An innocent man ruined by the Met

Embattled metropolitan Police commissioner Sir bernard Hogan-Howe is due to meet former tory MP Harvey Proctor tomorrow. Proctor was wrongly accused of child rape and murder in the Westminster VIP paedophile ring inquiry, and Hogan-Howe is finally making a long overdue apology in person.

after 15 police officers raided his cottage last year on the duke of Rutland’s estate at belvoir Castle in leicestershire, Proctor lost his position as the duke’s private secretary as well as the grace-and-favour cottage that went with it.

the officers’ only evidence was spurious claims from a witness called ‘Nick’, who has been exposed as a fantasist and is now facing calls to be prosecuted. ‘I lost my job and my home,’ Proctor told me yesterday. ‘It has been devastating, and unrepairable. I have received death threats and am destitute. I have no money.’

He has been relying on friends, first staying with some in Spain and now living with others in britain. an appeal has been set up on a Just Giving page by his friends in the tory Party.

‘If there were any justice, the metropolitan Police ought to be paying compensation for the trauma they have put this innocent man through. Hopefully, they will. but until they do, it’s up to others to help Harvey through some very difficult months,’ reads a statement on the appeal’s page.

Hogan-Howe, who is quitting next February, seven months early, should hang his head in shame.