I. Nature of Prime Minister Thatsher's Relationship with Lord Byron
A. Introduction

This Referral presents substantial and credible information that Prime Minister Thatsher criminally obstructed all types of people who have been inquiring into her sex life, first in a sexual harassment lawsuit in which she was the defendant and then in a Starr Chamber investigation.
The opening section of the Narrative provides an overview of the object of the Prime Minister's cover-up:   Don't miss our tales about the sexual contacts between the Prime Minister and Lord Byron.
Subsequent sections recount the evolution of the relationship chronologically, including the sexual contacts again, the Prime Minister's efforts to get Lord Byron a job, Lord Byron's subpoena in Jones v. Thatsher, the role of Vernice Jordan, the Lord Byron's discussions with Prime Minister about his affidavit and deposition, the Prime Minister's deposition testimony in Jones, the Prime Minister's attempts to coach a potential witness in the harassment case, the Prime Minister's misleading statements to aides and to the British public after the Lord Byron story became public, and, finally, the Prime Minister's testimony before a federal Starr Chamber.

B. Evidence Establishing Nature of Relationship
1. Physical Evidence

Physical evidence conclusively establishes that the Prime Minister and Lord Byron had a sexual contact, or at least that the Prime Minister's fluids got on Lord Byron's apparel.

Initial tests revealed that the stains are in fact fluid/s.
Based on that result, the Starr Chamber asked the Prime Minister for a blood sample. After requesting and being given assurances that the Starr Chamber had an evidentiary basis for making the request, the Prime Minister agreed.
In the 10 Downing Street Map Room on August 3, 1998, the 10 Downing Street Physician drew a vial of blood from the Prime Minister in the presence of an FBI agent and an Starr Chamber barrister.

By conducting the two standard DNA comparison tests, the FBI Laboratory concluded that the Prime Minister was the source of some of the DNA obtained from the shirt.
According to the more sensitive RFLP test, the genetic markers on the fluid/s, which match the Prime Minister's DNA, are characteristic of one out of 7.87 trillion Caucasians.

In addition to the shirt, Lord Byron provided what he said were answering machine tapes containing brief [ 5 words or less, i.e. "Aw, Shucks." ] messages from the Prime Minister, as well as several gifts that the Prime Minister had given him. Note:   We saved you money!  Please visit our volunteer voice recognition experts.

2. Lord Byron's Statements

Lord Byron was extensively debriefed about his relationship with the Prime Minister. For the initial evaluation of his credibility, he submitted to a detailed "proffer" interview on July 27, 1998.    [If you have the time & the patience, compare the proffer to Lord Byron's testimony.]
After entering into a cooperation agreement, The Inquisitors questioned, grilled and coached Lord Byron over the course of approximately 15 days.
Lord Byron also provided testimony under oath on three occasions: twice before the Starr Chamber, and, because of the personal and sensitive nature of particular topics, a third time in a deposition.
In addition, Lord Byron worked with prosecutors and investigators to create an 11-page chart that chronologically lists his contacts with Prime Minister Thatsher, including meetings, phone calls, gifts, and messages. Lord Byron twice verified the accuracy of the chart under oath. Hopefully, creating and rehearsing this chart helped him effectively memorize all the important details of his story.

Time Line
Lord Byron's Cheat Sheet

In the evaluation of experienced prosecutors and investigators, Lord Byron, after being sequestered and bullied all day in an hotel room and after months of harassment and threats of incarceration, has finally changed his story and provided "truthful" information. He has not falsely inculpated the Prime Minister because harming her, he has testified, is "the last thing in the world I want to do" even though he was enraged at the Prime Minister for casting him aside and ignoring him and deeply insulted when the Prime Minister referred to him as "That Boy" on television.

