MP’s anger as police say abuse ‘fantasist’ won’t be prosecuted
A FORMER MP has launched a scathing attack on ‘politically correct’ police after they ruled a woman who made false child sex allegations against him should not be prosecuted for perverting the course of justice.
John Hemming said their refusal to seek charges against his accuser Esther Baker undermined the criminal justice system and would encourage ‘other fantasists’ to make bogus paedophile claims.
He hit out after Staffordshire Police informed him via email that following a ‘review’ of his allegations, it had decided there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to proceed with the case and no further action would be taken.
The email came more than three years after Mr Hemming first alleged to the force that Miss Baker had perverted the course of justice over her claims of child sex abuse. And it came nine months after the Crown Prosecution Service ruled that there was insufficient evidence to charge him over her paedophile accusations.
The Daily Mail has learned that Staffordshire Police took the decision not to take action against Miss Baker, who is in her mid-30s, without seeking advice from the CPS. The CPS confirmed last night: ‘The CPS did not give any advice to Staffordshire Police at all in relation to an allegation of perverting the course of justice.’
Mr Hemming and others – including a political grandee – had been accused by Miss Baker of repeatedly raping her in a forest at Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, in the 1980s and 1990s when she was between the ages of six and 11 – while police kept guard. She waived her right to anonymity in 2015 to give a television interview about her alleged ordeal. Mr Hem- ming, 58, was voluntarily interviewed under caution by Staffordshire Police, but not arrested. He made a formal allegation to police that Miss Baker had perverted the course of justice. She denies being a fantasist.
Last night multi-millionaire businessman Mr Hemming told the Daily Mail: ‘I feel really let down by the criminal justice system and have lost all faith in the police. If it can happen to me, a former MP, it can happen to anyone. A random woman who I have never met decided to make nasty allegations about me.
‘They were complete lies. I may seek a judicial review of the police decision or take out a private prosecution against my accuser.’
Last night Staffordshire Police declined to answer a series of questions from the Mail. But it said: ‘In April 2015, an allegation of perverting the course of justice was made to Staffordshire Police in relation to complaints of nonrecent sexual abuse that had been received. After careful consideration, it has been determined that there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for perverting the course of justice.’
In an email to her lawyer this week, copied to the Daily Mail, Miss Baker said that police ‘have found exactly zero evidence and not even a suggestion that I or others have been involved in an attempt to pervert the course of justice against Mr Hemming’.
In January, Mr Hemming wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, to complain about how the allegations against him had been handled.
The father of five wrote the letter after he discovered that Miss Baker had been awarded what is called ‘core participant’ status at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the sprawling probe set up four years ago into historic sex abuses.
Core participants are entitled to apply for taxpayer-funded legal representation and have other legal privileges.
Staffordshire Police’s decision not to pursue Miss Baker comes just weeks before the CPS is due to announce whether the fantasist who triggered Scotland Yard’s disastrous VIP child sex abuse inquiry should be charged with perverting the course of justice and fraud.
Prosecutors are set to reveal in July if the man known as ‘Nick’ should stand trial.
Mr Hemming is the former Lib Dem MP for Birmingham Yardley and says he has incontrovertible evidence to prove his innocence.