Ashby denies eyeing up men in gay pub
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The Tory MP David Ashby yesterday denied he frequented one of London's "oldest, best known gay pubs". Mr Ashby, who denies he is a homosexual, was giving evidence in the sixth day of his High Court libel case against the Sunday Times and Andrew Neil, the former editor.
According to Richard Hartley, QC, for the Sunday Times, Mr Ashby was seen in the Queen's Head pub in Chelsea by Andrew Pierce, a Times journalist. He described seeing Mr Ashby in December 1991 wandering around the pub "looking at younger men".
"It's a friendly pub, with copies of gay magazines in the bar ... a place where men go with male partners or to pick up male partners, you see men holding hands," Mr Hartley said. Mr Ashby, MP for Leicestershire North West, denied he was in the pub and insisted he was in his constituency for the weekend. Mr Ashby said he had visited the pub on two occasions but was unaware it was gay.
When Mr Ashby attended a cocktail party a month ago to launch a book entitled Great Parliamentary Scandals, in which he featured following the Sunday Times articles that alleged he slept with a man in Goa, he met Mr Pierce, assistant editor of the book, for the first time."I walked up to him and called him a liar," Mr Ashby said.
He also produced a sleeping contraption that aids his rest and tried it on in front of the jury. It consists of a tight-fitting cap attached to a nosepiece, connected to a tube that blasts air into his nostrils. Mr Ashby's lawyers said his impotence and need for the sleeping aid made homosexual relations less likely.
Mr Ashby's House of Commons expenses claims were produced in court, including entries for a Leicestershire trip on the weekend he was alleged to have visited the Queen's Head. Mr Hartley also produced a claim from Mr Ashby on behalf of his wife - who acted as his parliamentary secretary- which included expenses for a trip to Leicestershire on a weekend when she had been in Berlin. Mr Ashby said expenses had to be completed a month after the event, which meant dates could be confused.
The Sunday Times accused Mr Ashby of being a hypocrite about his homosexual relations. He denies having had a sexual relationship with Dr Ciaran Kilduff although they shared a bed on a trip to France.
The case continues.
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