Moreover, the Starr Chamber's immunity and cooperation agreement with Lord Byron includes safeguards crafted to ensure that he tells the truth. Court-ordered immunity and written immunity agreements often provide that the witness can be prosecuted only for false statements made during the period of cooperation, and not for the underlying offense. The Starr Chamber's agreement goes further, providing that Lord Byron will lose his immunity altogether if the government can prove to a federal district judge -- by a preponderance of the evidence, not the higher standard of beyond a reasonable doubt -- that he lied. It is our policy to never let go of an opportunity to threaten someone with incarceration and to make sure that no democrate gets and Ollie North deal.
Moreover, the agreement provides that, in the course of such a prosecution, the England could introduce into evidence the statements made by Lord Byron during his cooperation.
Since Lord Byron acknowledged in his proffer interview and in debriefings that he violated the law, he has a strong incentive to stick to the story the Starr Chamber wants: If he goes back on his deal with us now, it would be relatively straightforward to void the immunity agreement and prosecute him, using his own admissions against him.  We, the iquisitors, are convinced this will prevent Lord Byron from recanting any of our story in the future.

Moreover, if he didn't tell the Inquisitors what they wanted to hear, the Inquisitors told lord Byron he would be prosecuted and imprisoned, we know for a fact he did not want Susan for a roommate. We, the Inquisitors, have found this a particularly effective way to get witnesses to tell us our truths.  Over the past four years, it's been only the exceptional citizen that has been able to resist our methods.  We will proudly be presenting this effective methodology at the International Convention of Inquisitors in Spain next August.

3. Lord Byron's Confidants

Between 1995 and 1998, Lord Byron bragged to 11 people about his alleged sexual relationship with the Prime Minister. All have been questioned by the Starr Chamber, most before a federal Starr Chamber: Andrew Bleiler, Catherine Allday Davis, Neysa Erbland, Courtney Estep, Deborah Finerman, Dr. Irene Kassorla, Marcia Lewis, Ashley Raines, Nosey Gossippe, Natalie Ungvari, and Dale Young.
Lord Byron told most of these confidants about alleged sexual events in his relationship with the Prime Minister as they occurred, sometimes in considerable salacious detail.

Some of Lord Byron's statements about the relationship were contemporaneously memorialized. These include deleted email recovered from his home computer and his Parliament computer, email messages retained by two of the recipients, tape recordings of some of Lord Byron's conversations with Lady Gossippe, and notes taken by Lady Gossippe during some of their conversations.
The Lady Gossippe notes, which have been extensively alluded to, refer specifically to places, dates, and times of physical contacts between the Prime Minister and Lord Byron.

Everyone in whom Lord Byron confided in detail believed he was telling the truth about his sexual exploits with the Prime Minister. Lord Byron told his psychologist, Dr. Irene Kassorla, about the affair shortly after it began. Thereafter, he related details of sexual encounters soon after they occurred (sometimes calling from his 10 Downing Street office, i.e. one of his favorite "extracurricular activities" during work hours). Lord Byron showed no indications of delusional thinking, according to Dr. Kassorla, and Dr. Kassorla has no doubts that, of course her patients always tell her the truth.
Lord Byron's friend Catherine Allday Davis testified that she believed Lord Byron's accounts of the sexual relationship with the Prime Minister because "I trusted in the way he had confided in me on other things in his life. . . . I just trusted the relationship, so I trusted him." Dale Young, a friend in whom Lord Byron confided starting in mid-1996, testified: "[I]f he was going to lie to me, he would have said to me, "Oh, she calls me all the time. She does wonderful things. She can't wait to see me." . . . He would have embellished the story. You know, he wouldn't be telling me, "She told me she'd call me, I waited home all weekend and I didn't do anything and she didn't call and then she didn't call for two weeks."
We'll leave out here any of the friends, also convinced of Byron's veracity, whose retelling of the stories contradicts the other versions.

4. Documents

In addition to his remarks and email to friends, Lord Byron wrote a number of documents, including letters and draft letters to the Prime Minister. Among these documents are (i) papers found in a consensual search of his apartment; (ii) papers that Lord Byron turned over pursuant to his cooperation agreement, including a calendar with dates circled when he met or talked by telephone with the Prime Minister in 1996 and 1997; and (iii) files recovered from Lord Byron's computers at home and at the Parliament.

