Police threatened to take our baby away
In a dramatic interview, couple who lived above Harvey Proctor reveal how . . .
‘We were terrified in case they took Francesca’
ARMS entwined around each other, Adam and Charlotte Coxon cuddle their pretty toddler francesca as though they will never let her go.
They find it hard to forget the february morning three years ago when, as a baby, she was nearly snatched away from them as they became innocently embroiled in a controversial police witch-hunt against former Tory mP Harvey Proctor.
‘We think we were within a whisker of losing our baby,’ says dark-haired Charlotte, 23. ‘A police officer turned up with a social worker out of the blue in a car with a baby seat in the back.
‘The officer banged loudly on the door, then came in and told us to leave Harvey’s house, where we had a two-room flat upstairs. He made it clear we had no choice but to get out because francesca was in danger from Harvey.’
Both Adam and Charlotte insist that the surprise visitors told them three-month-old francesca would be taken into care if they failed to do what the police officer ordered and leave the house.
Shocking though it is, the Coxons had become pawns in one of the scandals of our age. Scotland Yard, on the say-so of a since discredited middle-aged man called Nick, was probing what they believed were highly disturbing historical VIP child sex abuse claims in a huge investigation called operation midland.
Nick had named Harvey Proctor as a child rapist, triple murderer and part of a sex ‘gang’ which included eminent Conservative political figures Sir edward Heath and Lord Brittan, as well as a senior member of the Armed forces.
By mid-february 2015, Scotland Yard’s inquiry was gathering pace, and one of their officers had pronounced on a BBC broadcast that Nick’s allegations were both ‘credible and true’.
A few weeks later, they would carry out what has become a notorious 15-hour police raid on mr Proctor’s home.
But that was not the first time the police turned up at rambling Barn House, which is sited down a long drive on Leicestershire’s Belvoir Castle estate, where the former mP worked for the owner, the Duke of rutland, as private secretary.
It was only the month before that the police officer and social worker had arrived with the baby seat to talk to the Coxons. They came when Harvey Proctor was away for a few hours collecting a Land rover for the estate from Derbyshire.
Adam, 30, says today: ‘The first thing the police officer said was that he believed there was a baby in the house. He then said we must leave.
‘We now think he wanted us out of Harvey’s
‘I felt sick, as if I’d been kicked in the stomach’
house so they could carry out the raid that happened a few weeks later, without us, and our baby, getting in the way.
‘That day they came to see us, they were at Barn Farm for nearly three hours asking questions. I had to ring the Duke of Rutland’s partner, Andrea, for help because we had nowhere to go and live.’
Charlotte was a care worker, while Adam had worked as a driver for the Duke and Duchess — who are estranged but both live at the castle — for around a decade. He also organised the musical entertainment for private functions enjoyed by the aristocratic family and their often famous guests.
His closeness to the family who owned the estate was a lifeline that day.
‘Andrea saved the day by offering to put us up in part of her house,’ says Adam.
So it was that just after lunchtime, Charlotte, Adam and baby Francesca left — and were never to make it their home again. By then, Harvey Proctor had returned, and the couple set off in a convoy of cars. One was driven by Proctor, who was determined to support the couple and witness the unfolding events, another by Andrea, and a third contained the police officer and social worker.
They all made their way to the family’s new accommodation, a ten-minute journey away and just off the Belvoir estate. There, the officials kept up the inquisition.
They asked if the couple knew the ‘history’ of their friend Harvey, and referred to the year 1987 when his distinctive face was plastered over front pages and TV after he was found guilty of gross indecency with rent boys.
The Coxons replied that they did know, that indeed ‘everyone did’.
The 1987 case had, anyway, involved homosexual dalliances with two consenting young men who were under 21 — an illegal act then, but not today, as the age of consent for homosexuality has been lowered to 16.
So what on earth had that incident of years ago got to do with them and their three-month-old baby girl?
‘We were terrified, though, in case they took Francesca,’ recalls Charlotte. ‘The police had searched Barn Farm and removed a baby sock with a picture of Tigger on it, among other personal things. It was terrible.
‘We said Harvey was our friend and we were happy living with him in the same building. We had separate flats under the same roof, and only shared a kitchen with him and his partner, Terry.’
Worse was to follow, though. As the questioning continued, the police officer and the social worker overheard Proctor saying he would pop back from Barn House later to make sure Adam, Charlotte and baby Francesca had settled into their new lodgings.
