Chris Huhne: the role of newspapers in bringing him down The afternoon before going to press with its exclusive, the newspaper contacted Huhne to inform him of its intention to publish, giving him time to draft a response. Shortly afterwards, Huhne told his wife of 26-years that he was having an affair and that their marriage was over. In her quest to exact revenge, Pryce went to the press, telling Sunday Times political editor Isobel Oakeshott, she had information that if made public would destroy Huhne's political career. The allegations that someone close to Huhne had accepted speeding points on his behalf first appeared in the Sunday Times on May 8 2011 with further revelations appearing in the Mail on Sunday the following week. However Huhne was vehement in his denials and with Essex police admitting there was little evidence related to the original offence still on file, the case looked doomed. But the dogged pursuit of the issue across the media ensured that the spotlight remained on the case and the police were put under increasing pressure to investigate the situation more thoroughly. Suddenly the circumstances of a minor driving offence from eight years previously became the focus on intense scrutiny both in Westminster and Fleet Street. Within weeks it had been revealed that the "someone else" in the case was allegedly Huhne's wife at the time Vicky Pryce. Suggestions that she was driving on the night in question were closely examined and potential witnesses were sought out and interviewed. The Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday both carried interviews with sources who insisted that the allegations were true, ensuring that the case did not simply wither away. The media also obtained a copy of Miss Pryce's driving licence, clearly showing the endorsements for a speeding offence on the day in question. But suggestions that she might have been driving at the time were seriously undermined when it emerged that she had been attending a dinner at the London School of Economics on the night in question and was unlikely to have left until around 10pm. For her to have been at the wheel she would have had to have driven from central London to Stansted Airport, a distance of 33 miles, picked up her husband and then driven 24 miles back down the M11, all in the space of 83 minutes. Journalists even recreated the journey in an attempt to demonstrate how unlikely such a scenario would be. But despite having pursued the story for months, the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday resisted attempts by the Crown to force them to hand over material related to their confidential sources. When the prosecution application was finally successful for some key evidence, the CPS announced had enough evidence to charge both Huhne and Miss Pryce with perverting the course of justice.