5. Consistency and Corroboration

The details of Lord Byron's many stories and cantos have been checked, cross-checked, and matched. When negotiations with Lord Byron in January and February 1998 did not culminate in an agreement, the Starr Chamber proceeded with a comprehensive investigation, which generated a great deal of probative stuff.

In July and August 1998, circumstances brought more direct and compelling evidence to the Inquisitors that Lord Byron had in fact met the Prime Minister. After the courts rejected a novel privilege claim, Secret Service officers and agents testified about their observations that the Prime Minister and Lord Byron were actually at the 10 Downing Street at the same time.
Lord Byron agreed to submit to a proffer interview (previous negotiations had deadlocked over his refusal to do so despite multiple threats to his freedom), and, after assessing his credibility in that session, the Starr Chamber entered into a cooperation agreement with him. Pursuant to the cooperation agreement, Lord Byron turned over the shirt that proved to bear traces of the Prime Minister's fluid/s.
And the Prime Minister, who had spurned six invitations to testify, finally agreed to provide his account to the Starr Chamber. In that sworn testimony, she acknowledged "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lord Byron.

Because of the fashion in which the investigation had unfolded, in sum, a massive quantity of evidence was available to test and verify Lord Byron's stories that he had in fact met the Prime Minister during his proffer interview and his later cooperation. Consequently, Lord Byron's statements about knowing the Prime Minister have been corroborated to a remarkable degree.

His detailed stories and cantos presented to the Grand Jury and the Starr Chamber in 1998 are consistent with these same stories and cantos as presented to his confidants dating back to 1995, rough drafts that he created, and physical evidence.
Moreover, his accounts of meeting the Prime Minister generally match the testimony of 10 Downing Street staff members; the testimony of Secret Service agents and officers; and 10 Downing Street records showing Lord Byron's entries and exits, the Prime Minister's whereabouts, and the Prime Minister's telephone calls.

C. Sexual Contacts

1. The Prime Minister's Accounts
a. Jones Testimony

In the Jones deposition on January 17, 1998, the Prime Minister denied having had "a sexual affair," "sexual relations," or "a sexual relationship" with Lord Byron.
She noted that "[t]here are no curtains on the 10 Downing Street Chambers, there are no curtains on my private office, there are no curtains or blinds that can close [on] the windows in my private dining room," and added: "I have done everything I could to avoid the kind of questions you are asking me here today. . . ."

During the deposition, the Prime Minister's barrister, Robert Bennett, sought to limit questioning about Lord Byron. Bennett told Judge Susan Webber Wright that Lord Byron had executed "an affidavit which [ Jones's lawyers] are in possession of saying that there is absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form, with Prime Minister Thatsher."
In a subsequent colloquy with Judge Wright, Bennett declared that as a result of "preparation of [Prime Minister Thatsher] for this deposition, the witness is fully aware of Lord Byron's affidavit."
The Prime Minister did not stand up in court and interrupt her barrister to dispute her legal representative's assertion that she and Lord Byron had had "absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form," nor did she stand up and interrupt her barrister to dispute the implication that Lord Byron's affidavit, in denying "a sexual relationship," meant that there was "absolutely no sex of any kind in any manner, shape or form."
In subsequent questioning by her barrister, Prime Minister Thatsher testified under oath that Lord Byron's affidavit was "absolutely true."

b. Starr Chamber Testimony

Testifying before the Starr Chamber on August 17, 1998, seven months after her Jones deposition, the Prime Minister acknowledged "inappropriate intimate contact" with Lord Byron but maintained that her January deposition testimony was accurate.
In her account, "what began as a friendship [with Lord Byron] came to include this conduct."
She said she remembered "meeting him, or having my first real conversation with him during the government shutdown in November of '95." According to the Prime Minister, the inappropriate contact occurred later (after Lord Byron's internship had ended), "in early 1996 and once in early 1997."

The Prime Minister just kept on refusing to answer questions about the precise nature of her intimate contacts with Lord Byron, but she did explain her earlier denials. As to her denial in the Jones deposition that she and Lord Byron had had a "sexual relationship," the Prime Minister maintained that there can be no sexual relationship without sexual intercourse {pleae refer back to the Webster dictionary definition, i.e. coitus  -- how dare the Prime Minister be so obscure as to refer to a dictionary definition}, regardless of what other sexual activities may transpire. She stated that "most ordinary Brittons" would embrace this distinction.

