Lord Bramall: How did police fall for these grotesque lies?
CHIEF REPORTER LORD BRAMALL, Britain’s most distinguished living soldier, has told how he was falsely accused of “torture” in a witchhunt that led to his house being raided by 20 police officers. In an interview with The Sunday
Telegraph, Lord Bramall, 92, disclosed the huge strain put on his wife, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, when detectives spent 10 hours searching his home on the basis of a single complaint.
Lady Bramall died in July last year at the age of 93, four months after the dawn raid in connection with an investigation into an alleged VIP paedophile ring. In a statement issued on Friday night, Scotland Yard said it was finally dropping its investigation into Lord Bramall, a war hero and veteran of the Normandy landings.
The case is hugely embarrassing for the Metropolitan Police. Last night it admitted for the first time it had doubts over claims made by the complainant, who can be identified only as “Nick”.
His allegations – that he had witnessed three murders by a VIP paedophile ring – led to simultaneous raids last March on the homes of Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, and Harvey Proctor, a former Conservative MP.
Lord Bramall sad: “It was all based on wild statements by ‘Nick’ which were so bizarre and outrageous and grotesque any normal policeman would have realised they were complete fantasy.
“For a 91-year-old man with a dying wife, it hasn’t been easy for me and for the family. My wife had Alzheimer’s and when the police came she was downstairs. She kept on saying what are all these people doing and I couldn’t explain it to her.”
He added: “It has taken a year since these allegations were first made to get to this. They accused me of torture.
“It makes me wonder about the intelligence of the police but I don’t want
LORD BRAMALL found it hard yesterday to pinpoint exactly what was most distressing and disturbing about the year-long police investigation into claims he was a member of a gang of VIP paedophiles that had murdered, raped and abused boys.
There was the day 20 police raided his home, leaving his wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, bewildered and confused. Then there was the police interview in which he was accused of “torture” based on “grotesque” allegations made by a single uncorroborated complainant.
Or maybe it was the fact his wife died in the summer, before he could finally clear his name; his identity already having been leaked to the media, prompting a vile campaign against him on the internet.
Then there’s the refusal of the police – so far at least – to apologise for all they have put Lord Bramall and his family through: A year-long investigation that saw the reputation of the 92-year-old, a veteran of D-Day and former head of the Armed Forces, needlessly traduced. The nightmare began on March 4 when at dawn, detectives from Operation Midland – a Scotland Yard inquiry investigating an alleged VIP abuse ring – raided Lord Bramall’s home in the sleepy village of Crondall in Surrey.
Lord Bramall said: “My wife had Alzheimer’s and when the police came she was downstairs. She kept on saying what are all these people doing and I couldn’t explain it to her.
“The next day she would have forgotten about it. But she was very distressed at the time of the raid. It is incredible.
“Given my distinguished career, to have 20 policemen come through your house for ten hours, it was a bit rough.”
The raid had been coordinated – the homes of Lord Brittan, a former home secretary, and Harvey Proctor, once a Tory MP, were searched on the same day – all based on the evidence of a single accuser, a man who can only be identified as “Nick”.
Lord Bramall finds it astonishing, almost a year on, that police should have sanctioned such a “heavyhanded” approach.
Hours after discovering the investigation against him had finally been dropped, he told The Sunday
Telegraph: “Of course I am glad they have dropped the case but there really never was a credible case to answer.
“None of the allegations had a grain of truth in them. I think they were being heavy-handed.
“The police felt they had to do what they had to do but the damage to me was done when they searched my house on completely uncorroborated evidence and then interviewed me under caution. The media had a field day with it.
“The police say they didn’t leak it but they kept on talking about it.
“When they searched the house they had 20 police for ten hours in the middle of the village and the police had lunch in the pub five minutes away. If that is not making sure the public knows about it, I don’t know what is.”
The raids were publicised first by Exaro news, an obscure website with close links to “Nick”.
The officer leading Operation Midland had at one time described Nick’s evidence as both “credible and true”, an astonishing claim later withdrawn by police.
Lord Bramall said: “The police kept on pleading for people to come forward. Remember what they did with Ted Heath outside his house saying people should come forward and they would be believed.
“Remember how police said Nick was credible and telling the truth. They should not have said that.
“The officer who said that has been removed from the case and they have made an apology for his remarks. But the damage was done. You only have to look at what has gone on the internet. It is there permanently.”
During the raid, police refused to tell Lord Bramall precisely what he was being accused of.
He would have to wait until being interviewed under caution by a junior detective at a police station seven weeks later when the full extent of the claims by “Nick” were made clear.
