I’m very grateful to journalist Tim Tate for leaving this comment, quoted below, which has confirmed my suspicions about the provenance of The Daily Telegraph story, also quoted below, which alleges that Leon Brittan had been caught trying to smuggle indecent images of children into Dover while he had been an EU Commissioner in the late 1980s.

Tim Tate is on the byline of the original Daily Telegraph story

“Almost a year ago I interviewed a very senior detective who was handling the Brittan investigation. He was very clear that the Customs Officer (referred to above) had made a clear and credible statement about stopping Brittan at Dover, and seizing child pornography video tapes from him. The Customs Officer stated that he viewed the tapes and was able to describe what was on them.

That statement is – or should be – still held at the Metropolitan Police station from which the investigation was conducted.

I believe that it is essential that the historic child abuse enquiry – assuming it survives – is given a copy of the statement.” – Tim Tate

A senior Tory politician said to be part of a child sex ring was allegedly stopped by a customs officer with child pornography videos but got off scot-free, police have been told. The former MP was driving back to the UK via Dover when a customs officer pulled him over because he was “acting suspiciously”. The border guard, who is now retired, has told detectives that when he searched the MP’s car he found videotapes of children “clearly under the age of 12” taking part in sex acts. He passed the material on to his superiors, but the MP was never arrested or charged. The Telegraph