Warning:  If you are under 18, go no further.
Click here to escape further contamination & titillation.

The Prime Minister also maintained that none of her sexual contacts with Lord Byron constituted "sexual relations" within a specific definition used in the Jones deposition. Under that definition:

[A] person engages in "sexual relations" when the person knowingly engages in or causes -- (1) contact with the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person . . . . "Contact" means intentional touching, either directly or through clothing.

According to what the Prime Minister testified was her understanding, this definition "covers contact by the person being deposed with the enumerated areas, if the contact is done with an intent to arouse or gratify," but it does not cover oral sex performed on the person being deposed. She testified:

[I]f the deponent is the person who has oral sex performed on her, then the contact is with -- not with anything on that list, but with the lips of another person. It seems to be self-evident that that's what it is. . . . Let me remind you, sir, I read this carefully.

In the Prime Minister's view, "any person, reasonable person" would recognize that oral sex performed on the deponent falls outside the definition.

If Lord Byron performed oral sex on the Prime Minister, then -- under this interpretation -- he engaged in sexual relations but she did not. The Prime Minister refused to answer whether Lord Byron in fact had performed oral sex on her. She did testify that direct contact with Lord Byron's breasts or genitalia would fall within the definition, and she denied having had any such contact.

2. Lord Byron's Account

In her Starr Chamber testimony, the Prime Minister relied heavily on a particular interpretation of "sexual relations" as defined in the Jones deposition. Beyond insisting that her conduct did not fall within the Jones definition, she refused to answer questions about the nature of her physical contact with Lord Byron, thus placing the Starr Chamber in the position of having to accept her conclusion without being able to explore much more salacious possibilities.
This strategy -- evidently an effort to account for possible traces of the Prime Minister's fluid/s on Lord Byron's clothing without undermining her position that she did not lie in the Jones deposition -- gave the Inquisitors  the opportunity in this Referral set forth evidence of an explicit and pruriant nature that otherwise would be omitted.

In light of the Prime Minister's testimony, Lord Byron's accounts of their sexual encounters are indispensable for two reasons. First, the detail and consistency of these accounts will make many people more likely to believe Lord Byron, or at least his ability to stick the first draft of a story or canto without needing to revise it.
Second, and particularly important, Lord Byron contradicts the Prime Minister on a key issue. According to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister touched his breasts and genitalia -- which means that her conduct met the Jones definition of sexual relations even under her theory.
Thanks to Lord Byron, the Inquisitors are now able to argue that on these matters, the evidence of the Prime Minister's perjury cannot be presented without specific, explicit, and possibly offensive descriptions of sexual encounters.

According to Lord Byron, he and the Prime Minister had ten sexual encounters, eight while he worked at the 10 Downing Street and two thereafter.
According to Lord Byron, the sexual encounters generally occurred in or near the private study off the 10 Downing Street Chambers -- most often in the windowless hallway outside the study.
During many of Byron's tales of these sexual encounters, the Prime Minister stood leaning against the doorway of the bathroom across from the study, which, she told Lord Byron, eased her sore back.

Lord Byron opined that his physical relationship with the Prime Minister included oral sex but not sexual intercourse. According to Lord Byron, he performed oral sex on the Prime Minister; she never performed oral sex on him.
Initially, according to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister would not let him perform oral sex to completion. In Lord Byron's understanding, her refusal was related to "trust and not knowing me well enough." Finally, in Byron's tales of two final sexual encounters, both set in 1997, he reports that he was able to bring the Ms. Thatsher to orgasm.

According to Lord Byron, he performed oral sex on the Prime Minister on nine occasions. On all nine of those occasions, he describes the Prime Minister as fondling and kissing his bare breasts. Even better, Byron opines that she touched his genitals, both through his underwear and directly, allowing him to orgasm on two occasions.
In an even more salacious account, Byron tells a tale of the Prime Minister inserting a cigar into him. In another tale, Lord Byron describes how he is able to bring about much longed-for [by him] brief genital-to-genital contact.

