I was ruined on a lie. We must have an inquiry
When I drew back my bedroom curtains at 8am on that fateful day in March 2015, there was a police van sitting right outside.
It wasn’t unusual. I worked as a private secretary on the Duke of Rutland’s estate in Leicestershire, and liaised regularly with the local police over the fire and burglar alarms at Belvoir Castle.
But then the doorbell rang. When I opened the door, a Detective Sergeant from the Metropolitan Police Murder Squad stepped inside with a search warrant, followed by 18 stern-looking police officers in their forensic blue uniforms. And so began a Kafkaesque nightmare of deceit and injustice that would see me lose my home, my job and my reputation – thanks to a treacherous miscarriage of justice.
I am now 72 and it is more than four years since my descent into hell began. The ordeal still casts its shadow over me: I have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and have lost countless friends.
But former high Court Judge Sir Richard henriques’s blistering denunciation in the Mail yesterday of the police’s witch hunt against me and others has given me some cause for comfort. It confirmed every misgiving I’d had about the inquiry. I had known it was morally dubious. And now, thanks to Sir Richard’s intervention, it amounted to a perversion of justice.
There can only be one result: a formal inquiry must be held. For too long, the gross and defamatory lies of Carl Beech (the paedophile fraudster known as nick) – peddled by the now defunct website exaro and Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson – were given unchallenged currency and credence.
Back in 2014, when I first read about nick’s his horrific claims of a VIP paedophile ring of politicians and leading British figures, I was appalled like every one else. But I never imagined that I would one day find myself at the heart of the ensuing investigation.
That spring day, as I watched officers turn my home inside out, I thought their actions might be linked to the charges of gross indecency that had been brought against me in 1987, for having consensual sexual relations with someone under the age of 21, which was then illegal. I pleaded guilty to the charges and did not seek re-election as a Member of Parliament.
But in those interminable 15 hours during which boxes full of my possessions were removed from my home, I did not learn anything about what I was supposed to have done. All I was told was that I was connected to the gruesome crimes that nick had revealed to the Met. But I had no idea how.
I had no idea where or how I was supposed to fit into nick’s narrative. When I asked if the officers would keep my name out of the Press until I knew what I was accused of and could defend myself, the Detective Sergeant assured me that my identity would be protected.
YeT two hours before his officers left, a journalist from exaro, called Mark Conrad, emailed my office and asked if I would like to provide a statement. It was disgraceful, as was the fact that during the four long months between the police search and the day my solicitor outlined the full case against me, I had no idea of what crime I was accused.
he broke the news to me carefully in his offices. Since the charges were so gruesome – the rape, torture and murder of three children – he was worried
that I might break down and harm myself if I had been alone.
It was a sensible move. Accused of these horrific crimes, I didn’t think life was worth living. Thankfully, my partner Terry, my brother Greville and a handful of friends stood by me.
They wholeheartedly supported me through the dark days when I was portrayed as a vile fiend – not just by the Met and Beech – but by an over-zealous and self-serving Tom Watson, who used parliamentary privilege to spout Beech’s unfounded claims.
‘The truth will out,’ Terry kept telling me. I had to believe him.
The police, meanwhile, under the guise of Operation Midland, were bent on squeezing a ‘confession’ out of me.
Incredibly, they never sought to investigate Beech’s credibility as a witness. nor did they find any evidence to support his claims. It was as if the police, the institution dedicated to maintaining law and order, were determined to bring down members of the establishment – or at least tarnish its reputation.
Sir Richard’s intervention is timely and the events of the past few weeks – Beech’s sentencing to 18 years on 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud – is certainly a battle won. hopefully, I will be able to win a second battle, for fair compensation in november, when I take the Met to court. Their wrongful actions have ruined my life.
As Sir Richard made clear, a formal inquiry must be held into whether officers knowingly provided false evidence to obtain search warrants. Those found guilty must be prosecuted with the full strength of the law.
Meanwhile, we already know Tom Watson, who spent so much time and energy amplifying nick’s accusations, has peddled lies. If he wants to save a shred of respectability, he must resign from public office. And if he doesn’t, I shall stand against him in the next election. his support for this calculated, menacing miscarriage of justice cannot go unpunished.