Harvey Proctor: A gay sex ring in Westminster? I don't believe itThe police say that I am not a suspect in the historic sexual abuse inquiry, yet they destroy my reputationIn the context of recent speculation and allegations on the internet,I write this to say that I am innocent of the allegations against meand I will maintain this stance until my dying breath.On Wednesday 4 March 2015, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/harvey-proctor-claims-we under a warrant investigating historical child sexual abuse, searchedmy house for 15 hours. I was told at 11pm that no statement would beissued to the press and my identity would not come out. That was not thecase.If not before, then within eight hours of the policeleaving my home, details of the raid were leaked to the national media.ExaroNews – an odd internet news agency – was tipped off before thepolice left my home. Mark Conrad, a journalist for the agency, wasphoning and emailing my office at 9.34pm – at least 90 minutes beforethe police left my house.During and immediately after the search,I volunteered to be interviewed by the Metropolitan Police concerningOperation Midland’s investigations relating to allegations from the1970s and Eighties.My solicitors – Messrs Sakhi and Gatrad ofSakhi Solicitors, Leicester – arranged for me to be interviewed onMonday 23 March 2015. The police initially confirmed that it wasconvenient and then cancelled the interview at short notice, due to“circumstances beyond [the officer’s] control”. The appointment wasrearranged for Tuesday 14 April 2015. It was through no fault of my ownthat on Thursday 9 April 2015 the police again cancelled the interview,scheduled for 14 April 2015. They have not contacted my solicitors since then.In an email to my solicitors, they referred to themselves as the “organisation”.Sothe “organisation” – strange term for the Metropolitan Police’s MurderSquad – has raided my house, searched it for 15 hours, removed mycommunications and computer equipment and many boxes of historicdocuments and other irrelevant material from the 1970s and Eighties,prompted me to retire from my job of 13 years and to leave my home. Theyhave ruined 28 years of my life’s rehabilitation after 1987 and theyare not prepared to meet me and interview me. They have said to mysolicitors, but not to the media, that I am not a suspect and theymerely wish for me to assist the police with their inquiries. In1987, Detective Chief Superintendent Drummond Marvin of Scotland Yard’sSerious Crime Squad was the officer in charge of my prosecution. Ipleaded guilty to four charges of gross indecency. Offences which,because of the changes in the law regarding the homosexual age ofconsent, are no longer offences.Chief Superintendent Marvinsubsequently wrote a book and sold his story to The Sun newspaper. Hewrote about three of his cases: Lord Lucan, Russell Harty and myself. Inthe article about me he stated for the first time, as far as I amaware, the felonious notion that there was a rent-boy ring atWestminster. If there was one, I was not aware of it, it was news to meand I was not part of it. Marvin’s article was wrong on this and onother matters. I have always tried to protect my privacy – notbecause I thought I was breaking the law, but because I consider sexualmatters to be private, except where they are illegal. Not just for mebut for everyone. I refuse to comment on these matters now save to sayanything and everything I have done has been consensual. But withalarming frequency, when I was visited by the police in 1987,journalists from the Sunday People were outside my flat. I havenot flaunted my sexuality. It is the press and the police who have timeand time again invaded my privacy. In 1987, the press wired a witnessfor sound and was sent into my apartment. The police trawled the gaybars of London, showing my photograph to all and sundry, asking: “Haveyou slept with this man?” Today the modern-day equivalent is for seniorpolice officers to go on the airways enticing so called “victims” tocome out of the woodwork, telling them, without even speaking to them,that they would be believed. Now, the guide to misinformation andthe oracle of disinformation is the internet. It is a totallyimpossible media with which to engage, as hundreds of thousands ofcomments appear daily, with no chance of rebuttal.At the behestof a weird assortment of alleged victims, ex-police officers, bishops,social workers, attention seekers and “nutters”, former, respectedpoliticians have had their reputations trashed without a shred ofevidence – Sir Leon Brittan, Sir Keith Joseph, Dr Rhodes Boyson andEnoch Powell to name but a few. They are dead; they cannot defendthemselves. I am alive; I can and I will.Enough is enough. Someone has to stand up and say the Emperor is wearing no clothes.So let me be straight with you the media, and through you, the police:* I have not murdered anyone.* I have not been involved with the sexual or other abuse of children or anyone else.* I have not visited the Elm Guest House in Rocks Lane, Barnes, London. I was not aware of its existence.* I have not attended sex parties at Dolphin Square, London.* I have not attended sex parties with other MPs or ministers.* I have not visited a so-called dungeon in Pimlico.* I have not abused anyone.* I have not attended sex parties during Conservative Party Conferences at Brighton or Blackpool and I am sure none took place.* I was not part of a Westminster rent-boy ring in the 1970s and Eighties. I cannot believe such a ring existed.* I have witnessed the growing paranoia among various police “organisations” with disbelief and disgust.wish to place on record my admiration for the work the uniformed bobbydoes and has done, and which I have seen at first hand in my oldconstituencies of Basildon and Billericay, in the London borough ofRichmond upon Thames during my work with the Chamber of Commerce, and atBelvoir Castle.The higher up the police command chain, however,the less I see to admire. For example, I find it incredible that asenior police officer has said on the media that a “victim’s” evidenceis “credible” before an investigation has been completed or aprosecution launched. It would not be acceptable in any other policeinvestigation and is outright prejudicial from the very outset to anyimpending investigation. So I know now the risk I am about totake. The risk of the “organisation” seeking out trivia and revenge toundermine me in response to what I am about to say to you; but heregoes.It’s time – with the spending on these enquiries approaching£100m – to say to the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions: * Put up or shut up.* Arrest me; charge me; try me.* If you have evidence against me, bring it on!To the Metropolitan Police commissioner and other chief policeofficers, I say: get a grip. Direct your “organisation’s” scarceresources to conquering current crime and address current law and orderissues. Redirect some of these scarce resources, for example, to theMissing People charity in East Sheen if you really care for missingpeople.Read more: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/westminster-paedophil To the media I say: use your investigative powers to analyse what youare told about historic sexual child abuse fairly and properly. *Finally, to the politicians, who are currently culling favour with theelectorate: what are you doing to redress the balance between thealleged victims who can keep their anonymity and the alleged abusers whocannot? When will innocent before being found guilty be more than just atotem of a supposedly liberal society? Who are the guardians of ourliberty now?And, in the end, why is all this happening ?Well,the only people deemed more unpopular than the media, journalists,police and politicians with the general public are paedophiles. So theyare all pursuing this issue to try to get on the good side of the peopleof this country and rehabilitate themselves from their past lapses.Ido not wish anyone to think I am just saying these things now. I mademy position clear – and with prescience – in an article I wrote for the London Evening Standard in December 1987. Inconclusion, I would like to thank my family, friends, colleagues andpeople I do not know and whom I have not met who have supported me inthese difficult days.To reiterate, I am innocent and deny any wrongdoing. I am a law-abiding citizen.Harvey Proctor was a Member of Parliament for Basildon and for Billericay between 1979 and 1987