Is the Ted Heath Allegation a One Off?

“Metropolitan police detectives have spoken to a man who came forward more than two years ago and claims he was a victim of Heath when he was a teenager. Police have launched a public appeal for victims to come forward after allegations emerged of child sexual abuse by the late former prime minister, Sir Edward Heath. The appeal was made as the police watchdog announced that it was investigating claims that officers dropped a prosecution against a man in the 1990s after he threatened to name Heath as a child abuser. The Guardian has also learned that detectives have spoken to a man, now middle-aged, who says he was abused as a child by Heath on several occasions.”

Is this an isolated allegation or are there more?

The honest truth is that we do not know, because we do not have any details. There is allegedly at least one allegation – a male who was abused on more than one occasion, so are there more?

I have been dealing with child abuse cases for the last 20 years. The investigations always start with one allegation and then grow to more than one, particularly if the abuser was exposed to children on a regular basis over a long period of time such as in a care home, school, or religious setting.

If I was a betting man, and I’m not, I would say that that this one allegation will grow into more, particularly as the story has had such wide coverage. We will see…

The typical profile of a child abuser is akin to the behaviour of an adolescent male who moves from girl to girl whilst he is experimenting with relationships. Why?

• There can be nothing permanent about a relationship between an adult and a child because of its nature.
• It happens in a clandestine manner, perhaps hurriedly.
• Sex Offenders have different preferences for age, so when the child becomes older they lose interest.

So child sex offenders often move from child to child, sometimes simply for sexual gratification.

Why did the Prosecution not proceed in the 1990’s

1. We have heard how the police were “encouraged” not to prosecute Cyril Smith.
2. We know that several attempts were made to prosecute Greville Janner in the 1990’s and 2000’s but at each point the cases did not proceed.
3. We have heard how a senior officer of government, Sir Anthony Duff discouraged the prosecution of a senior MP – I talked about it in my  “Why did the government cover up child abuse by Ministers and Members of Government?” blog
4. A head of steam is now building up to suggest that government feared that if senior public officials/ministers were prosecuted then there could be a “breach of national security”, and the destabilisation of society as we knew it then.