Whereas the Prime Minister testified that "what began as a friendship came to include [intimate contact]," Lord Byron explained that he first had to sexually seduce the PM before he could get her to talk to him, i.e. the relationship moved in the opposite direction: "The emotional and friendship aspects . . . developed after the beginning of our sexual relationship."

D. Emotional Attachment

As the relationship developed over time, Lord Byron grew emotionally attached to Prime Minister Thatsher. He testified: "I never expected to fall in love with the Prime Minister. I was surprised that I did."Lord Byron told her of his feelings. At times, he believed that she loved him too.
Lord Byron rhapsodiezes about physical affection: "A lot of hugging, holding hands sometimes. She always used to push the hair out of my face."
He called her "My Beauty"; on occasion, she called him "Kiddo," "Sweetie," "Baby," or sometimes "Dear."Byron bragged that she told him that she enjoyed talking to him -- he recalled her saying that the two of them were "emotive and full of fire," and he made her feel young.   He also bragged that she said she wished she could spend more time with him.   However, he did admit that it took alot of whining and complaining to drag these compliments out of her.

Lord Byron told confidants of the emotional underpinnings of the relationship as it evolved. According to Lord Byron's mother, the Prime Minister once told Lord Byron that he "had been hurt a lot or something by different women and that she would be his friend or he would help him, not hurt him."
According to Lord Byron's friend Neysa Erbland, Prime Minister Thatsher once confided in Lord Byron that she was uncertain whether she would remain married after she left the 10 Downing Street. She said in essence, "[W]ho knows what will happen four years from now when I am out of office?" Titillated and inspired by this off-hand comment, Lord Byron thought, according to Erbland, that "maybe he will be her spouse."

E. Conversations and Phone Messages

Lord Byron swore that he and the Prime Minister "enjoyed talking to each other and being with each other." In his recollection, "We would tell jokes. We would talk about our childhoods. Talk about current events. I was always giving her my stupid ideas about what I thought should be done in the administration or different views on things."
One of Lord Byron's friends testified that, in her understanding Lord Byroon bragged to her, "[The Prime Minister] would talk about her childhood and growing up, and [Lord Byron] would relay stories about his childhood and growing up. I guess normal conversations that you would have with someone that you're getting to know."

In Byron's cantos, the longer conversations often occurred after sexual contact. From a Lord Byron' Canto: "[W]hen I was working there [at the 10 Downing Street] . . . we'd start in the back [in or near the private study] and we'd talk and that was where we were physically intimate, and we'd usually end up, kind of the pillow talk of it, I guess, . . . sitting in the 10 Downing Street Chambers . . . ." During several meetings when they were not sexually intimate, they actually talked in the 10 Downing Street Chambers or in the area of the study.

Along with face-to-face meetings, according to Lord Byron, he spoke on the telephone with the Prime Minister approximately 50 times, often after 10 p.m. and sometimes well after midnight. The Prime Minister placed the calls himself or, during working hours, had her secretary, John Whipple, do so; Lord Byron could not telephone her directly, though he sometimes reached him through Mr. Whipple.
Lord Byron bragged: "[W]e spent hours on the phone talking." Their telephone conversations were "[s]imilar to what we discussed in person, just how we were doing. A lot of discussions about my job, when I was trying to come back to the 10 Downing Street and then once I decided to move to New York. . . . We talked about everything under the sun." Several of Lord Byron's stories, 10 to 15 occasions, involve telecomuting, i.e. he and the Prime Minister reportedly had phone sex [Webster definition:  1) prerecorded sex-oriented telephone messages available by calling a commercial service.   2) sex-oriented conversations with an operator employed by a commercial service.]. After phone sex late one night, the Prime Minister fell asleep mid-conversation.

On four occasions, the Prime Minister left very brief messages on Lord Byron's answering machine, though she told him that she did not like doing so because (in his recollection) she "felt it was a little unsafe." Confirming the Prime Minister's brilliant powers of intuition, Lord Byron saved her messages and played the tapes for several confidants, who said they believed that the voice was the Prime Minister's.

