Child abuse claims were a smear, says ex-mp
Nonsense allegations talked up by political rivals, claims John Hemming, as police drop their inquiry
A FORMER Liberal Democrat MP accused of being part of a Westminster paedophile ring has revealed that police have dropped a two-year investigation into him. John Hemming yesterday accused prosecutors of giving too much weight to “malicious” allegations as he said Labour MPS had tried to smear him.
It came after Esther Baker, who waived her right to anonymity, accused him of being part of a paedophile ring during the Eighties and Nineties.
She said that she had been raped when she was a child at a beauty spot in Staffordshire, and claimed that uniformed police officers were present during some of her ordeals.
The Crown Prosecution Service yesterday confirmed that Mr Hemming and two other men accused by Ms Baker will not be prosecuted because the case failed to meet the required level of evidence.
Mr Hemming said: “It is bad enough to have false allegations made about yourself to the police, but to have a concerted campaign involving your political opponents and many others in public creates an environment in which it is reasonable to be concerned about ill-founded vigilante attacks on your family and yourself.
“The police themselves have handled the allegations well. However, although it was obvious from the start that the allegations were nonsense, it has taken two years for this to be resolved. Identifying why that is will take time, but I believe that the system is too tolerant of false allegations.” He accused Jess Phillips, his Labour opponent, of “promoting” Ms Baker’s allegations during the 2015 and 2017 general elections and urged police to investigate. He lost his seat in 2015.
He said: “I am not myself aware of another situation where members and supporters of a political party have promoted such allegations in such a public manner – essentially arming the villagers with torches and pitchforks and setting off on a lynching.”
Ms Phillips tweeted her support for Ms Baker in 2015 after she went public with her allegations, hailing her as “amazingly brave”. She has previously said that she has never made any allegations about Mr Hemming or campaigned on the case.
She said in 2015: “I have met Esther twice at events in parliament because I am a campaigner on rape and victim issues but I would never try and interfere with a criminal inquiry.
“This former MP seems [to be] determined to engage in victim blaming.”
Mr Hemming is calling for CPS guidelines into the handling of false allegations to be reviewed.