Judge must look at ‘flawed’ Heath inquiry, insist former ministers
FORMER Conservative cabinet ministers are demanding a judicial review of the “disgraceful” and “flawed” police inquiry into historic allegations that Sir Edward Heath was a paedophile.
Senior party figures led by Lord Patten of Barnes, the former party chairman and current Chancellor of Oxford University, have written to Amber Rudd demanding the Home Secretary instigate a judge-led inquiry into the £1.5million Wiltshire Police investigation.
In the letter, police are accused of making a “reckless” appeal for “victims” outside Heath’s home in Salisbury and of trying “to build a case to support his guilt” despite subsequently failing to find corroborating evidence.
The signatories, who include another former party chairman, Michael Ancram, now the Marquess of Lothian, and Lord Waldegrave, the ex-cabinet minister and Heath’s former political private secretary, write: “A dead man whose reputation has been unjustly maligned at a cost of one and a half million pounds to the taxpayer, should not be begrudged a review by a judge to right what we believe to be the wrong that has been done to him.
“The manner in which this [investigation] was undertaken was a disgrace. It traduced Sir Edward’s reputation and trampled upon the most fundamental principle of our justice system.”
The letter adds: “Operation Conifer has placed a stain on Sir Edward’s reputation and only a quasi-judicial process can decide whether Sir Edward Heath’s innocence can be reaffirmed and the stain removed.”
The letter will add to pressure on Mike Veale, the Wiltshire chief constable, to agree to an independent review of his hugely controversial inquiry. Critics have called for him to be sacked.
Police have claimed Heath would been interviewed under caution were he still alive over seven allegations against him. However, a Telegraph investigation has established that his chief accuser is a serial paedophile who is languishing in jail. There are serious questions over the other claims.
The man claimed that Heath raped him in 1961, but his own family have described him as “a born liar” who made up the allegation.
Police failed to interview the paedophile’s siblings about his claim that Heath had abducted him in Kent and then driven him to London and raped him when he was 11. He is now aged 68 and serving a sentence in prison.
Ms Rudd has so far resisted calls for a judicial inquiry but her refusal to intervene has infuriated senior party figures. Wiltshire Police has insisted the investigation was proportionate and justified and that officers simply followed where the evidence led them.
Lord Patten’s intervention adds weight to the campaign for a judicial inquiry similar to one into the disastrous police investigation into false allegations of a Westminster paedophile ring.
The letter raises serious questions about Wiltshire Police’s impartiality and calls for a separate police watchdog inquiry into newspaper reports that Mr Veale was “120 per cent convinced of Sir Edward Heath’s guilt” and his decision to brief a backbench Conservative MP prior to the publication of the summary report into Heath.