Latest news with #falseaccusations
Times
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Times
Wrongly accused of child murder, he's still seeking justice 10 years on
While Harvey Proctor is trying not to cry, I'm trying not to be sick. The 78-year-old former Conservative MP is driving us, very jerkily, down winding country lanes to his home on the Belvoir Castle estate in Leicestershire and recalling how he was falsely accused of child murder and sex abuse ten years ago. 'Please ignore me if I get emotional,' he says, welcoming me into the cottage he shares with his partner, Terry. The house comes with the job: Proctor is private secretary to the Duke of Rutland, who lives alongside his ex-wife, the Duchess of Rutland, in the 356-room castle down the road. Hardly cheek by jowl. It is 11.15am, so I decline my host's offer of an alcoholic drink. Proctor, who was once described by Private Eye as 'so far-right as to be somewhere in the North Sea', is dressed head to toe in shades of Tory blue. We have tea in his book-lined sitting room. Through the windows are bucolic views of the Vale of Belvoir. It was in this tranquil setting that Proctor's life was ripped apart. Early on March 4, 2015, about 20 Metropolitan Police officers, mostly in blue forensic uniforms, stormed the modest farmhouse. 'I assumed it was something to do with the castle,' Proctor recalls. He quickly learnt that the raid, which lasted late into the night, was part of Operation Midland. Carl Beech, a former NHS paediatric nurse known at that point only by the pseudonym 'Nick', had accused Proctor and others — including the former home secretary Leon Brittan, the former armed forces chief Lord Bramall and the former prime minister Edward Heath — of operating a murderous VIP paedophile sex ring in Westminster in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Carl Beech, the fantasist who was known by the pseudonym 'Nick' PA Unfolding in the dark shadow of the Jimmy Savile scandal, the sensational tale was swallowed whole by the authorities and a classic moral panic ensued. Beech, from Gloucestershire, a divorced father of one, accused Proctor of rape, the murder of two children and being involved in the murder of a third child. He also alleged that Proctor had threatened to cut his genitals off with a penknife. It turned out that Beech, 57, was a complete fantasist. He is now in prison serving an 18-year sentence for perverting the course of justice and fraud. He was also found to have more than 300 indecent images of children on his computers. Operation Midland, which cost £2.5 million, lasted for 16 months and ended in 2016 with lives left in ruins and without a single arrest. To Proctor's understandable fury, not a single officer involved has faced any consequences. 'Bernard Hogan-Howe [the head of the Met at the time of Operation Midland] was ennobled,' he says. 'Cressida Dick [who was referred to the police watchdog, the IOPC — Independent Office of Police Conduct — over her role but found to have no case to answer] was made a dame. Steve Rodhouse [who led the inquiry] was made No 2 at the National Crime Agency. Lower ranks were promoted.' Proctor had hoped this month he might finally see some accountability. Rodhouse faced a misconduct hearing to answer claims that he used 'inaccurate and dishonest words' at the conclusion of Operation Midland. On June 5, however, the IOPC unexpectedly dropped the misconduct hearing at the 11th hour. It said the decision came after a 'large volume of relevant material was recently disclosed to it' by the Met. 'It is cowardice. It is complicity. It is a cover-up,' Proctor says of the U-turn. Brittan's widow, Lady Brittan, was similarly appalled when the hearing turned to dust, telling the BBC: 'I feel that it would have at least put a closure … on the whole episode if somebody had been held to account, either for misconduct, or even for incompetence.' Brittan died before his name was cleared. The apparent lack of consequences for his tormentors clearly weighs heavily on Proctor. 'It is an open wound because it's not scarred over. It's still open, it still hurts,' he says, sinking further into a brown leather armchair. 'Never a day goes by without thinking about what happened. Not a day.' A decade ago, at his solicitor's office, Proctor learnt the gruesome details of the accusations levelled against him. 'What's so horrible is the thought that anyone, let alone the police, thought I could conceivably have done anything that this chap was suggesting,' he says. The morning after his home was raided, he woke to see his face leading the morning news bulletins on television. He said it was a horrifying 'flashback' to 1987 and the first time his life had been cruelly upended. In 1986, when Proctor was the Tory MP for Billericay, the Sunday People newspaper carried out a sting, paying a 19-year-old male prostitute to visit his flat. At the time the legal age of consent for gay people was 21. Proctor was charged with gross indecency in 1987 and forced to abandon his political career. 