Harvey Proctor calls for Tom Watson to be sacked and says ‘Parliament would be a much healthier place without him’ after the Labour deputy leader refused to apologise for his role in bungled VIP sex abuse probe
- Damning report documented how Mr Watson pressurised police to investigate
- Sir Richard Henriques said there was ‘no doubt’ Mr Watson believed Carl Beech
- The deputy Labour leader has refused to apologise for his role in bungled probe
- Now one of those investigated, Harvey Proctor, 72, has slammed Mr Watson
Harvey Proctor has called for Tom Watson to be sacked after the Labour deputy leader refused to apologise for his role in a bungled Westminster paedophile ring probe.
A damning report by a former High Court judge documented how Mr Watson put huge pressure on police with his interest in the probe.
Sir Richard Henriques said there was ‘no doubt’ that Mr Watson believed the allegations by fantasist Carl Beech, known as ‘Nick’.
Beech is now serving an 18-year jail term for fabricating a series of claims of rape, torture and murder by innocent people from the military, security services and politics after being sentenced in July.
Mr Proctor (pictured in July) has called for action to be taken against the Labour deputy leader – who has refused to apologise for fuelling a ‘witch-hunt’ against him and others
A damning report by a former High Court judge documented how Mr Watson (pictured earlier this year) put huge pressure on police with his interest in the probe
The investigation saw the homes of D-Day veteran Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan’s widow Lady Diana Brittan and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor raided on the basis of Beech’s false claims.
Mr Proctor has now called for action to be taken against the Labour deputy leader – who has refused to apologise for fuelling a ‘witch-hunt’ against him and others.
‘Tom Watson should be sacked as deputy leader and resign his seat. The Houses of Parliament would be a much healthier place without him,’ he told The Sun.
Mr Watson said yesterday’s report had ‘multiple inaccuracies’ about him and did not make clear letters from him were received by police after they had already interviewed former home secretary Leon Brittan.
The report quoted an article from 2015 revealing how Mr Watson spoke to two people including Beech who claimed he was abused by Lord Brittan and had been attacked more than a dozen times as a boy.
Sir Richard Henriques said the case should have been dropped at the very latest after the Tory politician was interviewed under caution.
But he said officers may have been ‘in a state of panic’ over a letter sent by the Labour deputy leader on House of Commons notepaper. Scotland Yard said the force was not aware of the letter at the time a review of the case was conducted.
Carl Beech is now serving an 18-year jail term for fabricating a series of claims of rape, torture and murder. He is pictured in a mugshot (left) and being interviewed in January 2016 (right)
The report said: ‘There can be no doubt that Tom Watson believed ‘Nick’ and it should be stated that he had previously provided the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) with information leading to convictions in other cases.
‘His interest, however, in both Operation Midland and Operation Vincente created further pressure upon MPS officers.’
Sir Richard also said that the main cause of the Metropolitan Police’s disastrous probe was ‘poor judgment and a failure to accurately evaluate known facts’.
He added that a ‘major contributing factor was the culture that ‘victims’ must be believed’ in his findings, more of which were published by the force yesterday.
Sir Richard, whose report released yesterday runs to 391 pages, was called in after 16-month Operation Midland ended in 2016 without a single arrest.
The force published the findings into Operation Vincente – the investigation into an allegation that Lord Brittan had raped a 19-year-old woman in 1967 – for the first time yesterday.
A list of priorities drawn up by one of the investigating officers included ‘Tom Watson – review how we can engage with him’.
Sir Richard wrote: ‘I have concluded that the errors in this investigation were largely attributable to the fact that Lord Brittan was a prominent person and there was a desire amongst senior officers to reassure the public that if they come forward the police will investigate a complaint thoroughly no matter whom the allegation is against.
‘I have concluded also that investigating officers were fearful of media criticism and public cynicism and sought protection from it by the Crown Prosecution Service.’
Mr Watson repeated Beech’s false claims of a ‘powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10’, of which police later found no evidence, in October 2012
The report said officers tried to persuade the CPS to give pre-charge advice three times, and on each occasion the case should have been dropped.
‘The officers responsible were under a positive duty to make a decision themselves and failed to do so,’ Sir Richard wrote.
Lord Brittan died aged 75 before he was publicly cleared of the allegation. He was also a suspect in Operation Midland, which centred around Beech’s false claims.
Daniel Janner, the son of the late Labour MP Lord Janner who was one of Beech’s victims, accused Mr Watson of being ‘partially responsible’.
He claimed Mr Watson – who raised the matter in Parliament after speaking to Beech – ‘applied pressure on the police and should hang his head in shame and resign’.
After the report’s release yesterday, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve House was asked about Mr Watson’s role in pressuring police.
He said: ‘I won’t refer directly to Tom Watson, I think you would have to speak to him more about that.
‘But I think it’s quite clear at the time of this there was a significant amount of pressure on a lot of different public bodies in relation to not taking seriously allegations around this sort of assault.
‘That does not excuse the mistakes that we made in these circumstances but I think it explains some of what went on and some of the thinking that we had, and it goes back to the issues of belief, I think.’
But Mr Watson said: ‘The report doesn’t make clear the key point that Lord Brittan was interviewed by the police before they received my letter.
‘Former Deputy Assistant Commissioner (Steve) Rodhouse has been clear that the letter did not influence the investigation, and ex-Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders publicly confirmed that my letter was not received by Police until after the interview.
‘It therefore cannot be argued that it was pressure from me that led to Lord Brittan being interviewed.’
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