send.

Second home allowance[link]

On 8 May 2009, The Daily Telegraph revealed Moran spent £22,500 of taxpayers' money treating dry rot at her and her partner's seaside house in Southampton, about 100 miles from her Luton South constituency, only days after switching her "second home" to his Southampton property.^[22] Moran's partner had worked in Southampton for twenty years when the claim was made.^[23] The parliamentary authorities were concerned that the work broke the "spirit" of the rules,^[22] but advised that it was permissible on three occasions.^[24] The Telegraph said the expenses "appear to be among the most questionable of any MP,"^[22] and the BBC said the claims caused "widespread public anger".^[1] Moran had previously switched her second-home allowance from Luton to London and renovated both.^[22]

Moran's second home claims were much higher than those of Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins, who lives in the same street in Luton as Moran. In 2009 it was reported that Hopkins had claimed £8,894 from the second homes allowance in the previous five years, while Moran had claimed £87,206.^[25]

On 10 May 2009 she defended her expenses claim in an interview with Andrew Sinclair on the BBC's Politics Show, saying she had kept to the rules. She said: "You could argue that I use it to be able to sustain my work. Any MP has to have a proper family life, they have to have support of their partner."^[23] The comments failed to persuade editorial and comment in the media. Melanie Phillips, writing in the Daily Mail, commented: "Other people cope with this kind of messy situation every day, paying for it out of their own pocket."^[26]

On 12 May, just two days after defending using taxpayers' money on her third home, she agreed to repay it, albeit in installments.^[27] In a statement she said, "I do understand constituents' anger at the current fees regime, which is why I will be repaying the full amount claimed for my home in Southampton."^[28] On the same day, The Daily Telegraph alleged that she used £1,104.34 from her Incidental Office Expenses to pay for "furniture for her house".^[28] Despite the repayment, Moran has refused to apologise for her actions and still claims to have done nothing wrong.^[29]

Moran's local constituency backed her following revelations over her claims,^[30] but asked her to explain her actions. The then chairman, Mahmood Hussain, described her conduct as "very questionable".^[31]

Other expense claims[link]

On 14 May, the Daily Telegraph reported that Moran had billed the taxpayer almost £4,000 in respect of an employment tribunal case brought by a former member of her staff. The House of Commons fees office agreed that the bill could be paid out of her staffing budget.^[32]

On 22 May it was revealed that Moran had claimed travel expenses for driving 26,028 miles even though her constituency is only 32 miles from London. The figure would allow for 407 round trips per year; however, she takes the train between London and Luton and has broken the rules if she has claimed for mileage other than between Luton and Westminster.^[33] She claimed on her web-site that she was unable to commute from the same street as Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins because she "has held senior positions since 1997 requiring working long hours; late nights and early mornings making commuting difficult or impossible" and "was required by the House authorities to change her second home delegation to London when she became a Minister."^[24]

Outcomes[link]

On 18 May 2009 television presenter Esther Rantzen announced that she would stand against Moran in Luton South as an "anti-sleaze" candidate, just as Martin Bell did in the Tatton constituency in 1997.^[34] Rantzen launched her campaign in July 2009, however she lost her deposit in the 2010 general election.^[35]

On 28 May 2009, Moran announced that she would not stand at the forthcoming general election, citing the "bruising effect upon my friends, my family and my health."^[1] Moran also said "The House of Commons fees office gave me incorrect advice upon which I acted. They have now apologised."^[30] Subsequently, she was barred from standing in the next general election by a disciplinary panel of the Labour Party.^[36]

In November 2009 Moran's local newspaper, Luton & Dunstable Express, launched their "Get Moran Out Now" campaign on its front page.^[37] It called for her to resign immediately rather than continuing to claim expenses and receiving a big payoff and large pension by remaining in her seat until the General Election.^[38] The newspaper was critical of Moran's failure to apologise or explain her conduct to her constituents, stating that she had "behaved disgracefully" and had "fleeced taxpayers quite enough".^[39]

In December 2009 Gavin Shuker was selected as the Labour candidate to replace Moran and won the seat in the general election.^[40] He has stated that her various expenses claims cannot be defended.^[41] The Guardian named Moran as one of the news makers of the year as a result of her role in the expenses scandal.^[42][43]

