Heath sex assault claims include accusations from beyond the grave
A POLICE force investigated paedophile allegations against Sir Edward Heath made by the relatives of at least one dead person.
A report published today by Wiltshire Police following a two-year inquiry costing £1.5million is expected to include at least one claim effectively made from beyond the grave.
Critics of the Wiltshire Police investigation said last night it was “questionable” whether resources should have been spent investigating claims of abuse of a dead person by a man who himself died more than a decade ago.
The “closed summary” report is expected to contain more than 40 allegations of abuse against the former prime minister. About a quarter are understood to have been made by “third parties” – complainants who had not been abused themselves.
Police interviewed the widow of Stephen Maloney, who was a victim of sexual abuse during time spent in a notorious children’s home in south London, over claims Heath had assaulted him on his yacht, the Morning Cloud.
Kim Maloney has also claimed her husband was abused by Jimmy Savile, the disgraced television presenter and one of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles. Mrs Maloney has posted on Twitter of helping Wiltshire’s Operation Conifer with its inquiries. She has repeatedly tweeted the claims that Heath abused her husband such as: “My hubby went on so-called sailing holidays to jersey [sic] … Lots abused.”
At her home in Cardiff, Miss Maloney said: “He [Stephen] told me about the abuse about five years ago when we got together. He passed away four years ago and I felt it was my duty to go to the police.” Mrs Maloney handed to detectives a box of files, which included the Heath allegations.
Mr Maloney, who died aged 55 in 2014, was abused during stints in the notorious Shirley Oaks children’s home in south-east London. Raymond Stevenson, a spokesman for The Shirley Oaks Survivors Association, said: “We have spoken to Wiltshire Police about related matters.”
Peter Batey, a trustee of the Sir Edward Heath Foundation, said: “It is troubling that the police have been investigating claims from one dead person about another dead person. The allegations are ludicrous. But the details of times and dates have been withheld from us.” The report – as previously disclosed by The Daily Telegraph – will stop far short of concluding Heath was a paedophile but say that some of the allegations would have merited interviewing him.