‘Remorse’ of police chief over abuse appeal at Heath home

THE police chief investigating the Sir Edward Heath abuse claims is said to have accepted he made a mistake in launching the inquiry outside the former prime minister’s home.

Mike Veale, Wiltshire Police’s chief constable, is now facing growing pressure to apologise in public for the stunt.

The appeal for ‘victims’ to come forward, made at the Grade II-listed property in Salisbury in 2015, led to dozens of allegations against the late Sir Edward. The two-year police inquiry cost £1.5million.

Mr Veale is thought to have privately admitted the appeal was a mistake and is understood to be considering whether to include an apology in a summary report of the investigation, which will be published on October 5. More than 40 people came forward to make child sex abuse claims against Sir Edward, who died in 2005.

Mr Veale’s report will say seven of the alleged victims are ‘credible’ and describe the same pattern of behaviour by their ‘abuser’, according to Whitehall sources. However other evidence cannot be relied upon, including that of the fantasist known as ‘Nick’, whose false claims of a VIP paedophile ring at Westminster sparked a major police inquiry.

Lincoln Seligman, Sir Edward’s godson, said it was time Mr Veale made a public apology.

He said: ‘It was a terrible way of besmirching his reputation without any evidence.’

Wiltshire Police declined to comment on claims Mr Veale regretted the appeal. A spokesman said the force had responded to ‘most if not all of the concerns from the public when appropriate to do so’.

‘Besmirched his reputation’