[Former British PM] Edward Heath investigation: what you need to know
By Oliver Wright From The Independent UK
What are the allegations against Sir Edward Heath?
The allegations fall into three separate but linked investigations:
The first is that a brothel owner in Wiltshire – named last night as Filipino madam Myra Ling-Ling Forde – had evidence that Sir Edward was a child abuser and used that information to get a criminal investigation into her dropped in the 1990s.
The second is that the former PM was part of a VIP child abuse group that is said to have operated around Westminster in the 1960s and 70s.
The third allegation centres around a children’s home in Jersey where children are known to have suffered sexual and physical abuse. Police on the island are investigating if Sir Edward, a keen yachtsman, ever visited the home or took children on board his boat.
On Tuesday, following the publicity surrounding the initial claims, Kent Police announced that it had also received an allegation of abuse relating to the 1960s.
If Sir Edward Heath was such a prolific child abuser why are we only hearing about these allegations now?
Unsubstantiated – and sometimes wild – allegations against the former prime minister have circulated on the internet for years with some even claiming that Sir Edward pushed for Britain to join the European Common Market because he was being blackmailed over abuse claims.
What changed this week was the news of the new police investigations.
So what should we read into these new police investigations?
Null
Probably not too much at this stage. As we know now historically the police failed to take these type of allegations seriously and ignored or possibly covered up child abuse claims made against prominent individuals such as Cyril Smith and Jimmy Savile.
That is no longer the case and all such historical allegations are now being forensically examined, even if the evidence is flimsy.
It is also worth remembering that publicity can elicit both genuine and false allegations. The difficult job for the police is assessing these.
Just because Sir Edward is being investigated does not mean he is guilty or that the evidence against him would ever stand up in court.
So does that mean he’s innocent?
Not necessarily. While friends and former colleagues have rallied to his defence the Savile and Smith cases show that people once considered pillars of the community got away with horrific crimes for years.
It is possible that Heath may have been a child abuser and got away with it until now.
But if he was a child abuser surely – as a prime minister – someone would have known about it? Isn’t that a conspiracy too far?
It is certainly far-fetched to suggest that Sir Edward was abusing children in Downing Street or indeed as prime minister at all given the security detail he would have had at the time.
Also given his status as a “confirmed bachelor” it is likely that he would have been subtly investigated by MI5 long before he became prime minister.
For more on this story go to: http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/edward-heath-investigation-what-you-need-to-know–W1YtaNIbVl
Related story:
Pedophile ring of British elites rivals that of Catholic priests?!
By Anthony L Hall from Caribbean News Now
Here, in part, is how I commented on reports that Jimmy Savile, the British Dick Clark, was a serial child sexual abuser:
Far more troubling, though, was a report on Monday by Panorama, the BBC’s own critically acclaimed current affairs program, which left no doubt that Savile was part of a pedophile ring that included other stars as well as top executives at the BBC — some of whom may still be on the job … and still preying on children.
Remarkably, the British media had been reporting on this pedophile ring for years to no effect.
But, as indicated, reports that it included (and may still include) celebrated stars like Savile sent shockwaves throughout England. Reports now that it also included (and may still include) respected politicians like former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath have left the country in complete shock and dismay:
Five police forces are investigating claims of historical child sexual abuse involving former PM Sir Edward Heath [including a claim that he raped a 12-year-old boy in the 1960s]…
The BBC understands Wiltshire Police halted an inquiry into a brothel keeper in the 1990s after she said Sir Edward was involved in child sexual abuse…
The IPCC said on Monday that it would look at whether Wiltshire officers failed to pursue allegations of child abuse made against Sir Edward, who was Conservative prime minister from 1970 to 1974.
(BBC, August 4, 2015)
British authorities are clearly making much ado about these investigations. But I am constrained to wonder if they too were not at least complicit in covering up Heath’s pedophile crimes while he was still alive.
He died of pneumonia at his home in 2005, having avoided even a hint of scandal, let alone prosecution. He was 89. (Savile was equally protected, and also went to his grave in 2011 without being held to account. He was 85.)
Frankly, I’m not sure what British authorities hope to achieve by appealing to “dozens” of alleged victims to come forward. Perhaps they’re trying to assuage their institutional guilt by helping claimants discover evidence to sue Heath’s estate for monetary damages.
But I suspect no amount of money can compensate for allowing him to get away scot-free. Think, by contrast, of the many victims of pedophile priests who have been able to see their abusers fall from grace in recent years; notwithstanding that, in far too many cases, the Church paid for the crime, and the priest did no time.
Not to mention that Heath’s accusers might have to outnumber Bill Cosby’s before most Britons begin believing their stories….
All the same, something remains truly rotten in the state of England. It stems from a perversely hallowed tradition of sexual hazing among the former “public” schoolboys who have dominated British politics for centuries.
This is why nobody should be surprised that they turned the seat of government into a parliament of sexual deviants (like the bra-wearing, coke-snorting, whore-shagging Lord Sewel I wrote about just last week); or that the British establishment has covered up the crimes of as many pedophile politicians over the years as the Catholic Church has of pedophile priests.
Another case in point:
For nearly two decades, the man known as ‘Big Cyril’ waddled about the United Kingdom’s parliament, all bombast and waggling fingers…
He also, according to hundreds of allegations since his 2010 death, was a pedophile of historic proportions.
That fact was one of many in a dossier prepared 30 years ago by a crusading member of Parliament who warned of a powerful pedophile ring of ‘big, big names.’
(The Washington Post, July 7, 2014)
Accordingly, the five police forces now investigating allegations against Heath would do well to divert some of their efforts towards apprehending members of this pedophile ring who can still be held to account.
IMAGE: Author Anthony L. Hall is a Bahamian who descends from the Turks and Caicos Islands. He is an international lawyer and political consultant – headquartered in Washington DC – who also publishes a current events weblog, The iPINIONS Journal, at http://ipjn.com