'It takes quite a while to recover from something like that,' he says quietly. After a stint selling shirts in Richmond upon Thames, he left London and built a new life working for the 11th Duke of Rutland, David Manners. During the second unravelling, in 2015, he was accused of heinous crimes and had to leave both his job at Belvoir Castle and his grace-and-favour home. 'You have school groups going around, you couldn't have somebody working there who — not only the allegation had been made by somebody that I'd sexually abused children and murdered children, but the Metropolitan Police had gone on TV and radio and confirmed that [detectives considered Beech's account to be] 'credible and true',' he says. Throughout our day together, Proctor's pale blue eyes fill with tears and his voice keeps catching. 'The way that juries believe police, I genuinely thought that I could be charged, face trial and be found guilty and spend the rest of my life in prison,' he says. Inevitably, he received death threats — and still receives the occasional one today. 'I know some of the people who made the death threats,' he says. Fearing for his safety, in mid-2015 he moved to live in Spain at a friend's villa with Terry, a retired art dealer, whom he has known for more than 50 years. During that year, late into the Spanish nights, Proctor wrote his book, Credible and True, in a frantic attempt to document his innocence. He voluntarily flew back for police interviews and, in August 2015, against the advice of his lawyers, he held an extraordinary press conference at St Ermin's Hotel in Westminster. 'I am a homosexual. I am not a murderer. I am not a paedophile,' he told the packed room of journalists, who were agog. It was a brave and shrewd move; the tide started to shift and the press began to scrutinise the tales of 'Nick'. In 2016, as the inquiry dragged on, Proctor moved back to the UK. 'We had no money, we had nowhere to live,' he recalls. 'A friend let us use her garden shed to live in. Terry, me and three dogs lived in a garden shed half the size of this room,' he says, gesturing around the small sitting room. Proctor pictured himself living homeless on the streets of nearby Grantham. When the accusations first came out in 2015, some friends abandoned him, never to return; others abandoned him and later, when the truth emerged, came crawling back. He still can't work out which is worse. Other friends were loyal and supportive, 'without which you wouldn't survive'. Over a homemade lasagne, I hear how Proctor grew up in Scarborough, and his father, who ran bakeries, abandoned the family for another woman. He never forgave him and didn't go to his funeral. After graduating from York University, Proctor served as the Conservative MP for Basildon, then Billericay, between 1979 and 1987, and advocated for the voluntary repatriation of immigrants. His political hero is Enoch Powell. Proctor, by his own description, is not a clubbable man. Why does he think he was targeted by Beech? 'What happened in 1987 was definitely a factor,' he says. 'He went to journalists and I think they probably exacerbated his allegations. Thirdly, I was a homosexual and I've described [the inquiry] by the Met as a homosexual witch-hunt.' In November 2019, Proctor received nearly £900,000 in compensation and costs from the Metropolitan Police. In early 2022, he resumed working for the duke. 'No two days are the same,' he says cheerily. Slowly piecing himself back together, he has had therapy and now preaches the importance of talking things through. He is rejoining the Conservative Party and is president of the clunkily named Facing Allegations in Contexts of Trust (Fact), an organisation that advises those who have been falsely accused of abuse. He has had students, politicians and police come to him in desperation. 'I don't want anybody else to go through what I and others went through,' Proctor says. 'I try to help by talking to them, trying to reassure them and trying to establish what I lost, and that is confidence.' He feels only 'icy contempt' for his accuser, and seems to have more anger for the former director of public prosecutions (DPP), one Sir Keir Starmer, under whose five-year tenure rape convictions rose. He stepped down as DPP in October 2013, more than a year before Operation Midland was launched. Proctor says: 'He didn't like the fact that there [weren't] sufficient numbers of successful rape convictions, so he told the police wherever they would listen — and they did a lot, to a DPP — that 'henceforth you should believe the victim'. He wasn't DPP at the time of Operation Midland — he didn't need to be. The damage he'd done had already been done.' Proctor proudly shows me Belvoir Castle's art collection — Gainsborough, Holbein, Stubbs, Reynolds — and tells me about a foiled burglary last year. On the surface, his life seems comfortably back on track. But after everything — the accusations, raid, threats, homelessness and prospect of life in prison — does he live looking over his shoulder? 'I try not to but I think it's inevitable. Things can get quite difficult,' he says, his voice cracking again. 'But not everything has been doom and gloom. I've had a remarkable life. And here we are, ten years later. I'm still here.'