Lord Bramall said: “When they came to the house all they told me was that they were investigating abuse against an under-age male 40 years ago. It was only later on they made all these ghastly claims of torture and other things.
“It was weeks later before the full grotesque charges were put to me. They said to me it is one individual’s allegation and all part of a wider inquiry.”
He questioned, however, why a detective constable conducted the interview rather than a more senior officer.
And how – if he did have a background of abusing boys – the intelligence services, who had given him the highest security clearance, could have missed it.
He explained: “One of the things the police have to look at is the profile of a person to see if there is any historic connection with paedophiles. I had security clearance at the highest level.
“They knew my history and knew I had no such connections. The whole thing is ridiculous but they didn’t have the courage to say we will take all this with a pinch of salt.
“The highest ranking officer that interviewed me was a detective constable and no senior officer has interviewed me other than this detective constable.
“People might say why should a field marshal have anybody else in the interview but you would have thought they might have sent an assistant commissioner.”
After that interview, police would tell Lord Bramall and his solicitor almost nothing. There were no updates and Lord Bramall’s wife, Avril, died at the age of 93 in July. She would never learn her husband of 66 years had been cleared.
The letter announcing that police were dropping the case was sent by email to Lord Bramall’s solicitor by
‘My lawyers and I are trying to work out if we can get an apology from the police’
Steve Rodhouse, the Metropolitan Police’s deputy assistant commissioner.
The one-and-a-half-page letter tried to justify the investigation but concluded “there is insufficient evidence” and that “no action will be taken against Lord Bramall”. It offered no apology for all he had been put through. The timing was interesting, sent on a Friday evening – known as a good time to “bury bad news”.
“It was a very grudging email,” said Lord Bramall, “My lawyers and I are trying to work out whether we can get an apology from the police.”
Lord Bramall fears he has been the victim of a wider witch hunt. The allegations made by “Nick” and others had followed claims of the existence of a VIP paedophile ring trumpeted by Tom Watson, now Labour’s deputy leader, in the House of Commons.
“Nick” and another discredited witness, known only as “Darren”, sprang out of the woodwork to accuse the likes of Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Sir Ted Heath of rape and murder.
Lord Bramall said: “I think there is certainly a wider issue on all of why this has become a witch hunt.
“You have to look at Exaro. They have put great pressure on the police, sometimes using Members of Parliament. They have had a lot to do with this.
“I think this is a slightly more sinister issue. The police side you could blame on stupidity but this witch hunt by politicians and Exaro you could put down to a more sinister motive of hunting the Establishment.
“It worries me greatly they could do what they did to me after a lifetime of public service.”
He won’t be drawn on what should happen to “Nick”, as investigations into allegations against others, including Mr Proctor, remain ongoing.
Lord Bramall said: “My lawyer says the complainant ought to be prosecuted for wasting police time but it is not for me to say what the police should do.”
With a sigh, resigned to all that has happened to him, he added: “I have just had to sit here and take it.”
Attitudes towards sexual abuse have undergone a healthy transformation in recent years. Terrible historical cases are finally being investigated, and the victims – ignored for far too long – are being taken seriously. No one should be able to escape justice simply because they are rich and powerful. The Jimmy Savile case showed how easily privilege can be manipulated to a perpetrator’s advantage.
But the accused are owed justice, too. Under this country’s laws, people are considered innocent until proven guilty. By that standard, Lord Bramall has been treated atrociously. This 92-year-old D-Day veteran and former head of the Army has only just been told that a ridiculously long investigation into allegations made against him by a single accuser have been dropped.
Of course the police have a responsibility to look into accusations. But the Met made serious errors of judgment. Lord Bramall’s house was searched by 20 officers on the basis of uncorroborated evidence, causing immense distress to his wife, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s and who died before her husband’s name was cleared. The police aired their opinions on the case too freely, asserting that they regarded the allegations to be “credible and true”. And when the investigation was finally dropped, the Met used language that implied the accusation lacked evidence rather than simply admitting that they had been wrong. Now they ought to apologise.
This is not the first time that the police have been accused of a disproportionate response: readers may recall the raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s home, broadcast live by a pre-warned BBC. Nor is it the first time the police have lacked empathy: Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, died last year without being told that a historical accusation of rape against him had been dismissed. These expensive, high-profile investigations into people’s lives occur at a time when the police complains it lacks funding.
As Simon Heffer writes in these pages, it appears as if the policing establishment has been caught up in a kind of hysteria. The desire to catch offenders is noble; the lowering of fair standards of procedure is not. And the great tragedy is that the aggressive pursuit of spurious claims, which lead nowhere, distracts society from tackling the dark menace of genuine abuse.