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 of Weston-super-Mare, where Archer spent most of his early life. His father, William (died 1956), was 64 years old when Jeffrey Archer was born. Early in his career, Archer gave conflicting accounts to the press of his father's supposed, but non-existent, military career. William Archer was, in fact, a bigamist, fraudster and conman, who impersonated another William Archer, a deceased war medal holder. He was at different times employed as a chewing gum salesman in New York and a mortgage broker in London, in the latter capacity being charged at the Old Bailey for a series of fraud offences. On