Heath inquiry officer to retire on full pension
Medical grounds sign off means full pension for man who made appeal for abuse victims to come forward
The senior police officer who launched the discredited paedophile inquiry into Sir Edward Heath is retiring on a full pension, despite being on sick leave and under investigation for misconduct. Det Supt Sean Memory is being allowed to retire from Wiltshire Police on medical grounds in the new year after 30 years’ service. He is entitled to a pension estimated to be worth about £35,000 a year and a lump sum of £250,000.
THE senior police officer who launched the discredited paedophile inquiry into Sir Edward Heath is retiring on a full pension, despite being on sick leave and under investigation for misconduct.
Det Supt Sean Memory is being allowed to retire from Wiltshire Police on medical grounds in the new year after 30 years’ service with the force. He is entitled to a pension estimated to be worth about £35,000 a year and a further lump sum of £250,000.
Mr Memory launched the £1.5million inquiry in Aug 2015 with an appeal made outside Heath’s former home in Salisbury for child sex abuse victims to come forward. It came 10 years after the former prime minister’s death.
In January Mr Memory was removed from the investigation and signed off on long-term sick leave.
It emerged he was also under investigation for misconduct over an allegation that he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman involved in a separate case unrelated to Heath.
Wiltshire Police confirmed that Mr Memory was being allowed to retire on medical grounds before the conclusion of the misconduct inquiry.
A spokesman said: “We can confirm that an application from Detective Superintendent Sean Memory to retire on medical grounds has been permitted.
“Clearly, it would be inappropriate for us to release any further information which relates to this decision.”
The force said that Police Conduct Regulations 2014 allowed for officers to resign or retire before the conclu- sion of an inquiry if deemed medically unfit or else other “exceptional circumstances” allowed it.
A senior Wiltshire Police source said: “Sean Memory is being allowed to retire in the new year when he will have done 30 years’ service. He is not in a good place. The chief [Chief Constable Mike Veale] has let him go and retire. He will get a full pension.
“Sean to some extent has been a victim himself of the Heath inquiry. He is very well respected among officers who worked with him. He was very friendly, very approachable.”
The inquiry into Heath – known as Operation Conifer – was launched with a televised appeal in front of his former home, Arundells, in the shadow of Salisbury Cathedral. Heath had died a decade earlier and was unable to defend his reputation.
Mr Memory said at the time: “This is an appeal for victims: in particular, if you have been the victim of any crime from Sir Ted Heath or any historical sexual offence, or you are a witness or you have any information about this, then please come forward.”
The inquiry has been branded a “tragicomedy of incompetence” by Lord Macdonald, the former
Director of Public Prosecutions.
Friends of Heath called it a travesty that had shredded his reputation. Operation Conifer failed to find any corroborating evidence that Heath was a child abuser. Its main complainant was revealed to be a paedophile and serial fantasist who is currently languishing in jail.
The 68-year-old man stands accused of making up the claim that Heath stopped to pick him up while he was hitchhiking on the A2 in Kent in 1961 when aged 11, and later raped him. His family, tracked down by The Daily Telegraph, have said the incident never occurred. The police never bothered to trace them for questioning.
It was alleged in March by The Sun that Mr Memory had sent “flirty” text messages to a female relative of Sian O’callaghan, who was just 22 when she was murdered by taxi driver Christopher Halliwell in 2011 after he picked her up outside a nightclub in Swindon. Halliwell was jailed for life in 2012 for the murders of Miss O’callaghan and 20-year-old Becky Godden-edwards.
The Heath investigation was ultimately presided over by Mr Veale, who has himself faced calls to quit from Heath’s supporters.
The chief constable has insisted the investigation was proportionate and fair.