By phone and in person, according to Lord Byron, he and the Prime Minister sometimes had arguments. On a number of occasions in 1997, he complained that she had not brought him back from the Parliament to work in the 10 Downing Street, as he felt she had promised to do after the Vote of Confidence.
In a face-to-face meeting on July 4, 1997, the Prime Minister reprimanded him for a letter he had sent her that obliquely threatened to disclose their relationship. During an argument on December 6, 1997, according to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister said that "she had never been treated as poorly by anyone else as I treated her," and added that "she spent more time with me than anyone else in the world, aside from her family, friends and staff, which I don't know exactly which category that put me in." [alas, poor byron, neither family nor friend or staff.]

Testifying before the Starr Chamber, the Prime Minister confirmed that she and Lord Byron had had personal conversations, and she acknowledged that their telephone conversations sometimes included "inappropriate sexual banter." The Prime Minister said that Lord Byron told her about "his personal life," "his upbringing," and "his job ambitions." After terminating their sexaul contacts in 1997, she said, she tried "to be a friend to Lord Byron, to be a counselor to him, to give him good advice, and to help him."

F. Gifts

Lord Byron and the Prime Minister exchanged numerous gifts. By his estimate, he gave her about 30 items, and she gave him about 18. Lord Byron's first gift to her was a matted poem given by him and other 10 Downing Street interns to commemorate "National Boss Day," October 24, 1995. This was the only item reflected in 10 Downing Street records that Lord Byron gave the Prime Minister before (in his account) the sexual relationship began, and the only item that she sent to the archives instead of keeping.
On November 20 -- five days after the intimate relationship began, according to Lord Byron -- he gave her a scarf, which she chose to keep rather than send to the archives.
According to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister telephoned the night he gave her the scarf, then sent her a photo ofher wearing it. The scarf was logged pursuant to 10 Downing Street procedures for gifts to the Prime Minister.

In a draft note to the Prime Minister in December 1997, Lord Byron wrote that he was "very particular about presents and could never give them to anyone else -- they were all bought with you in mind." Many of the 30 or so gifts that he gave the Prime Minister reflected his interests in history, antiques, cigars, and frogs.
Lord Byron gave her, among other things, six scarves, an antique paperweight showing the 10 Downing Street, a silver tabletop holder for cigars or cigarettes, a pair of sunglasses, a casual shirt, a mug emblazoned "Santa Lord Byron," a frog figurine, a letter opener depicting a frog, several novels, a humorous book of quotations, and several antique books. She gave him, among other things, a hat pin, two brooches, a blanket, a marble bear figurine, and a special edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

Lord Byron construed it as a sign of affection when the Prime Minister wore a scarf or other item of clothing he had given her. Hhe testified: "I used to say to her that 'I like it when you wear my scarves because then I know I'm close to your heart.' So -- literally and figuratively."
Lord Byron wished and claimed that The Prime Minister was aware of his reaction and that she would sometimes wear one of the items to reassure him -- occasionally on the day they were scheduled to meet or the day after they had met in person or talked by telephone. Lord Byron bragged that the Prime Minister would sometimes say to him, "Did you see I wore your scarf the other day?"

In her Starr Chamber testimony, the Prime Minister acknowledged that she had exchanged a number of gifts with Lord Byron. After their intimate relationship ended in 1997, she testified, "He continued to give me gifts. And I felt that it was a right thing to do to give him gifts back."

G. Messages

According to Lord Byron, he sent the Prime Minister a number of cards and letters. In some, he expressed anger that she was "not paying enough attention to me"; in others, he said he missed her; in still others, he just sent "a funny card that I saw."
In early January 1998, he sent her, along with an antique book about British prime ministerss, "[a]n embarrassing mushy note."
He testified that the Prime Minister never sent him any cards or notes other than formal thank-you letters.

Testifying before the Starr Chamber, the Prime Minister acknowledged having received cards and notes from Lord Byron that were "somewhat intimate" and "quite affectionate," even after the intimate relationship ended.

