My family’s name is tarnished for ever because of one man’s lies
ON HIS 5 YEAR BATTLE AGAINST PAEDO SLURS
THE godson of former Prime Minster Edward Heath fears the lies of one “evil” fantasist have tainted his family’s name for ever with links to paedophilia.
Lincoln Seligman told the Sunday People: “Clearing my godfather’s name probably occupied much of my time for five years as I garnered support to try to get the truth.”
The smears came from Carl Beech, who was jailed for 18 years in July 2019 for lying about t he existence of a VIP paedophile ring said to include the late Sir Edward.
Lincoln said: “I knew from the outset the allegations weren’t true. I never felt that we’d been harbouring a paedophile in our midst.
“I knew it was a load of rubbish.
I was much more bothered by the unfairness of his reputation being trashed.
“Edward didn’t have lots of relations. His father and stepmother died a long time ago and his only brother also died so there was nobody. I suppose I really took it on because I was the eldest of his godchildren.
“If I spoke to Beech now I would probably say that he was an evil man who did it for commercial gain – to get some sort of compensation for being a victim of abuse.”
As well as Sir Edward, who died in 2005 at 89, twisted Beech falsely accused former Chief of the General Staff Lord Bramall, ex Home Secretary Lord Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, 73, of sex abuse.
Damage
Lord Brittan died of cancer five years ago. ord Bramall passed away in November 2019, aged 95, after revealing how the case had took a mental and physical toll on him.
Speaking before a BBC2 documentary about the case, Lincoln said: “Public opinion is what reputation is about and I think the truth did come out, or rather, the lies were put to bed.
“The worst thing is that the internet means that even if people know it was all a load of nonsense, if you google Edward Heath it will be there for ever and that’s the damage it’s very hard to do anything about.
“For people who don’t know the truth, it’s tarnished his reputation for ever.” Artist Lincoln, 70, sat just 10ft from Beech at his trial in Newcastle.
He said: “Even when he was caught out in lies, one after the other, he hardly missed a step. He just shrugged and carried on. He knew if they were to be believed then people would go to prison. It smacks of evil.
“Harvey Proctor was very much upset. I sat behind him in court on the day we were all invited to do our so-called victim statements and he was so distraught he could hardly stand and get through his statement.
“Most of the time he appeared to be emotionally destroyed by what was happening to him.”
Beech’s allegations spurred the Metropolitan Police to launch its disastrous Operation Midland
Investigation, which cost £2.5million and closed after 16 months without a single arrest.
Lincoln said: “If an investigation is justified then it should be done properly – but it wasn’t.
“I feel the police were carrying on with the investigation long after they knew that Beech was a liar because they’d got themselves in so deep. What
I found extraordinary was how gullible they were. I think there’s an element of enormous stupidity and an element of trying to make up for having been too lax about Jimmy Savile.
“They couldn’t afford for it not to be true because they’d invested a huge amount of their own efforts and ambitions in it turning out to be true and them becoming heroes.”
The documentary looks at how former NHS nurse Beech, 52, from
Gloucester invented claims he had been abused in the 70s and 80s by a VIP paedophile ring. It features archive police interviews with Beech as well as contributions from war hero Lord Bramall’s son Nicholas.
In it, Beech’s ex-wife Dawn, who divorced him in 2012, the year he made his allegations, said she always doubted
his claims. She said: “You just think what the actual **** is that about.”
And when it was revealed that Beech was guilty of making and possessing indecent images of children, it made her sick to think of their intimate relationship together.
She said: “There are no words that actually describe how you feel when you hear that about somebody you were married to for 18 years, that you shared a bed with and they’ve got that on their computer.”
Beech told police in 2012 his stepdad Major Ray Beech, who died in 1995, and Savile had abused him.
Ray’s former wife June felt dutybound to clear his name.
The documentary also hears from relatives of others he accused of sex abuse. Lord Brittan’s wife Lady Brittan, 79, said a Met police raid on
her home two months after her husband’s death left her “traumatised” and “unable to move”.
Mr Bramall said: “It was humiliating, it was an affront to everything he stood for. Duty, service to his nation. It was incomprehensible.”
He said of the police: “They wanted this to be true. This was like the Holy Grail of abuse and I think they were seduced by this and lost all sight of rational thought.”
Retired High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques, who reviewed the investigation, said the Met had failed to view Beech’s medical records, computers and mobile phone.
He added: “It was extremely poor policing, it was unjustifiable and frankly incompetent.”
The Unbelievable Story of Carl Beech, BBC2, 9pm tomorrow.