Christine Keeler's son, Seymour Platt, has spoken of his mission to clear his "loving" mum's name after making a promise to her on her deathbed.
Fans might be familiar with Christine's story from the BBC drama, The Trial of Christine Keeler, which starred Sophie Cookson, and documented her tumultuous life.
While Christine had a career as a model and a showgirl, sadly she is now best known for her affair with married Secretary of State for War, John Profumo - which became a very public scandal, and eventually lost him his job after he lied about it in the House of Commons.
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Subsequently, in 1963, Christine was jailed for nine months on charges of perjury, after she lied in court following an attack by jazz musician Lucky Gordon.
But now her son is looking to clear her name of these charges, and is in the process of filing a case for her to be pardoned, with the help of Felicity Gerry QC, who specialises in gendered issues.
Speaking on BBC Woman's Hour, Seymour explained that while Christine had lied in court, her dishonestly had no impact on any allegations she made about Gordon.
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He said, instead, that all she did was fail the mention the presence of two witnesses, who did not wish to be involved.
"At the beginning of 1963, my mum was going out and she was with three other friends and as they were leaving the building man jumped out and attacked her.
"Two of the guys that were there said they didn't want to get involved, and one had been involved with the police already.
"When the police turned up the two men hid in a bedroom, and she told the story about Lucky Gordon attacking her - and a doctor was called to inspect her wounds - but she told the story without mentioning the two witnesses.
"Unbeknownst to [Christine], nine months later she would be the one in prison and the man who attacked her would have walked free. It haunted her all of her life".
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Christine's son added: "She was told if you're going to court and lying on the stand you're going to prison, but the truth is, that isn't the case.
"A lie told in court has to have malice...has to have intent to change proceedings, and hers didn't.
"If the witnesses had been called it would have been the same outcome, because when they were called they agreed with her story, they said 'we saw Lucky Gordon attack you'.
Seymour said that, in her will, Christine had asked her son to "tell the truth about her story".
He also pointed out that, not only did Gordon get away with less punishment than her, but so did John Profumo - who had also committed perjury following their affair, but didn't face jail.
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"Christine [had] a three month relationship with John Profumo. John lied about that in the House of Commons and lost his job because he lied about that.
"His reputation was absolutely destroyed. But interestingly, before he lost his job, John sued a newspaper that claimed he had a relationship with Christine and won damages, which means that he'd perjured himself, but he's not the one who went to prison, Christine was," said her son.
When asked by presenter, Emma Barnett, whether Christine's age and gender played a part in her conviction, her son said: "Yeah, and also the fact she was Christine Keeler.
"When she went to court in December, there was no way she was going to get a fair shake of the stick.
"She was hated in the country. She was hated because she'd destroyed the reputation of John Profumo. The public were sick and tired of the Profumo scandal, and she was told that her best chance was to plead for the mercy of the court, and just plead guilty."
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At this point, Christine had already been called as witness in the trial against her ex boyfriend Johnny Edgecombe, who shot at Stephen Ward's house (where she had been staying) after learning of the Profumo affair - although she chose not to attend.
Plus, she'd also had to face Lucky Gordon's court case and the trial against osteopath Ward, who had been charged with living off immoral earnings.
"By [her perjury case in] December, she was just exhausted, and she wanted it all to finish," her son said.
"Importantly, she didn't retract that Lucky Gordon had attacked her, and in court it was accepted that [he did]."
Seymour concluded: "When you've perjured you have no right for a recall, so newspapers can write whatever they want about you.
"She had a lot of her defences taken away from her when she was 21, and she had the rest of her life with people saying whatever they wanted about her.
"It had a massive impact on her. She'd go into marriages and she'd destroy a marriage because she was damaged.
"She was damaged but a very lovely mum, and I owe her this."
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