The former MP was then startled to be told by the police officer that he must never see the baby again, according to legal papers prepared for Proctor’s £1million claim for damages against Scotland Yard and his accuser ‘Nick’. The papers argue that it’s unlikely his trial of 1987 was the reason for this ban on having contact with the child.
They say: The ‘inference is there to be drawn’ that it was based upon the ‘false and malicious’ VIP sex ring allegations by Nick against Mr Proctor, and/or was demanded by Scotland Yard.
The papers say the police officer, from the local Leicestershire force’s child protection squad, was also acting on the Yard’s instructions when he ‘falsely’ told Adam and Charlotte that their baby could be legally removed and put in care.
Adam Coxon agrees. ‘I think this threat of losing our baby was made to frighten us so we would get out of Harvey’s house quickly. We think we were deliberately forced from our home under a false premise.’
Charlotte adds: ‘We were never given any official paperwork from the police or the social worker about their threat of taking Francesca into care. There was no court order because there was no court hearing.
‘The only thing we got from the police and social services that day was a phone number scribbled on a piece of paper — and that turned out to be wrong anyway.’
Harvey Proctor relates the same shocking story in his memoir, called Credible And True, written since those disturbing events.
It lays bare the nightmare of being probed over the allegations of child murder and paedophilia in connection with Operation Midland.
He also recalls the moment that day in February 2015 when he was told by the police officer and the social worker that he could never see baby Francesca again because of ‘what happened to you in 1987’.
‘I was shocked and almost rendered speechless. That had nothing to do with children ...’ he writes. ‘I felt sick, as if I had been kicked in the stomach. I had not even cuddled the baby for fear that I might drop her.’
He adds in the memoir: ‘I believe illegality took place that day [on the Belvoir estate]. It was abhorrent. The authorities had attempted to effectively kidnap a baby.’
This week, he told me: ‘The police had broken up our family unit, albeit an unusual family unit, but one that worked for us. I believe they used subterfuge to get Adam, Charlotte and the baby out of the house, and it had nothing to do with me and children.’
Last night, Leicestershire Police declined to comment on the Coxon family and the specific incident at Barn Farm.
The Mail asked if the force’s officer had threatened to take baby Francesca into care. If so, what was the purpose of such a threat when there have never been any care proceedings instituted and the child remains with her parents.
A spokesperson said: ‘We are aware of the content of Mr Proctor’s book and the chapter which references Leicestershire Police.’ The force said all further queries regarding Operation Midland should be addressed to Scotland Yard.
As for the bewildered — and virtually homeless — Coxons, they were left to get on with their lives.
By the summer of 2015, after the lengthy police raid on Harvey Proctor’s Barn Farm by Scotland
Yard in March that year, they moved away from the Belvoir Castle area to live abroad in a Spanish village near Seville.
‘We always wanted to spend the first year of Francesca’s life in Spain, but the threat to her made us do it,’ says Charlotte.
‘We were happy at Barn Farm. We were a unit, but that was broken up.’
Harvey Proctor has visited them there twice, and Francesca adores him. She calls him ‘Grandpa Harvey’ and can be seen in photos smiling happily with him.
Francesca has settled into a local nursery school, has made friends, and speaks Spanish and English.
Her little brother, Max, was born in a Spanish hospital in the autumn of last year, and also goes to the nursery in the village. Charlotte is now teaching English to children and adults who live nearby, while Adam, the son of a doctor, is looking for fulltime work.
The couple, who first met as teenagers, married in the Belvoir Castle private chapel in 2014 at the invitation of the Duke and Duchess.
Today, they miss their old life in the shadow of one of England’s grandest homes, and they are determined to speak out about their ordeal at the hands of the police.
They are also considering a claim for damages against Scotland Yard, Leicestershire Police and the local social services for forcing them from their home, threatening to take Francesca into care, and contributing to their decision to emigrate, which meant they lost their livelihoods in Britain.
Charlotte said: ‘It is something we can’t just forget. We have never been back to the UK together as a family group because of the trauma of it. That means we miss our close relatives and friends in England.’
Adam adds protectively: ‘I can still see that small car, that arrived with the police officer and the social worker, parked outside our house.
‘It was silver with three doors and had the baby seat ready for Francesca. It is a sight that haunts us and always, always will.’
So it is that the aftershocks from the historic sex allegations made by ‘Nick’ continue to shatter lives.