Jowell's husband gets jail term for corruption

OLYMPICS minister Tessa Jowell's estranged husband David Mills was sentenced to four and a half years jail in Italy today for corruption.

The 64-year-old lawyer was also fined €250,000 (£221,000) by a court in Milan for taking a bribe from Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi to give false evidence in two corruption trials. Mills was convicted at the end of a three-year trial on charges of accepting a $600,000 (then £350,000) payment.

Mills will not serve any time in jail as the case will go before two appeal courts before a final sentence is passed and that has to be before February next year, otherwise it passes the deadline for Italy's Statute of Limitations.

Berlusconi was jointly accused with Mills until a law was passed last summer which made senior government figures immune from prosecution.

Prosecutors said Mills used the money on a joint mortgage with Ms Jowell to obtain a property in north London, when details of the case emerged in 2005. The Cabinet minister was later cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation by parliamentary officials.

The case centred on a letter Mr Mills wrote to his accountant Bob Drennan in 2004 which referred to the money as a "gift" and stated that he had saved a "Mr B...from a great deal of trouble."

In a statement after today's verdict, Mills protested his innocence and said he was hopeful he would be cleared on appeal.

Ms Jowell said: "This is a terrible blow to David and, although we are separated, I have never doubted his innocence."