Investigators say former PM would have been interviewed about claims he sexually abused children if he were still alive

A police report has said there was reason to suspect that Sir Edward Heath, Britain’s seventh postwar prime minister, carried out a string of sex attacks over a span of decades.



The report concludes that the allegations, including the rape of a male child sex worker aged 11 and sexual assault against four other children and two adults, would have met the legal threshold for police to interview Heath under criminal caution had he still been alive.

The police said nothing should be inferred from their findings – after a total of 40 allegations – about the guilt or innocence of Heath, who died in 2005.

The main allegations against Ted Heath Read more

A police chief who oversaw the inquiry told the Guardian that a series of 26 alleged crimes, many against children, would be formally recorded in official law enforcement databases with Heath named as the suspect.

Because of the rules under which officers were operating, the conclusion that there was enough reason to suspect Heath to merit interviewing him over at least seven claims was as much as the alleged victims could have got, said assistant chief constable Paul Mills, of Wiltshire police.

The police report says: “Further to a proportionate investigation, reasonable grounds exist that, if Sir Edward Heath had been alive today, he would have been interviewed under caution regarding his suspected involvement in an offence.”

Of the seven alleged offences deemed most credible by police, one was alleged to have happened while he was a cabinet minister in 1964 and another in 1967 after he became leader of the Conservative party. The first claim, the rape of a boy aged 11 in London, is alleged to have happened in 1961. Another two claims are alleged 31 years later, around 1992, years after Heath’s time as prime minister from 1970 to 1974.

It was also alleged that Heath carried out crimes in 1962, against a boy aged 10 in a public place in Kent after a chance encounter. In 1964, when Heath is alleged to have committed an offence against a boy aged 15, Heath was secretary of state for trade and industry. Police said no evidence was found of a coverup or failure to investigate Heath while he was still alive.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Edward Heath giving a victory wave as he arrives at 10 Downing Street in 1970. Photograph: Frank Barratt/Getty Images

There was some anger among senior politicians over the findings. Michael Heseltine, who knew Heath, said the report was devoid of evidence. “I am afraid that there isn’t any evidence; there is just speculation and allegations,” Lord Heseltine told Sky News.

The two-year investigation was carried out by Wiltshire police, , whose Salisbury home is in their area, on behalf of 14 forces that received allegations about Heath.

The Wiltshire chief constable, Mike Veale, who is facing calls for him to resign over the £1.5m pursuit of a dead man, said the investigation showed police would pursue serious allegations no matter how powerful the suspect. “This watershed moment regarding investigations of people connected to the establishment should not be underestimated,” he said.

There has been an explosion in reporting of abuse claims to police after the Jimmy Savile scandal, in which the entertainer was found to have got away with hundreds of offences. The government and the police have faced claims first of covering up alleged abuse and then of over-reaction in the pursuit of high-profile figures over baseless allegations – such as Scotland Yard’s Operation Midland, which was found by an inquiry in 2016 to have fallen for lies from an alleged fantasist.

The Wiltshire investigation into Heath, after decades of rumours about the former prime minister’s activities, was an attempt to establish the facts. Debate will rage about whether it has and whether the state can investigate the most serious claims about those who have held its highest office.

The Guardian understands that there is no corroborative evidence – forensic or DNA evidence – for the seven claims judged most credible by police. The findings are based on an assessment of the accounts from those who say Heath attacked them. It is not unusual for a sexual assault case, let alone one dating back decades, to come down to the word of the complainant, but the key decisions in the investigation were checked and approved by a panel of senior detectives and a panel of non-police experts.

Veale said: “We can only go where the evidence takes us.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mike Veale, the Wiltshire police chief constable. Photograph: Wiltshire police

The report demolishes key defences used by Heath’s supporters which, they say, mean he could not have been an abuser. It says he was often without police protection and was not asexual. The report says: “Two witnesses, who have not disclosed abuse, provided evidence that he was sexually active with consenting adults during parts of his life.”

James Gray, the MP for North Wiltshire and a Heath supporter, said: “My strong instinct is that he was entirely asexual, neither gay nor straight nor a paedophile. He was none of those things.

“Most of the time he was escorted by close protection officers and he was a high-profile individual. I’m plain that these allegations are nonsensical, not true.”

The Crown Prosecution Service will not give advice to police on whether the evidence they have gathered against a deceased suspect would be enough to prosecute. Wiltshire said they thus would not give an opinion on Heath’s guilt or innocence because that was not their role.

A scrutiny panel that examined Wiltshire’s decision-making during the investigation included an ethicist and a human rights lawyer. It said: “The investigation was fair, sensitive and rigorous with regards to both victims and suspects.”

Veale apologised for an appeal for complainants to come forward being made outside Heath’s house in August 2015, which critics said would encourage false claims.

Edward Heath: whiff of scandal still surrounds enigmatic leader Read more

Veale said the inquiry found no evidence of a coverup or that a blind eye was turned to Heath’s activities by agents of the state. The inquiry team spoke to Heath’s police protection officers over the years and the security services.

But Veale said police could not investigate thoroughly enough, because it was beyond their remit, to satisfy or rebut claims of a coverup.

The report released on Thursday was for public consumption. A fuller version will go to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, where it will most likely be considered as part of an investigation into whether abuse by prominent people was covered up.

Ken MacDonald, the former director of public prosecutions, said the force should be ashamed. “The bar for interview is low – in most investigations as low as the police want it to be, and in the case of a dead man virtually non-existent. They are covering their backs at the expense of a dead man. Shame on them.”

Two other peers, David Hunt, who chairs the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, and Robert Armstrong, a former cabinet secretary and parliamentary private secretary to Heath while he was prime minister, said: “The Wiltshire police report is profoundly unsatisfactory because it neither justifies nor dispels the cloud of suspicion. As Sir Edward is dead, justice requires that there should be a quasi-judicial process as a substitute for the judicial process.”