After the expense revelations broke Moran stopped attending Parliament, claiming that the stress of the expenses scandal had worsened an existing medical condition.^[44] Liberal Democrat candidate Qurban Hussain suggested she had gone into hiding, "leaving her constituents completely unrepresented while continuing to draw her generous salary".^[45] Moran did however attend an interview in 2010 for a (fictitious) lobbying job, and news of her availability for work resulted in John Lyon, Parliamentary commissioner for standards, resuming an investigation which had been suspended because of her medical condition. The commissioner was reported to be hoping to complete his report in time for "a large proportion" to be docked from Moran's 'golden goodbye' payment when she left the Commons at the General Election.^[46]

Prosecution[link]

On 6 September 2011 the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that Moran would face 21 criminal charges^[47] 15 of false accounting and six charges of forgery. She was summoned to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 19 September 2011 where she was reported to have wept throughout the hearing.^[48] Moran was sent to the Crown Court at Southwark for trial on 30 October 2011. She failed to appear and a 'not guilty' plea was entered by default in her absence. A date for the trial of an issue was set for 18 April with a directions hearing set for 15 December.^[49] On 15 December 2011 Mr Justice Saunders was informed that psychiatrists considered Moran unfit to plead with the defence contending that the trial should therefore not proceed.^[50] In April 2012, after receiving evidence from a number of psychiatrists, the judge determined that Moran was not fit to plead. A jury will be convened to hear evidence in order to decide whether she did the acts alleged.^[51]

[edit] Dispatches. Lobbyist investigation

In March 2010 Moran was one of the MPs involved in offering influential political lobbying for financial reward in a sting operation set up by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme. The MPs were secretly filmed discussing how they could assist the interests of the fake company. On the film, Moran appears to claim to be able to help modify laws on immigration in order to boost the business interests of the fake company.^[52][53] She also claimed that she could call on a "girls' gang" of female ministers to help the fictitious company^[54] and yet, while she appeared to be enthusiastically courting the fake company, half an hour after the meeting her office told a reporter that she was unavailable to do any work on behalf of her constituents because she was "not very well at the moment." Moran claimed that "This meeting was the beginning of an attempt to rebuild my life."^[55]

On 22 March she was suspended from holding office in the Labour Party. Labour leader Gordon Brown indicated that there would not be an investigation into the conduct of Moran and the other Labour MPs filmed in the programme.

Improper use of House of Commons stationery[link]

In May 2009, the Financial Times alleged Moran mis-used stationery to support eQuality Networks Ltd ^[56] (EQN) T/A eQuality Network, a non-profit group which claims that it helps impoverished communities. Moran is currently an associate (listed as Margaret Booker)^[57] and was the unpaid chair of the organisaton though was paid £6,052.49 expenses in 2007, whilst her fiancé is a registered Company Director.^[58] Moran repeatedly used House of Commons headed paper to write letters in support of EQN, without disclosing her involvement with the company. The Financial Times obtained copies of letters written by Moran on House of Commons headed paper supporting eQuality Networks funding bids and personal invitations to eQuality Networks events.^[59] Moran denied committing the offence and claimed her husband "has no part in the running of the organisation".^[60]

In 2007 a Spanish Court ruled that she had illegally blocked a right of way at her holiday home in Carataunas, Spain, by installing a gate and digging up the path with an excavator. She was ordered to make the area as it was.^[61] She used House of Commons headed paper during the dispute, including a note written in Spanish and English which said "Please note – this road is private & closed. Please remove your motorcycle from our land. Moran family."^[62]

When these claims appeared in the Mail On Sunday, Moran denied them and contacted libel lawyers Carter Ruck who were subsequently shown the note on House of Commons letterhead that the newspaper had obtained. The case was then dropped, but Moran had incurred a £881.25 legal bill. She charged it to her Incidental Office Expenses account, which is meant to cover the running cost of an MP's constituency office.^[63]

eQuality Networks[link]

In 2007 the Guardian claimed Moran had been exploiting interns insisting they work for the company eQuality Networks rather than doing political work.^[64] Similar allegations were levelled at Moran in 2009 following an investigation by the Financial Times.^[60]

In 2009 it emerged that one of Moran's employees at eQuality Networks had successfully nominated her to the shortlist of MP of the Year at the Women in Public Life Awards, describing her as a "forward thinking, modern day suffragette".^[65]

Personal life[link]

In 2009^{[citation needed]} she married her long-time partner of 30 years,^[23] Michael Booker, who lives and works at Southampton University as the Safety Adviser.^[66] They have no children. She states her personal interests as céilidhs, visiting historical sites, walking and eating curry.^[67]

References[link]