Monica Coghlan Monica Coghlan Monica Coghlan (3 April 1951 – 27 April 2001) was an English prostitute at the centre of a scandal that involved British Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer in 1987. Although he won a libel case against the "Daily Star" newspaper, which had alleged that he had sex with her, it was later established, in legal proceedings in 2001, that he had perjured himself in the trial. Archer was jailed for this in July 2001. Coghlan died in a car crash shortly before the second trial and Archer's subsequent conviction. Monica Mary Coghlan was born on 3 April 1951, in
Jeffrey Archer the 1980s, thus contradicting the claim that he and Mary Archer had been “happily married” at the time of the trial. Archer never spoke during the trial, though his wife Mary again gave evidence as she had done during the 1987 trial. On 19 July 2001, Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial. He was sentenced to four years' imprisonment by Mr Justice Potts. Francis was found not guilty. Prominent journalists admitted to having accepted Archer's hospitality after he was convicted. Archer's mother had died shortly before he was sentenced and