A former weekly editor has claimed that ex-Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath was named in a paedophile dossier handed to him in 1984 before being seized by police.
Last year we reported claims by former Bury Messenger editor Don Hale that his newspaper’s office was raided by Special Branch after it began working on a story about politicians involved with a paedophile group.
Don had been handed a dossier by the late Labour MP and MEP Dame Barbara Castle listing a series of political figures who supported the Paedophile Information Exchange.
Yesterday he revealed that Sir Edward, left, had been among those named in the dossier.
He said yesterday: “When Barbara Castle came to see me in August 1984 within her dossier, she had several cuttings about ex-PM Ted Heath including one about Heath offering weekend trips for boys from Jersey on his yacht.
“It was all tied in with her claims about the Westminster paedo ring. The names related to people at the highest level.”
It was revealed yesterday that Jersey police are among five police forces now investigating allegations that the former Prime Minister was involved in child sex abuse.
Forces in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Kent as well as the Metropolitan Police are also looking into the sex abuse claims.
Don has previously claimed that when the Messenger attempted to obtain official reaction to some of the allegations made in Dame Barbara’s dossier, a high-level operation kicked into gear to silence the paper.
He claims Special Branch officers warned him of imprisonment if he failed to hand over the secret papers, saying any publication of the story could constitute a threat to national security.
Said Don: “I was sworn to secrecy by Special Branch at the risk of jail if I repeated any of the allegations.”
Former Surrey Comet editor Hilton Tims has since made similar claims, saying the Comet was warned it risked jeopardising national security after attempting to investigate allegations of child sex abuse involving prominent public figures at the Elm House guest house in South London.
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Heath died ten years ago and we’re hearing about this NOW?
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Attitudes have changed. In those days, we still believed in the Great and the Good, and even Don Hale would be scared of Special Branch. If even half of the senior politicians suspected were involved, it provided a tight ring at a high level whose tentacles of power reached a very, very long way. And to think, we were afraid of the Freemasons!
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Steerpike, surely the alleged victims deserve a hearing that was denied them years ago when the accused were powerful people protected by powerful people in places of authority.
It is simply natural justice or closure.
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I seem to recall I first heard stories of Heath from friends in Fleet Street in around 1977. It was at this time I also first heard the eccentric BBC Radio One DJ called Jimmy Sa-vile. Certainly seems the national press had more than a whiff of the stories, even back then.
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Our national press, so fond of crowing about their triumphs, let their readers down on this sordid stuff for decades. Where were they?
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I would hazard a guess that the owners of the various newspapers had something to do with the spiking of these stories. This as likely as not still goes on today if the subject of a story fails to fit the owner’s political agenda.
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Rollercoaster, having worked on the nationals for over two decades, these sordid stories were, and still are, legion. What stops them from reaching the front pages is (a) victims brave enough to come forward amid tremendous pressure from their more famous abusers, (b) equally brave editors/proprietors willing to stand up to the status quo, and most of all, (c) powerful lawyers/agents/politicians coming down like a ton of bricks at the merest whiff of scandal. Look at the BBC journalists who tried to expose Savile after he was dead — all now turned out on their ear. Many of my fellow scribblers would love nothing more than to expose the ‘sordid stuff’ that we all know goes on. Alas, doing so is a lot harder then most people think.
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The truth is that most high-profile paedophiles look exactly what they are.
Jimmy Savile, Sir Peter Hayman, Sir Cyril Smith and Leon Brittan had ‘kiddy fiddler’ stamped all over them in 208pt bold Gothic caps. They were clearly very peculiar and I wouldn’t have allowed any of them within a mile of any of my children.
Sir Edward Heath was also clearly an oddity, though I was prepared to believe he was simply asexual. However, any revelations of paedophilia would not come as a surprise.
Rolf Harris, I must admit, was a shock to me, but then I could only judge him by his public persona.
Generally speaking, nature provides its own warning system.
As my dad used to say: ‘Study the face – it tells the whole story.’
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thanks ex-hack. markmac makes a good point too.
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I’m not suggesting it’s old news; I’m asking why supposedly dedicated journalists sat on it. You might not be able to print it: but someone somewhere could. Stick a photocopy in a brown envelope and airmail it anonymously to the Washington Post, Paris Match, Stern – anywhere. Leave it in a pub. On a bus. Get it out there, for God’s sake. Just don’t do nothing with it for decades and then pop up when it’s too late telling us how you were in on the secret all those years as if that’s somehow creditable.
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Foggo, Daniel and Fellstrom, Carl. “Police demolish Downing campaigner’s case.” The Telegraph 23 February 2003
Foggo, Daniel. “Editor ‘invented facts’ to clear man in Bakewell Tart killing.” The Sunday Times 5 March 2006
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Hale, Don. “60s pop mogul reveals shock over child sex monster Jimmy Savile.” Sunday Mercury 4 May 2014
Terry Thornton is quoted as saying “The allegations against him came as a complete shock to me.”. Terry Thornton died 10 January 2010.
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