A vulnerable child vanished after going on Sir Edward Heath's yacht but police ignored it, it was alleged today.

Linda Corby, 61, claims she watched 11 children board the then prime minister's boat Morning Cloud when it docked in St Helier, Jersey, but a few hours later only ten walked off.

Mrs Corby says the children, aged between six and 11, were from the Jersey care home Haute de la Garenne, where a paedophile ring targeted young residents for decades.

She claims she and Jersey senator Ralph Vibert, who has now died, were 'warned' about Sir Edward and then watched in horror as they saw one child was missing.

Disappearance: Concerns were raised today after a woman says she told police a child vanished after going on Sir Edward Heath's yacht in Jersey, but police did not investigate

She told the Daily Mirror: 'We watched as a group of boys from the home got on. They were in shorts and T-shirts and looked as if they were on a day trip. We counted them back but one boy was missing.

'Perhaps he was dropped off somewhere else. But it was suspicious'.

She and Mr Vibert went to police but she claims that they were told not to investigate the disappearance by 'someone above'.

She added: 'Back then the police were controlled by the defence committee so we assumed that was who told them to leave it alone'.

Jersey Police, which is conducting a long-running probe into Jimmy Savile’s child sex attacks on the islands, has now revealed it also investigating the late Conservative leader.

The authorities are still struggling to come to terms with the scale of abuse exposed at the notorious Haute de la Garenne childrens’ home.

In June they said officers were probing the activities of 45 suspects, some of whom are dead or as yet unidentified, with 13 ‘people of public prominence’.

At least seven police forces are now carrying out Heath investigations after Gloucestershire Police yesterday said it had received an allegation and Thames Valley Police said it had ‘received information’.

Claims: Linda Corby, 61, who was in her teens at the time, says she and a Jersey senator counted 11 children going on board in St Helier, pictured, but only ten came back

Channel Island: Haut de la Garenne, the former children's home on the island of Jersey, where police believe child abuse was carried out by well known figures. The investigation now involves Sir Ted Heath

Detectives in Wiltshire, Kent, Jersey, Hampshire and London are also looking at abuse claims linked to Sir Edward.

And it also emerged that an eighth force, North Yorkshire, is checking its records to see if there is any link between Sir Edward and a notorious local paedophile known as 'King Cornet'.

Claims: Brothel Madam 'Ling-Ling' in London yesterday, who says the rich and powerful bribed her to stay silent about their sex lives

A photo emerged of him emerged of him meeting Peter Jaconelli.

Jaconelli, a friend of Jimmy Savile who would pick up boys together in a pink Rolls Royce, was suspected of abusing 35 victims as part of a paedophile ring in Scarborough, where he was mayor.

Police said the former ice cream boss and Mayor of the resort, who died aged 73 in 1999, would have faced a string of charges if he was still alive.

The brothel keeper at the centre of the Sir Edward Heath paedophile scandal yesterday claimed that politicians and police had tried to buy her silence.

But she vowed: ‘I will write a book and I will name them all.’

Madam Ling-Ling said parcels of money had been sent to her in prison ‘telling me not to talk’.

She said she was sent cash after being jailed for brothel-running in Salisbury, Wiltshire – a mile from the ex-prime minister’s home.

The Filipina grandmother, real name Myra Ling-Ling Forde, said she did not know who sent the money but was sure it was to keep her quiet.

Forde, 67, has been accused of threatening to expose Sir Edward as a paedophile. The police watchdog is investigating whether her threat led to the withdrawal of prostitution charges against her in 1992. She was later jailed twice, in 1995 and 2009.

Forde said she knew politicians and celebrities in the 1990s when she ran brothels in Salisbury and London. She told the Mail: ‘I ran a brothel and I’ve been convicted. When I was in prison, there was a lot of money that was sent. I don’t know where it was coming from. There was no name.’

Asked if she believed it was from her former clients, she said: ‘Oh yes. Telling me not to talk about them.

‘It came in the post. Sometimes I got £50 here, £50 there, £100 there … but you know, it was no name. The prison don’t like to give it to me because it’s got no name. So it wasn’t given to me.’

Claim: The accusation emerged after it was revealed police are being investigated over claims they covered up child sex allegations against the former Tory leader (pictured alongside paedophile Jimmy Savile)

Forde, 67, has been accused of threatening to expose Sir Edward (pictured with Cyril Smith) as a paedophile

New inquiry: Police are investigating links between Sir Edward Heath and paedophile mayor of Scarborough Pater Jaconelli, known as 'King Cornet', pictured together meeting in the early 1970s

Speaking outside her north-west London flat, she said she believed the money was sent by ‘a couple of politicians, a couple of policemen’, insisting: ‘I don’t have to name them.’

Forde refused five times to confirm whether she had met Sir Edward, but said: ‘He was a very nice man. But he’s dead now. I can’t say anything.

‘One day I will write a story. One day I will tell you. One day I will tell the truth.’ Forde lives in a housing association flat with a friend. She walks friends’ dogs and acts as a ‘counsellor’, neighbours said.

Her solicitor has denied she had any ‘involvement with Ted Heath’ or ‘knowledge of any misconduct on his part’.