Former MP and one-time shirt shop owner Harvey Proctor’s house raided by officers from Operation Midland
Former Conservative Member of Parliament and Monday Club member Harvey Proctor, 68, had to resign as a candidate in 1986 following his arrest and subsequent trial and conviction for gross indecency for taking part in spanking and cane beating male prostitutes aged between 17 and 21 in 1987. This week, Exaro News revealed that Proctor’s home on the Duke and Duchess of Rutland’s Belvoir Estate in Lincolnshire had recently been raided in connection with an investigation into historical child sex abuse.
Officers working on Operation Midland are said to have spent a day searching Proctor’s home and offices as part of their investigation into alleged child sex abuse in apartments in Dolphin Square, London, SW1. Operation Midland itself relates to alleged abuse by MPs and others and also claims relating to three boys allegedly murdered by a network of VIP paedophiles.
On standing down, Proctor initially ran a shirt making shop in Richmond, London but this was forced into liquidation in 2000. He became private secretary to the Duke of Rutland in 2003 and has also managed events at Belvoir Castle in the time since.
On Thursday morning, Mr Proctor spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and stated:
“I have never attended sex parties at Dolphin Square or anywhere else. I have not been part of any rent boy ring with Cabinet Ministers, other Members of Parliament or generals or the military”.
“I conducted my private life in a discreet manner. It wasn’t I who outed myself. It was the press who did an assortment of things to out me. They wanted to say I was a homosexual”.
“Of course there were offences committed. I didn’t know at the time I was committing those offences because the people concerned, who were actually under 21, said to me they were over 21”.
“… I was a discreet person, I was regarded in the House of Commons as a very independent Member of Parliament and a loner. The last thing I would dream of doing is talking to other Members of Parliament or Ministers or anyone else. It wasn’t that I was ashamed about being a homosexual, it was that I did not think it mattered a damn to the work I did on behalf of my constituents”.
“… I believe that the number of alleged victims grows by the day, the number of alleged perpetrators diminishes through death. That is a problem. It is certainly a problem for me. I suppose it is my problem that I am very much alive. I am sure that some of the allegations are true, but I am also sure that a lot of the allegations are pure and utter fantasy”.
“I noted in your report earlier on me that you tagged along that this investigation is supposedly investigating the alleged murders of three young gentlemen. I know nothing about that either”.
“I do not think I have been over-sensitive that there is an element of guilt by association in your report but I will let that pass”.
“The police wish to interview me and they talked in terms of that interview taking place in a matter of weeks. I asked for that interview to take place at the earliest opportunity”.
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