Sky News
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Unreliable Witness: Sky News podcast series about false grooming accuser Eleanor Williams takes prestigious award
A Sky News podcast series about a woman who was jailed after making false sexual abuse accusations has won first prize at the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Awards. Unreliable Witness, which took gold in the investigative journalism podcast category, told the story of Eleanor Williams, who was sentenced to eight and a half years for lying about being groomed, trafficked and abused by an Asian gang in Barrow-in-Furness. Williams was 22 when she was found guilty of perverting the course of justice after a jury found that she had lied, fabricated evidence and inflicted wounds upon herself to support her claims. She was jailed in March 2023. The series was spearheaded by home editor Jason Farrell and specialist producer Liz Lane, and produced by the Sky News podcast team. 23:40 Accepting the award during the virtual ceremony, Jason Farrell said: "The podcast offers a really powerful platform for investigative journalism and audiences really want to listen to it." Sky's head of audio, Dave Terris, said the award "recognises Sky News' investment in the story, and in the narrative podcast space, to create a premium product which has engaged our audiences, topped the podcast charts and now, won an award".
CNA
16-05-2025
- Politics
- CNA
'Not practical' for ministers to avoid all contact with 'bad persons': Ong Ye Kung, Chee Hong Tat
SINGAPORE: It is impractical for ministers to ensure they never meet - or are photographed with - individuals who may be 'bad persons', said Health Minister Ong Ye Kung and Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat in a joint statement on Friday (May 16). Their remarks came after Mr Sng Chia Huat, who also goes by Rich Sng on Facebook, deleted several posts and issued an apology for making false accusations against the two ministers, as well as labour chief Ng Chee Meng. "It was necessary for us to take legal action against Mr Sng,' said the ministers. "While an individual has the right to disagree with government policies, this does not extend to making baseless accusations against policymakers that impugn their honesty and integrity." Mr Sng had alleged in social media posts that Mr Ong, Mr Chee and Mr Ng were aware that convicted money launderer Su Haijin had broken the law but chose to condone his actions. All three denied the claims and issued legal letters demanding a public apology, withdrawal of the posts, and damages, which they said would be donated to charity. The ministers noted that political office holders regularly interact with a wide range of people as part of their duties, including at Meet-the-People Sessions, community events and dialogues. "This is part and parcel of the job," they said. "It is not practical for ministers to ensure they never meet, or have their photos taken with, individuals who may be or potentially may be bad persons. "The key is we do not do anything wrong in the way we discharge our duties, even as we make ourselves accessible to all segments of society." In his apology on Friday, Mr Sng said he had taken down the posts. He also offered to perform a total of 300 hours of community service in lieu of paying damages, citing financial hardship after closing his business earlier this year. The joint statement by the ministers did not address Mr Sng's apology and his offer of community service.