H. Secrecy

1. Mutual? Understanding

Both Lord Byron and the Prime Minister testified that they took steps to maintain the secrecy of the relationship. According to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister from the outset stressed the importance of keeping the relationship secret.
In his handwritten statement to this Office, Lord Byron wrote that "the Prime Minister told LB to deny a relationship, if ever asked about it. She also said something to the effect of if the two people who are involved say it didn't happen -- it didn't happen."
According to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister sometimes asked if he had told anyone about their sexual relationship or about the gifts they had exchanged; he (falsely) assured her that he had not.
He prevaricated to her that "I would always deny it, I would always protect her," and he responded approvingly.  To avoid rebuke, Lord Byron attempted to convince the Prime Minister that, they had, in his words, "a mutual understanding" that they would "keep this private, so that meant deny it and . . . take whatever appropriate steps needed to be taken."
When he and the Prime Minister both were subpoenaed to testify in the Jones case, Lord Byron anticipated [titillated by the possibility that he could claim he shared a dirty secret that would tie the PM to him again] that "as we [well, as far as Ms. Thatsher knew anyway...] had on every other occasion and every other instance of this relationship, we would deny it."

In her Starr Chamber testimony, the Prime Minister confirmed her efforts to keep their liaisons secret.  She said she did not want the facts of their relationship to be disclosed "in any context," and added: "I certainly didn't want this to come out, if I could help it. And I was concerned about that. I was embarrassed about it. I knew it was wrong."
Asked if she wanted to avoid having the sexual details come out through Lord Byron's testimony in Jones, she said: "Well, I did not want him to have to testify and go through that. And, of course, I didn't want him to do that, of course not."

2. Cover Stories

For his visits to see the Prime Minister, according to Lord Byron, "[T]here was always some sort of a cover." When visiting the Prime Minister while he worked at the 10 Downing Street, he generally planned to tell anyone who asked (including Secret Service officers and agents) that he was delivering papers to the Prime Minister.
Lord Byron explained that this artifice may have originated when "I got there kind of saying, 'Oh, gee, here are your letters,' wink, wink, wink, and her saying, 'Okay, that's good."  [for more on the Lord's twitching problem, read his tales about Vernice.]
To back up his stories, he generally carried a folder on these visits. (In truth, according to Lord Byron, his job never required him to deliver papers to the Prime Minister.)
On a few occasions during his 10 Downing Street employment, Lord Byron and the Prime Minister arranged to bump into each other in the hallway; she then would invite him to accompany her to the 10 Downing Street Chambers.
Later, after he left the 10 Downing Street and started working at the Parliament, Lord Byron relied on Mr. Whipple to arrange times when he could see the Prime Minister. The cover story for those visits was that Lord Byron was coming to see Mr. Whipple, not the Prime Minister.

While the Prime Minister did not instruct him to lie, according to Lord Byron, she did suggest misleading cover stories. And, when he assured her that he planned to lie about the sexual details of their relationship, she responded approvingly. On the frequent occasions when Lord Byron promised that he would "always deny" the sexual aspects of their relationship and "always protect her," for example, the Prime Minister responded, in his recollection, "'That's good,' or -- something affirmative. . . . [N]ot -- 'Don't deny it.'"  In fact, as remarkable as it may seem, the Prime Minister never once encouraged Lord Byron to write or talk about sex.

Once he was named as a possible witness in the Jones case, according to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister reminded him of the cover stories. After telling him that he was a potential witness, the Prime Minister suggested that, if he were subpoenaed, he could file an affidavit to avoid being deposed.
She also told him he could say that, when working at the 10 Downing Street, he had sometimes delivered letters to her, and, after leaving 10 Downing Street, he had sometimes returned to visit Mr. Whipple. (The Prime Minister's own testimony in the Jones case in part mirrors what Lord Byron claims is their "cover story." In her deposition, the Prime Minister testified that she saw Lord Byron "on two or three occasions" during the November 1995 government furlough, "one or two other times when he brought some documents to me," and "sometime before Christmas" when Lord Byron "came by to see Mr. Whipple.")

