PROCTOR SUES MET AND ‘NICK’ FOR £1M MP lodges High Former Court papers after lurid claims from ‘fantasist’ led police to raid his home
former mP Harvey Proctor has launched an unprecedented £1million claim for damages against Scotland Yard and an alleged fantasist over the force’s bungled VIP child sex abuse inquiry.
The 71- year- old alleges that the met ‘conspired’ with the man known only as ‘Nick’ and reporters from a controversial news website to ‘injure’ him.
This, he states in a High Court document, resulted in him losing his job and his home, and also caused him to suffer ‘a major depressive illness’ and damage to his reputation.
A key part of his legal action concerns a senior detective’s controversial public statement, at the outset of the police inquiry, that the man’s allegations were ‘credible and true’.
mr Proctor says Nick’s allegations that he was a serial child sex killer were ‘ inherently incredible, unreliable and untrue’ and that ‘elementary research’ by police would have exposed the truth about his claims. Details of mr Proctor’s legal move emerged as prosecutors consider whether to charge his discredited accuser with perverting the course of justice and fraud. And they come three months after it emerged that Nick is to stand trial on charges of paedophilia.
The middle-aged man, whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, is accused of committing child sex offences while Scotland Yard’s VIP paedophile inquiry operation midland was treating him as a victim.
The met’s inquiry into his bogus allegations of child rape and murder involving an establishment child sex ring including edward Heath, former Home Secretary Leon Brittan and ex-military chief Lord Bramall closed without a single arrest.
Lord Brittan’s widow Diana and Lord Bramall have each received about £100,000 in outof-court compensation settlements with the force over its disastrous investigation.
But mr Proctor has not reached an agreement and a number of senior officers, as well as Nick, are likely to be called to give evidence if his compensation claim reaches trial at the High Court. former reporters at the now defunct exaro News website are expected to be compelled to testify about their dealings with the fantasist and detectives investigating his lurid claims.
According to mr Proctor’s ‘particulars of claim’ at the High Court, it was ‘in or about 2012 Nick embarked upon promoting a series of false and malicious rumours concerning an alleged paedophile ring’ during the period 1975-1984. mr Proctor was an mP in essex between 1979 and 1987, when he resigned.
He says the ‘ principal vehicles’ whereby Nick published his false allegations were the exaro News website and a Twitter account. He also refers to the claims being broadcast on the BBC in 2014 when Detective Superintendent Kenny mcDonald of the met, described the allegations as being ‘ credible and true’. mr Proctor has used that phrase as the title for a memoir published in 2016.
According to the High Court document, seen by the mail, mr Proctor accepts he was not identified by name in reports before march 2015 – when his home was raided by police.
But he adds he ‘now knows’ that Nick had falsely and maliciously named him as a perpetrator when making allegations about him to exaro.
He says that in 2014, Nick – accompanied by an exaro reporter – took his claims to the met. These allegations, including three offences of murder and child sexual abuse including male rape, were ‘false and defamatory and/ or amounted to malicious falsehoods’, says mr Proctor.
Addressing mistakes by the met, his legal document states: ‘A primary point is the inherent and repeated contradictions’ in Nick’s accounts. elementary research into crime reports, missing persons, social service and educational records and the like would have revealed an absence of evidence supporting the truth in his allegations.’
mr Proctor also attacks the met for referring to Nick as a ‘victim’ and claims his human rights were breached.
He is suing the met for misfeasance in public office and misuse of private information, and is taking legal action against Nick for defamation and/or malicious falsehood.
‘The conduct as described
‘Inherently unreliable’ ‘An absence of evidence’
above of each of the defendants was calculated to and/or did cause the claimant to suffer increased injury, distress, embarrassment and/or humiliation’, says his claim.
The total amount being claimed by mr Proctor is more than £1million: including the loss of his £40,500-a-year job and future earnings as private secretary to the Duke of rutland. The loss of his grace and favour home on the aristocrat’s Leicestershire estate is alleged to have cost him £129,600 over an eight-year period.
mr Proctor, who is seeking damages, aggravated damages and exemplary damages, made preparations to sue the met and Nick after receiving a personal apology from its then chief, Sir Bernard HoganHowe, 18 months ago.
This followed a damning report by ex-High Court judge Sir richard Henriques on Scotland Yard’s handling of operation midland. one of his key findings was that officers misled a judge into granting search warrants to raid the homes of mr Proctor, Lord Bramall and Lord Brittan.
Sir richard identified a total of 43 failings in operation midland, including the fact that a senior detective publicly labelled Nick’s claims as ‘credible and true’.operation midland began to unravel in September 2015 when the mail revealed detectives had ‘ grave doubts’ about Nick’s testimony. A number of subsequent articles exposed the shambolic investigation and holes in his story.
A met spokesman said it would be ‘filing a defence’ to mr Proctor’s claim but declined to answer further questions.