Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor denies child murder claims

The former Conservative MP for chose to reveal details of the allegations against him in a long prepared statement read out at a press conference in central London.

He said the claims – which include rape, torture and the murder of two young boys – would be “laughable” if they were not so serious, and called for the resignation of senior police officers who are investigating reports of child abuse by VIPs in the 1970s and 1980s.

The 68-year-old was MP for Billericay in 1987 when he admitted spanking and caning male prostitutes as young as 17 at his London flat following a story in the People tabloid. The age of consent for gay sex was 21 at the time but has since been lowered to 16.

Mr Proctor pleaded guilty to four acts of gross indecency with two rent boys and was fined £1,450.

The MP – a member of the right-wing Monday club who was well known for his views on restricting immigration from the Commonwealth – did not contest his seat at the 1987 general election.

He has now been interviewed twice by detectives from Operation Midland, an investigation into historic allegations that boys were murdered by a paedophile ring comprising members of the Westminster elite.

Mr Proctor said he wanted to go public with the allegations, made by an anonymous complainant who has been given the pseudonym Nick, to help clear his name.

He quoted at length from police documents outlining the claims made by “Nick”, who says he was the victim of serious sexual abuse by a group of men between 1975 and 1984.

Murder claims

They include the allegation that Mr Proctor personally stabbed, raped and strangled a boy to death at a central London house in 1980. He is also said to have taken part in the rape and fatal beating of a second boy at another London address a year or two later.

A third boy is also said to have been deliberately run over on the orders of the paedophile ring.

There are also allegations of rape and other abuse, which “Nick” said took place at locations including Dolphin Square, Pimlico, the Carlton Club (the Conservative club in St James’s) and the home of former Tory Prime Minister Edward Heath.

As well as Heath, Mr Proctor said the complainant alleges that ex-Tory Home Secretary Leon Brittan and two former heads of MI5 and MI6 – all now dead – were among men who abused him at parties in London.

But he said he and Heath had “despised” each other and the former PM would never have invited him to his home, where he would have been surrounded by “CCTV, housekeeper, private secretary, chauffeur, police and private detectives”.

Mr Proctor added: “If it was not so serious, it would be laughable. It is so farfetched as to be unbelievable. It is unbelievable because it is not true. My situation has transformed from Kafka-esque bewilderment to black farce incredulity.”

He went on: “I denied all and each of the allegations in turn and in detail and categorised them as false and untrue and, in whole, an heinous calumny.

“They amount to just about the worst allegations anyone can make against another person including, as they do, multiple murder of children, their torture, grievous bodily harm, rape and sexual child abuse.

“I am completely innocent of all these allegations. I am a homosexual. I am not a murderer. I am not a paedophile or pederast.

“Let me be frank: I pleaded guilty to four charges of gross indecency in 1987 relating to the then age of consent for homosexual activity. Those offences are no longer offences as the age of consent has dropped from 21 to 18 to 16.

“What I am being accused of now is a million miles away from that consensual activity.”

Savile denial

He said police had asked him whether he knew Jimmy Savile, who “Nick” said attended some of the parties where he was abused, or had been to Elm Guest House, a bed and breakfast in Barnes, south-west London, where abuse is said to have taken place.

He denied knowing Savile and said: “I am sorry to have to disappoint the fantasists on the internet but I did not visit Elm Guest House. I was unaware of its existence.”

Mr Proctor added: “I have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. I appeal to any witness who truthfully can place me at any of the former homes of Edward Heath or Leon Brittan at any time to come forward now.

I appeal to any witness who can truthfully say I committed any of these horrible crimes to come forward now. Harvey Proctor

“I appeal to any witness who can truthfully say I committed any of these horrible crimes to come forward now.”

He went on: “The Police involved in Operation Midland are in a cleft stick of their own making. They are in a quandary. Support the “victim” – however ludicrous his allegations – or own up that they got it disastrously wrong but risk the charge of a cover-up. What do I think should happen now?

“Either I should be arrested, charged and prosecuted for murder and these awful crimes immediately so I can start the process of ridiculing these preposterous allegations in open court.

“Or ‘Nick’ should be stripped of his anonymity and prosecuted for wasting police time and money, making the most foul of false allegations and seeking to pervert the course of justice.”

In December last year Det Supt Kenny McDonald from Operation Midland said he believed the allegations made by “Nick” about abuse at the hands of a paedophile ring were “credible and true”.

‘Witch hunt’

The former MP is also calling for senior officers to resign, an independent investigation into Operation Midland, and an apology from Labour MPs who have used parliamentary privilege to make claims about a Westminster child abuse ring, although they did not name him as a suspect.

Mr Proctor said: “The paranoid police have pursued a homosexual witch hunt on this issue egged on by a motley crew of certain sections of the media and press and a number of Labour members of parliament and a ragbag of internet fantasists.

“There are questions to ask about what kind of police force do we have in Britain today. How can it be right for the police to act in consort with the press with routine tip-offs of house raids, impending arrests and the like?

“Anonymity is given to anyone prepared to make untruthful accusations of child sexual abuse whilst the alleged accused are routinely fingered publicly without any credible evidence first being found. This is not justice. It is an abuse of power and authority.”