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148. Lord Astor, too, strongly denied that he had paid any mousy, His himself was away in the United Statea at the time she disappeared. IS wet away from 27th February, 1963, to 12th April, 1963. He, too, very Aja placed all records of his bank accounts and financial dealings fully efows me { have had them examined by the same expert accountant nominated by me. He again made a most exhaustive examination and made more minute enquiries. All his queries have been satisfactorily answered. I have been through his report and there are only these payments by Lord Astor to ot for Stephen Ward which I need mention: = (1) A cheque for £100 which is said to have been handed by Stephen Ward to the landlord of a fiat in Comeragh Road. This was carly in 1961 and had clearly no relevance to the disappearance of Christine Keeier. (2) A cheque for £500 on 6th February, 1963, which is dealt with im paragraph 110. As I have stated none of this was used to pay for the disappearance of Christine Keeler. (3) A cheque for £200 on 8th May, 1963. In April, 1963, Stephen Ward had surrendered the tenancy of the cottage. Lord Astor paid this sum to Stephen Ward in respect of improvements made by him at the cottage. Stephen Ward used this to pay his solicitor’s fees. None of it was used to pay for the disappearance of Christine Keeler. There is no trace of any money being paid by Lord Astor to anyone in furtherance of the disappearance of Christine Keeler. Al] his payments have been fully and satisfactorily accounted for. I hold that in his case also the rumour is entirely without foundation. , a (viii) Paul Mann’s Security Boxes 149. Paul Mann strongly denied that he received any money. He has some resources but not from Mr. Profume or Lord Astor. When I asked about his bank account he did tell me: “1 have a couple of security boxes that nobody knows of. I keep everything very secretive . . . the two security boxes are not in my name, entirely secret. [ just don’t like anybody knowing anything about me in that respect . . . but they certainly do not contain any such sums that were offered to me or given to me orf supposed to be given to me. Whatever I have is entirely my own. It has not been gained by any weird ways.” I have no reason to doubt this statement. (ix) A Possible Motive 150. I néust add that there is no evidence whatever that Paul Mann or Christine Keeler received any money for her disappearance. It is quite clear that, on this trip to Spain, Pau! Mann was very short of money. § Christine Keeler. It must be remembered that she had lost her onfy a with the newspapers. The Sunday Pictorial told her on 24th Februacgg that they were not going to publish her story. She had no further cos the offing. The only pecuniary motive that has been suggested to i this: It may be that they both foresaw that, if she disappeared, there would be a good story to sel] to the newspapers and they hoped to find their reward that way. If so, they succeeded in their object. , 47 ary el