Abuse inquiry to probe Ted Heath child sex claims

INVESTIGATORS will examine controversial claims Sir Edward Heath was a child abuser.

The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, looking at claims of a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster, will consider a police report into the former Prime Minister, pictured, officials said. A summary of the Wiltshire Police investigation, known as Operation Conifer, will be published in the coming weeks. Former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind said it ‘besmirched’ Sir Edward.

But Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said there are ‘powerful voices who would like to silence Operation Conifer’.

He called for Chief Constable Mike Veale, who is leading the investigation, to be able to complete the report ‘free of abuse, intimidation or pressure’.

More than 30 people are said to have approached Wiltshire police claiming they were abused by Sir Edward, who died in Salisbury in 2005.