Police-raid trauma of Lord Brittan’s widow
Leon Brittan’s widow has spoken for the first time of being left on the verge of a “nervous breakdown” by a police investigation into false claims of a Westminster paedophile ring. Lady Brittan, 79, said the Met Police raid on her home in 2015, two months after her husband’s death, had left her “traumatised with shock” and “unable to move”, in a BBC documentary to be broadcast on Monday. The Met was forced to apologise to Lady Brittan and others, and pay substantial damages.
LEON BRITTAN’S widow has spoken publicly for the first time of being left on the verge of a “nervous breakdown” by a police investigation into false claims of a Westminster paedophile ring.
Lady Brittan, 79, said the Metropolitan Police raid on her home had left her “traumatised with shock” and “unable to move” in an interview for a BBC documentary.
Lady Brittan has laid bare some of the hurt she suffered as a result of false allegations made by Carl Beech, a fantasist and convicted paedophile.
In the documentary – The Unbelievable Story of Carl Beech – the son of Field Marshal Lord Bramall also complains of the ludicrous allegations made against his father which he described as “humiliating”.
The programme, to be broadcast next Monday, will spark criticism over its failure to even name Tom Watson, the Labour MP, whose claims of a VIP paedophile ring operating in Westminster helped to spark the police inquiry. Victims of Beech will also be upset at the sympathetic portrayal of a journalist with a discredited news website, which helped to propagate his lies.
The London and Yorkshire homes of Lord Brittan, the former home secretary, were raided in March 2015 less than two months after he died from cancer, leaving his widow to deal with the police inquiry and intrusive and distressing media reporting.
Lady Brittan told the BBC documentary maker how her life was turned upside down by the raid at 8.30 in the morning when she had a “knock on the door” and was met by “two police officers outside and they said they had to search the house”.
She said: “I was traumatised with shock like a fly stuck to a flypaper. I couldn’t move.”
She went on: “I think if I’d not had a very good set of friends and supporters, you do begin to wonder whether you wouldn’t have had a nervous breakdown or be really quite ill as a result of the stress.”
She told of her astonishment at the items removed by officers. “The stuff that was taken was shown to me and all
I remember was saying I cannot think why you are taking these videos – because these were videos of Inspector Morse and things like that,” she said.
“l wish it had never happened,” she added. “Life would have been very different if it had never happened. These appalling allegations and all the aftermath and the press and maybe staring in the street, who knows? You have to have an enormous sense of inner reserves just to get you through it.”
Sheila Walton, the couple’s housekeeper at their Yorkshire home, said: “The thing that hurt the lady most more than anything was they took his slippers.”
Nick Bramall, Lord Bramall’s son, spoke of his dismay at the treatment meted out to his late parents. His mother was suffering from dementia when the police raided the family’s home in Hampshire.
Lady Bramall died a few months later not knowing her husband was the victim of Beech’s false allegations. Mr Bramall also said his father’s final years were dogged by the accusations.
“It was humiliating; an affront to everything he stood for: duty, service to the nation. It was incomprehensible really,” he said.
The Met was forced to apologise to Lady Brittan, Lord Bramall and to Harvey Proctor, the former Conservative MP, and pay substantial damages.
Beech had claimed to witness three murders by the VIP ring that he also claimed included Edward Heath and the former heads of MI5 and MI6.
Beech, 52, was jailed for 18 years in July 2019 for perverting the course of justice, fraud and child sex crimes including making indecent photographs of children.
The Unbelievable Story of Carl Beech will be broadcast on BBC Two on Monday, Aug 24.