Sailor doubts Heath’s interest in children
Deal setback Chemical charges
The navigator of Sir Edward Heath’s yacht has undermined claims that the politician abused children on board.
David Arnold pointed out that Morning Cloud was a racing vessel, needed at least three people to crew her and had no private space.
Arnold, 76, a retired businessman, said that he slept on a canvas bunk beside Heath during races and noted that the politician always had two Special Branch officers with him on dry land and that he appeared to have little interest in children at all.
Jersey police have confirmed that the late Conservative prime minister has emerged as a suspect in its inquiry into historical sexual abuse on the island.
Leah McGrath Goodman, an American reporter who worked in Jersey, told LBC radio this week that Heath ‘‘enjoyed using his yacht and would come to the island frequently. He would take children from care homes for a ride on the yacht and it was reported that some never came back.’’
Arnold was the navigator on Morning Cloud V in 1979 and 1980, by which time Margaret Thatcher had taken over as leader of the Conservative party and prime minister.
‘‘All the time he had his Special Branch. They were always there when he was brought off the boat. That’s worth emphasising,’’ Arnold from Horsham, West Sussex, said. ‘‘Those are not the actions of a man who wished to carry out clandestine activities.’’
Arnold said the tenman racing crew would stop off at Jersey for a night when returning from the annual yacht race across the Channel to Dinard.
‘‘The accommodation on racing yachts is pretty spartan. They are not cruising boats. They don’t have cabins and doors and staterooms and air conditioning and all the things you would enjoy on a big motorboat.
‘‘There was no privacy at all.’’
The Times
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