SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE: Jonathan Aitken got punched by prisoner during his work as a jail chaplain… but he turned the other cheek
Former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken famously emerged unscathed from a seven-month stretch inside for perjury and perverting the course of justice. But those halcyon days are over.
For I can disclose that, 20 years after his release, he has been subjected to an assault while visiting HMP Pentonville in his new role as an unpaid prison chaplain.
However, as befitting a man of the cloth, the Reverend Jonathan was able to turn the other cheek.
Jonathan Aitken spent seven months in prison and emerged unscatched, but on a recent visit as prison chaplain, the former cabinet minister was punched, but he insists it was ‘a very mild punch indeed’
Former cabinet member Jonathan Aitken, known as Jono during his own stint inside, was punched by an inmate at HMP Pentonville earlier this week
The incident occurred last week during Aitken’s regular meeting with those consigned to the prison’s Segregation Unit. ‘The Seg Unit is kind of where the bad boys are kept,’ Aitken tells me. ‘It’s for those who’ve punched somebody — or worse.
‘I’m doing pastoral work in the unit, which is always quite challenging.’
It proved particularly so on this occasion. ‘I was punched,’ explains Aitken, who was known as ‘Jono’ to inmates during his time inside.
But Aitken, 77, insists that, by the usual uncompromising standards of prison, it was ‘a very mild punch indeed’ by an inmate who had become ‘emotional’.
Aitken mentioned the incident in the sermon he delivered in St Edmundsbury Cathedral on Sunday at the Suffolk Justice Service, where many of the 350-strong congregation were judges, magistrates or police officers. ‘I said that it was nothing that a graduate of Orwell Park School’s boxing ring couldn’t take care of,’ explains Aitken, recalling his pugilistic tutelage at the Suffolk prep school he attended. ‘I remembered how to duck.’
Jonathan Aitken arrives at the Old Bailey on June 8, 1999, where he will be sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjury
Aitken points out that the ‘minor incident’ he experienced is symptomatic of the fact that, as the Prisons Inspectorate reported last week, violent attacks on staff at Pentonville rose by 30 per cent during last year alone.
Now he has the chance to take his message to an even larger audience — in the heart of Whitehall. He’s just become the Honorary Chaplain to Christians In Government.
‘It’s been going since 1872 and every single department of government has a Christians In Government branch, but it’s never had a chaplain before,’ reflects Aitken.
He was commissioned into his role by Andrew Parker — ‘the head of MI5, no less, who’s a very strong Christian’.
Oops! Uma’s girl makes record ‘by mistake’
Having successfully followed in her parents’ footsteps by becoming an actress, the daughter of Hollywood stars Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke has now struck out on her own as a singer.
Maya Hawke, 21, who made her screen debut as Jo March in the 2017 BBC adaptation of Little Women before starring in the Netflix series Stranger Things, reveals she has recorded her debut album, Blush.
Strangers Things star Maya Hawke and her mother Uma Thurman, in January this year. As Maya’s acting star begins to rise, it appears she has a number of talents as she prepares to release her first record this week
Releasing her first single from it, By Myself, this week, she says: ‘I hope it can serve as a bit of company in these solitary times.’
She adds: ‘This album happened accidentally. From my point of view, Blush is a collection of secret messages, hidden communications with the people in my life.’
50 Shades Sam puts foot down
Fifty Shades Of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson has put the boot into feminine footwear.
‘I’ve gone through my phase of heels making me feel powerful. Now, they make me feel weak,’ says the 53-year-old.
‘When I go out to anything I try to wear trainers so I feel empowered by the fact that I’m not tottering on the balls of my feet.’
Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Sam out about for a stroll in April 2016. Sam, insists she wears tracksuit bottoms every day, to the shock of her stylish European friends
Sam, who lives in LA with actor husband Aaron (together above), adds: ‘I am in tracksuit bottoms every day. When some of my stylish European friends come to visit, they’re like: “What’s going on? Can you just get out of those?”’
While the Queen carried out her weekly audience with the Prime Minister by phone this week, she met the Bishop of Hereford face-to-face at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday — shortly after he ended his two-week self-isolation following a holiday in Venice.
The new bishop, Richard Jackson, who styles himself Rick the Vic, went into quarantine at the Bishop’s Palace in Hereford with wife Deborah.
‘I am delighted that this meeting was able to happen,’ the bishop told me of his royal audience. It was one of HM’s last audiences before moving to Windsor Castle yesterday.
Wot, no paw d’oeuvres?
James Middleton has used social distancing as the perfect chance for a doggy-dinner date
The Duchess of Cambridge’s brother James Middleton refuses to let social distancing get in the way of a good time.
The 32-year-old entrepreneur hosted a dinner party this week for his beloved dogs, who were all fitted out with pink napkins.
He posted a picture online of his pets — (from left) spaniels Inka, Ella, golden retriever Mabel, and spaniel Luna — sitting around the table ready to tuck into a culinary feast of freeze-dried chicken with carrot, apples and sweet potato. Describing it as ‘the best dinner party ever’, James (right) tells me: ‘They were more civilised than most human guests.’
He has previously praised his furry friends for playing a ‘vital role’ in helping him alleviate his depression.
Phileas Fogg is grounded
Phileas Fogg famously went Around The World In 80 Days. However, actor David Tennant, who plays the fictional explorer in a new TV drama, may take a bit longer than that — as the production has ground to a halt due to the coronavirus.
Filming started last month in Budapest and South Africa, but now crew and actors have flown back to Blighty. Executive producer Simon Crawford Collins says: ‘We’ll crawl over hot coals to make our shows, but there comes a point when you go: this isn’t fair on the teams and their families back home.
‘We’ve got to call a temporary hiatus and look after everyone and get them home.’
Forget stockpiling lavatory paper and take a (figurative) leaf out of Ben Fogle’s book. The TV adventurer says that when he went to the South Pole, a roll lasted him a whole month. ‘Loo roll was too heavy to take more,’ he says.
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