Christine Keeler: An Uncertain Pilgrim, 2019
Introduction
Christine Keeler briefly became an international celebrity in the early 1960s. She came to prominence because she was being sexually exploited some very powerful men. The trafficker, as he would now be known, that is the man who made her available for sex to these men who were richer and more powerful than he, was the 'high society osteopath,' Stephen Ward. He didn't take cash, he did it to provide a 'perk' to his osteopathy practice clients to help him keep their custom. He also had use of their fancy country houses for 'sex parties,': posh pimping by any other name. He was arrested and charged but died by suicide in prison. His story is similar to Jeffrey Epstein's but he was nowhere near as wealthy. His clients, however, included John Profumo, Minister of State for War. Keeler was described as 'having an affair' with him. She wasn't. She was being grossly sexually abused by him in return for 'safe' housing with Ward and a few gifts and social pleasantries.
Much has been written about 'the Profumo Affair,' as it is now called, and about the people who were part of it, including Ward and Keeler. The two men have been fully exonerated, viewed almost as 'martyrs' of a more unforgiving age. Keeler, however, is still understood as 'stained,' in some way. When one considers her childhood and early teenage years, however, it is easy to see how vulnerable she was, potentially, to a never ending supply of predatory males.
Poverty, Hunger, Abuse
Keeler grew up in an environment of merciless poverty. The house she grew up in, in Wraysbury, not far from Heathrow Airport, was made from two converted railway carriages, with no hot water. As a child, she was taken into care for a short time, suffering from malnutrition. She was sexually assaulted by her step father at twelve and thereafter abused, still a very young teenager, by men whose children she was babysitting. 'Home' had become a place she needed to escape by the time she was seventeen.
Having left school two years earlier, with no qualifications, she went to London and survived any way she could, starting out as a topless dancer in a club.
At seventeen she was introduced to Stephen Ward, the osteopath, who collected very young and obviously vulnerable women to introduce to rich 'potential husbands,' according to him. He provided free board and lodging. They were made available to assorted wealthy men for sex.
History
Having been introduced to Profumo, the rest, is a matter of historical record. They were all arrested in the end along with Mandy Rice Davies who emerged from the episode as an unlikely hero, famous for five words, 'Well he would. Wouldn't he?'. Profumo resigned, Ward topped himself, and Keeler was the only one of the three to come of it all with any dignity in the long term. She served a prison sentence and on release managed not to return to the sex trade - yes, the posh end of the trade, certainly, but the abuse is the same even if the environment and the words to describe it differ. It was a hellish hard life for her though. Keeler, to this day, is still either referred to as a 'party girl' or 'call girl,' anything other than being described as what she was - a Woman - a working class woman who survived brutal childhood poverty and child sexual abuse, who was victimised by men and power structures way beyond her control and who did what she could to survive.
Conclusion
There are always predators ready to take advantage of social outcasts, impoverished, working class girls and women in particular, the more so if they lack both education and family or friends to look out for them. The blame and stigma needs to be put where it belongs on the men who exploited and abused her. She is an excellent example of a woman in need of a proper, women only refuge. That kind of service could have made a huge difference to her.