The woman at the centre of the Jeffrey Archer scandal sped away from her besieged Oxfordshire home under a police escort last night.

Andrina Colquhoun, Lord Archer's former personal assistant, was having dinner with him on the night in 1986 he was alleged to have been with a prostitute.

He has now admitted asking friend Ted Francis to lie in court, giving him an alibi in a bid to keep the dinner date secret.

Lord Archer dramatically resigned as Tory candidate for Mayor of London after a Sunday newspaper revealed the false alibi.

The dramatic events centre on new revelations about a 1987 court case, in which Lord Archer sued the Daily Star for alleging he slept with callgirl Monica Coghlan. He won the case and was awarded £500,000 damages. Now Lord Archer, who once won an Oxford athletics Blue, may face a criminal investigation as well as civil action from the Star for its money back.

For five years, Ms Colquhoun - now 46 - escorted the Tory peer to parties, played hostess when he entertained at his luxury London flat while his wife Mary was in Cambridge, and even accompanied him on an eight-week trip to the Caribbean.

The arrangement came to an abrupt end in 1985 when Archer was reportedly told to "regularise" his personal affairs after his return to politics. The ex-debutante, who counted Lord Lucan and the late Tory MP Alan Clark among her friends, yesterday broke down in tears as she left her weekend home in the north Oxfordshire village of Sandford St Martin.

Accompanied by a police escort, she sped away in a silver BMW, number plate ANY 1, which Lord Archer was reported to have sold her when she left his employment.

The step-daughter of the timber tycoon Peter Montague Meyer initially carved out a career as a society photographer. In 1990 she married businessman Robert Waddington, with whom she has a child. During the week she lives with her brother Alex in fashionable Evelyn Gardens, in Fulham, London, but spends most weekends at the family cottage.

Yesterday, her brother Alex said: "Jeffrey Archer is a pain in the ass and always was. The fact is, my sister is now happily married and has a family and she simply doesn't want to know about all this.

"She wants everyone to go away and give us all a break.

Story date: Monday 22 November

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