Lord Brittan raids were illegal, insists his family
THE police raids on Lord Brittan’s homes conducted after he had died were illegal, a family friend insisted last night.
Officers searched two of the former home secretary’s houses, one in London and the other in Yorkshire, in March last year, two months after he died.
The legality of the raids are now being questioned by Lord Brittan’s family. One friend said: “The fact remains you cannot prosecute somebody who is dead so what was the possible legal justification for these searches?
“We simply don’t know. The magistrate who granted the search warrants should have raised it.”
Lord Brittan, who died of cancer at the age of 75 in January last year, remains under investigation over allegations he was part of a VIP paedophile gang that also included Sir Edward Heath, the former Conservative prime minister. Officers with Operation Mid- land raided Lord Brittan’s properties in a co-ordinated search in which the homes of Harvey Proctor, a former Tory MP, and Lord Bramall, 92, a former head of the Army and D-Day veteran, were also targeted.
Operation Midland, according to some reports, is due to be wound up after detectives with Scotland Yard failed to find any evidence to corroborate claims made by a single complainant that the gang had been responsible for three murders of children as well as widespread child sex abuse.
Lord Brittan was separately accused of rape by a woman, known only as Jane, in the 1960s. Lord Brittan was interviewed by detectives under caution but subsequently cleared. However, Scotland Yard failed to tell him he had been exonerated before his death.