This blog may have in the past queried the progress of the Essex police investigation into Chris Huhne. With the obtaining of the Pryce recording and statement from the Sunday Times we became more optimistic. The Mail on Sunday’s scoop this morning that just over a week ago Essex police raided Vicky Pryce’s home to obtain her son Peter’s phone with text messages on the phone from Chris Huhne gives us more confidence that they are being thorough.

Clearly the police suspect Huhne is trying to pressure his ex-wife via the children, in this you have the measure of the man, to save his career he would have others lie for him. Even by the low standards of politicians Chris Huhne is a particularly selfish man who lies without compunction. 

It could be difficult to prosecute Huhne if Vicky retracts her signed statement. The CPS are by all accounts wary of prosecuting a Minister of the Crown, who would without doubt have to resign to defend himself. Nevertheless, given the circumstantial evidence it would be a travesty of justice if the CPS nervously failed to proceed essentially because Huhne is a government minister. It is not for the CPS to decide whom they believe, it is time for a jury to determine the truth.

Just as the LibDem’s attempt to spin that Huhne was out of the woods was beginning to take hold, he’s smashed straight into a tree and gone through the windscreen, his career once again looking like a slow-motion car-crash. As Guido suggested, a thorough police investigation could not have taken place without getting hold of the taped conversation in which Huhne orders his estranged wife to partake in a cover-up, and the document she signed promising to support her allegations in court. A court order has now demanded that be handed over.

The Sunday Times are said to be “considering an appeal”, but that strikes Guido as somewhat unlikely, given how big a story it would be for them if these two pieces of evidence were the final nail in the coffin for the slippery Secretary of State. Sources have suggested that the wind has once again changed direction and doubts about Huhne’s future in government have returned to mid May-levels. Olly Grender has been very quiet today.

Milly Dowler’s mother Sally says:

“The lengths to protect his human rights have seemed so unfair compared to what we as a family have had to endure. I hope that whilst he is in prison, he is treated with the same brutality he dealt out to his victim and that his life is a living hell. For a mother to bury their child in any circumstance is truly agonising, but to bury your child when you know she died in such an appallingly awful way is terrible.”

Milly’s sister Gemma put it succinctly and powerfully, the family won’t have seen justice without:

“An eye for an eye, a life for a life…”

A call for justice which has majority support in the country, but unfortunately not in parliament.

The political class complains that the public is disengaged, could that be in part because there are a number of issues where the political class refuses to carry out the wishes of the people. All polls since 1965 when hanging was abolished show that there is majority support for capital punishment, yet there is no majority for it in parliament. It is not even an issue for parliamentarians even though the incidence of homicide is higher now than it was before the abolition of hanging. The coalition has promised that there will be e-petitions legislation before the end of this year. If it passes Guido will put all the resources at his command into a campaign for a vote on the restoration of capital punishment for child and cop killers. Even if we don’t win the vote on the floor of the House, we shall at least see which MPs believe salus populi suprema est lex, and those that put the welfare of child killers above the wider community. Bring it on…

Nick Clegg just told the Press Gallery lunch:

“Whatever people say about Chris Huhne, I don’t know any politician better at getting his points across.”

It’s almost as if he’s enjoying his old foe suffering…

Essex Police have handed over preliminary papers concerning Chris Huhne to the CPS. There was a bit of confusion, and they deny the initial reports that it was the full file, but say they are “considering it”.  Presumably they are waiting for the document Vicky Pryce signed saying she would back up the accusations in court. Intriguingly BBC sources suggest there is “a credible chance” he will be prosecuted. Broom broom!

Essex Police are still refusing to comment officially, but Guido understands that they are yet to obtain a Court Order for the document that Vicky Pryce signed promising to defend the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times in court over the allegations she made against Huhne. Why not? 

The official word is that there will be no update any time soon, perhaps later in the week.

The document is a key piece of evidence to this case, if they haven’t made a move to get it yet, what exactly are the detectives up to?

Kudos to Political Scrapbook for getting this snap of Huhne returning from Gatwick airport last night, rather sensibly on the train:

Welcome home Secretary of State, Guido hopes you had a nice relaxing break. Nice to see Ms. Trimingham catching up on the blog…

Invited on to the Daily Politics as one of the signatories to the B-Team’s Observer letter, Vicky Pryce, aka the former Mrs Huhne to be, had to quickly point out that she hadn’t actually signed the letter. Though the researchers can be forgiven, she seems to be changing her mind all the time about what she may or may not have signed.

As with Sky News yesterday, Pryce insisted on a wall of silence regarding the current police investigation that she triggered, a deal of which her husband can only dream. She instead choose to give dire warnings about  his government’s spending plans.

Guido isn’t sure she’s going to have as much success playing the ball instead of the man.

Chris Huhne said last night that he looked forward to the Electoral Commission rejecting the expenses complaint “as roundly as the last one”. Guido isn’t sure the Secretary of State gets how this whole evidence thing works. This should trigger an inquiry to dredge up his entire campaign spending, including invoices to and from his friendly but secretive printers “The Itchen Valley Print Society”, conveniently run out of his constituency office.

Talking of evidence, Guido has yet to coax a comment out of Essex police on whether or not they intend to get, or are getting, a Court Order against the Sunday Times (and possibly the Mail on Sunday) for the signed undertaking in which Vicky Pryce is thought to say she will stand by the allegations she put to the paper if it ended up in court. If the police don’t get a copy of that undertaking, they can hardly have carried out a full investigation. Guido has reason to expect them to apply for a Court Order imminently…

If the stories circulating that the Huhnes’ kids have mediated the parental feud are true, and neither of them are being entirely helpful to the police, their silence or faulty memory won’t save Huhne if the evidence stacks up. “No comment” is the official line from Essex Police on matters that “could or maybe aid the case”.

It’s now been a month of Sunday paper hounding for Huhne. After four consecutive weeks he still limps on. The Mail says he refused to answer certain questions when asked by the police. It is your right to remain silent for fear of incriminating yourself.

GPS tells us that Vicky Pryce could not in all likelihood have gone from a dinner in London to Stansted airport to collect her husband, and back to the M11 southbound speed camera before 11.34…

The speed camera is said to have caught a car with the number plate H11 HNE at 11.23.

Guido understands that if the police got a Court Order against the Sunday Times they would obtain interesting evidence. Though other papers suggest it could be couple of weeks yet, intriguingly the Indy, who are no enemy of Huhne, say a file will go to the CPS this week. Even without answers from the couple, the evidence is piling up, trial by media is at an end…