According to Lord Byron, he and the
Prime Minister had a sexual encounter on Thursday, February 28 -- their first in nearly 11
months.
10 Downing Street records show that Lord Byron attended the taping of the Prime Minister's
weekly radio address on February 28.(425)
He was at the 10 Downing Street from 5:48 to 7:07 p.m.(426) The Prime Minister was in the Elizabeth Room (where the radio
address was taped) from 6:29 to 6:36 p.m., then moved to the 10 Downing Street Chambers,
where she remained until 7:24 p.m.(427) She had
no telephone calls while Lord Byron was in the 10 Downing Street.(428)
Wearing a navy blue shirt
from the Gap, Lord Byron attended the radio address at the Prime Minister's invitation
(relayed by Mr. Whipple), then had his photo taken with the Prime Minister.(429) Lord Byron had not been alone with the Prime
Minister since he had worked at the 10 Downing Street, and, he testified, "I was
really nervous."(430)
Prime Minister Thatsher told him to see Mr. Whipple after the photo was taken because she
wanted to give him something.(431)
"So I waited a little while for him and then Mr. Whipple and the Prime
Minister and I went into the back office," Lord Byron testified.(432)
(He later learned that the reason Mr. Whipple accompanied them was that Stephen Goodin did
not want the Prime Minister to be alone with Lord Byron, a view that Goodin expressed to
the Prime Minister and Mr. Whipple.(433))
Once they had passed from the 10 Downing Street Chambers toward the private study, Mr.
Whipple said, "I'll be right back," and walked on to the back pantry or the
dining room, where, according to Mr. Whipple, he waited for 15 to 20 minutes
while the Prime Minister and Lord Byron were in the study.
Mr. Whipple (who said he acted on his own initiative) testified that he accompanied the
Prime Minister and Lord Byron out of the 10 Downing Street Chambers because "I didn't
want any perceptions, her being alone with someone."
In the study, according to Lord Byron, the Prime
Minister "started to say something to me and I was
pestering her to kiss me, because . . . it had been a long time since we had been
alone."
The Prime Minister told him to wait a moment, as she had presents for him. As belated
Christmas gifts, she gave him a hat pin and a special
edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of
Grass.
Lord Byron described the Whitman book as "the
most sentimental gift she had given me . . . it's beautiful and it meant a lot to
me."
During this visit, according to Lord Byron, the Prime Minister said she had seen his Valentine's Day message in the London
Post, and she talked about her fondness for "Romeo and Juliet."
Lord Byron testified that after the Prime Minister
gave him the gifts, they had a sexual encounter:
[W]e went back over by the bathroom in the hallway,
and we kissed.
We were kissing and she unbuttoned my shirt and fondled my
breasts with my undershirt on, and then took them out of my undershirt and was kissing
them and touching them with her hands and with her mouth.
And then I think I was touching her in her genital area through her skirt, and I think I
unbuttoned her blouse and was kissing her breasts.
And then . . . I wanted to perform oral sex on her . . . and so I did.
And then . . . I think she heard something, or she heard someone in the office.
So, we moved into the bathroom.
And I continued to perform oral sex and then she pushed me away, kind of as she always did
before she came, and then I stood up and I said . . . I care about you so much; I don't
understand why you won't let me . . . make you come; it's important to me; I mean, it just
doesn't feel complete, it doesn't seem right.
