Billionaire Black begins jail term

Disgraced media mogul Conrad Black has begun his six-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

Jurors found Black illegally received £1.7 million as they convicted him of three counts of fraud and one of obstruction of justice last year.

The convicted fraudster, who handed himself in to a US jail today, reportedly held a farewell party at his luxury £16 million Palm Beach mansion.

He then swapped the waterfront pad for a cell in FCI Coleman, a minimum security facility around 50 miles north west of Orlando in central Florida.

Last year a jury found Black "violated" his duty to shareholders when he swindled them out of more than £2.96 million in a fraud conspiracy with three colleagues.

The 63-year-old, who has the title Lord Black of Crossharbour, will spend his days working for 5p an hour, with duties including washing windows, swabbing and buffing the floors, cleaning the toilets and picking up cigarette butts.

He is also expected to have to give a sample of his DNA, fingerprints and be strip-searched before changing into a prison uniform.

The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals denied his emergency bid to remain free on bail pending his appeal on Thursday, dashing his last hope of escaping jail.

The start of the billionaire's jail sentence marks a new low in the flamboyant media baron's life.

At his peak, he was the publisher of the third-biggest group of newspapers in the world.

No stranger to the spotlight, he bought his first newspaper more than 30 years ago and went on to run hundreds of titles around the world, including the Daily Telegraph.

With homes in New York, Toronto, Florida and London, the socialite was known to enjoy the company of the rich, powerful and famous, with his glamorous second wife, Watford-born journalist Barbara Amiel, 67, by his side.

Among his supporters, Sir Elton John and David Furnish described Black as a "good friend" in a letter to the court and said he was "the sort of person who sticks with you through thick and thin".

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