Ted Heath’s accuser ‘is a sick satanic sex fantasist’

AN expert called in by police to assess lurid claims of child abuse against Sir Edward Heath dismissed them as fantasy in an official report, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

One of Heath’s accusers even claimed he was linked to a network of paedophiles who held satanic orgies and stabbed children in churches.

Criminologist Dr Rachel Hoskins urged detectives not to be taken in by the wild allegations against the late former Prime Minister.

But Wiltshire Police are still pressing ahead with the investigation that has lasted more than a year, cost taxpayers £700,000 and tarnished Heath’s reputation a decade after he died.

Last night, Dr Hoskins said: ‘The Heath inquiry rests, like the Westminster VIP inquiry, on over-active imagination.’

Wiltshire Police insisted evidence examined by Dr Hoskins was only a small part of their inquiry, known as Operation Conifer, but she says it is a central plank of the investigation.

A staggering 3,057 alleged abusers, including 98 politicians, have been reported to a national unit known as Operation Hydrant – including 360 dead people. But some of the most high-profile and historic claims have proved baseless.

The case against Heath began in August 2015, when police made a statement outside his former home in Salisbury, appealing for victims to come forward. One of the witnesses in the case is the man known as Nick, who told the Metropolitan Police he had been repeatedly abused by an Establishment ring that also murdered children in front of him.

Scotland Yard spent £2.5million on Operation Midland, tarnishing the reputations of war hero Lord Bramall, former Home Secretary Leon Brittan and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

But they were forced to apologise to the innocent men and their families earlier this month after a devastating review by former judge Sir Richard Henriques found Midland had been riddled with mistakes and taken in by Nick’s false allegations.

In September, Wiltshire Police asked ritual crime expert Dr Hoskins – who helped identify a sacrifice victim whose torso

‘Case was riddled with mistakes’

was found in the Thames – to assess the accounts in the Heath case, including those of Nick and three women.

Nick had given some evidence regarding Heath’s yacht, claimed he had seen him in Dolphin Square – the Westminster apartment complex popular with politicians – and that he had saved him from being castrated by Mr Proctor. Wiltshire Police have not reinterviewed Nick about his claims.

Dr Hoskins was also given the records of police interviews with three women who have claimed their parents were members of the ring, and who this year said Heath was friends with them and present when they were abused.

After reviewing the evidence, Dr Hoskins told Wiltshire Police in a 150-page report that there were numerous problems with it. She pointed out there were no records of missing or murdered children that matched the accounts and it was implausible that cultists would bring children along to witness their killings.

She said that although the witnesses had made lurid claims, which crossed the boundary into fantasy, they lacked detail and there was no corroborating evidence – only memories.

Yet weeks after receiving the report, detectives are continuing with Operation Conifer.

Last night, Wiltshire Police said: ‘This investigation is complex and multi-stranded. There are a number of allegations, with a significant number of individuals who have disclosed allegations of abuse.

‘When we receive an allegation we are duty-bound to investigate and we go impartially where the evidence takes us.’

Two unnamed people have been arrested during Operation Conifer and remain on bail.

Heath’s godson Lincoln Seligman said: ‘The police have shown no signs of any progress. My firm belief is they have found nothing discreditable about Edward Heath – and I am convinced there is nothing.’

‘The lurid claims lacked detail’

AS the world of football struggles to deal with new and appalling allegations of paedophile abuse, Wiltshire police flounder over their costly probe into questionable charges against the late Sir Edward Heath. It is surely time we all found a sensible medium between foolish complacency and frenzied hysteria over this issue.

In the past, it is beyond doubt that cruel criminals got away with their misdeeds because of a general unwillingness to believe that such things could be going on, and a general failure to investigate.

Those days are now over but, as the Barry Bennell case shows, the past still needs to be policed. Child abuse is a terrible crime and must be properly investigated and where necessary prosecuted. But the destruction of the reputations of innocent people, living or dead, is also a horrible thing. And there is simply no need for this to happen if the police and prosecuting authorities learn to treat child abuse like any other crime.

The seriousness of the accusation and the disgusting nature of the alleged offence does not even slightly excuse actions which undermine justice. It makes them worse.

There is a growing number of people, acquitted of any charge, whose lives have even so been permanently blighted. The excuse that other complainants may come forward if the allegation is publicised is not a good enough reason for potentially destroying the life of a person who may yet be innocent. False accusations happen.

Two simple principles must guide us in future. The first is that all such charges should be investigated without fear or favour. The second is that this should be done without prejudice too. The foolish idea that accusers in such cases should be ‘believed’ needs to be completely and emphatically dropped.

Accusers should be taken seriously, and treated with respect and consideration. But they should not be exempt from the ancient rules of British justice. Those they accuse must be presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

And if anyone, police officer or prosecutor, finds it difficult to grasp this point, they should imagine their lives if they were to be falsely accused of such a crime. Of course they should be tough and resolute in pursuit of crime. But they must also be just and careful.