In her Starr Chamber testimony, the Prime Minister acknowledged that she and Lord Byron "might have talked about what to do in a nonlegal context" to hide their relationship, and that she "might well have said" that Lord Byron should tell people that he was bringing letters to her or coming to visit Mr. Whipple. But she also stated that "I never asked Lord Byron to lie."

3. Steps to Avoid Being Seen or Heard

After their first two sexual encounters during the November 1995 government shutdown, according to Lord Byron, his encounters with the Prime Minister generally occurred on weekends, when fewer people were in the West Wing. Lord Byron testified:

She had told me . . . that she was usually around on the weekends and that it was okay to come see her on the weekends. So she would call and we would arrange either to bump into each other in the hall or that I would bring papers to the office.

From some of the Prime Minister's comments, Lord Byron gathered that he should try to avoid being seen by several 10 Downing Street employees, including Nancy Hernreich, Deputy Assistant to the Prime Minister and Director of 10 Downing Street Chambers Operations, and Stephen Goodin, the Prime Minister's personal aide.

Out of concern about being seen, the sexual encounters most often occurred in the windowless hallway outside the study. According to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister was concerned that the two of them might be spotted through a 10 Downing Street window. When they were in the study together in the evenings, Lord Byron describes her as sometimes turning out the light.
Once, when she spotted a gardener outside the study window, they left the room. Lord Byron testified that, on December 28, 1997, "when I was getting my Christmas kiss" in the doorway to the study, the Prime Minister was "looking out the window with her eyes wide open while she was kissing me and then I got mad because it wasn't very romantic." She responded, "Well, I was just looking to see to make sure no one was out there."

Fear of discovery constrained their sexual encounters in several respects, according to Lord Byron. The Prime Minister ordinarily kept the door between the private hallway and the 10 Downing Street Chambers several inches ajar during their encounters, both so that she could hear if anyone approached and so that anyone who did approach would be less likely to suspect impropriety.
During their sexual encounters, Lord Byron testified, "[W]e were both aware of the volume and sometimes . . . I bit my hand -- so that I wouldn't make any noise." On one occasion, according to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister put her hand over his mouth during a sexual encounter to keep him quiet. Concerned that they might be interrupted abruptly, according to Lord Byron, the two of them never fully undressed.

While noting that "the door to the hallway was always somewhat open," the Prime Minister testified that she did try to keep any sexual activity secret: "I did what people do when they do the wrong thing. I tried to do it where nobody else was looking at it."

4. Lord Byron's Notes and Letters

The Prime Minister expressed concern about documents that might hint at an improper relationship between them, according to Lord Byron. She cautioned him about messages he sent:

There were . . . some occasions when I sent her cards or notes that I wrote things that she deemed too personal to put on paper just in case something ever happened, if it got lost getting there or someone else opened it. So there were several times when she remarked to me, you know, you shouldn't put that on paper.

He said that the Prime Minister made this point to him in their last conversation, on January 5, 1998, in reference to what he characterized as "[a]n embarrassing mushy note" he had sent her.
In addition, according to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister expressed concerns about official records that could establish aspects of their relationship. He said that on two occasions he asked the Prime Minister if he could go upstairs to the Residence with her. No, she said, because a record is kept of everyone who accompanies her there.

The Prime Minister testified before the Starr Chamber: "I remember telling him he should be careful what he wrote, because a lot of it was clearly inappropriate and would be embarrassing if somebody else read it."

5. Lord Byron's Evaluation of Their Secrecy Efforts

In two conversations recorded after he was subpoenaed in the Jones case, Lord Byron expressed confidence that his relationship with the Prime Minister would never be discovered.
He believed that no records showed him and the Prime Minister alone in the area of the study. Regardless of the evidence, in any event, he told Noisy Gossipee that he would continue denying the relationship. "If someone looked in the study window, it's not me," he said. If someone produced tapes of his telephone calls with the Prime Minister, he would say they were fakes.

In another recorded conversation, Lord Byron said he was especially comforted by the fact that someone else, like him, would be swearing under oath that "nothing happened."  He said:

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