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Newspaper editor charged with faking sickening claims against father of missing teen cowboy Jarrett Brooks
A local newspaper editor has been charged with creating fake Reddit posts to smear the parents of a missing teenager. Jarrett Brooks, 16, was last seen on his parents' security cameras grabbing a pistol at the house in Joseph City, Arizona, about 6.30am on July 4, 2023. His parents Brian and Laura Brooks believe he was picked up by someone he met online and is still alive but at risk, and never stopped searching for him. But instead of looking high and low for Jarrett, local police spent months investigating his parents over false claims Brian was molesting his son. The heartbroken dad told he never received an apology for the ordeal police put him through, and the social media conspiracy theories that persist to this day. 'We had a sit-down meeting with the sheriff and he has not once said he's sorry,' Brian said. Molly Kathryn Ottman, 50, is accused of creating a Reddit account pretending to be Brian and made numerous posts alluding to 'sexual activity' with Jarrett. She then contacted the Navajo County Sheriff's Office in October 2023 to alert them to the posts, which she claimed were made by Brian, prosecutors said. Ottman is 'executive editor and an investigative journalist' of the Mountain Daily Star and wrote several articles about Jarrett in 2023 and 2024. Police began investigating after her tip, including searching the Brooks home and seizing electronic devices Brian said were never returned. Offices of Harter Investigations, a private investigations firm the Brooks hired, was also searched. Ottman worked for Harter for a while, but was let go before the Reddit account was created. Brian and his wife were finally exonerated after months under the microscope when police allegedly discovered Ottman was behind the account. Ottman was on May 6 indicted by a grand jury on charges of obstructing a criminal investigation and fraudulent schemes and artifices. She was issued a summons to appear in Navajo County Superior Court on June 2. 'A 16-year-old boy was missing and all of law enforcement's energy and resources should have been able to remain focused strictly on the search for that young man', Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon said. 'Diverting attention, resources and time to fabricated evidence creates unwarranted distractions during time-sensitive investigations.' Brian described the indictment of Ottman as 'a start' and said he believed prosecutors were planning additional charges. 'She's reaping the rewards for what she did,' he said. The Reddit posts and the police investigation they spawned caused the couple to be subjected to rampant social media speculation for more than a year. Entire Facebook groups were created with hundreds of posts assuming the allegations were true, and accusing the couple of being responsible for Jarrett's disappearance. The speculation was made worse by sex crime convictions both Brian and Laura had from 20 years before their son went missing. They were accused of having sex in front of their teenage babysitters and plying them with alcohol in an alleged attempt to get them to join in, which they denied. Brian was jailed for up to six months and lost his job as the local fire chief after pleading guilty to a felony count of tampering with evidence and two counts of public sexual indecency. Laura, who was 23 at the time, pleaded guilty to giving a minor a piercing, and two counts of public sexual indecency and was jailed for 30 days. Neither were required to register as sex offenders. There have been no new leads in Jarrett's disappearance in almost two years and no confirmed sightings since he was caught on camera at his home. He is then believed to have been spotted by local rancher Joe Zabadal striding through his pasture about a mile from the house just after 7 am. The figure had his pants tucked into white top boots, the same as Jarrett's favorite pair, and was carrying a gun, heading west out of town toward Lacy Lane. His account, given to police later that day, was critical in shaping the search for Jarrett, and led to his parents believing he got a ride from someone he met online. Zabadal told last year that he saw Jarrett walking across his field that morning, get to the road, and pace back and forth - but by the time he could drive out to find him, he was gone. Police used dogs to follow Jarrett's scent, which led them through the pasture before the trail went dead around where he was last seen near the road. Laura realized about 7.30am that Jarrett had left the house and drove around looking for him, but didn't find him at any Fourth of July celebrations. Brian said 'the only thing that makes sense to us' is that he was in a hurry because he had arranged to meet someone at the road. He said whoever picked him up was likely 'a stranger, someone he probably talked to online but had never met in person'. 'We have said from the beginning that we believe he was picked up by someone from Lacy Lane. We believe he is out there and not in a good situation,' he said. 'Neither my wife nor I have ever got the gut feeling that he's not with us anymore. Call it parent's intuition or whatever you want. 'We would love to have him home or have the closure and an end to the torment and torture we have experienced and continue to experience daily.' Brian said he didn't believe Jarrett took the gun to take his own life, as it doesn't fit with his personality or the circumstances. 'Why would you pace back and forth on the side of the road if you were on a mission to go self-harm or disappear? You'd just keep walking,' he said. 'So he took the gun for protection, he figured, well, I should be OK, but just in case, I'm gonna have a way to protect myself and so he took the gun.' Jarrett had been grounded the previous evening after his parents discovered he'd broken the family car's CV axle by driving the car off-road, which he had been warned not to do three times before. Laura, who was the last family member to see him, said she bumped into him in the hallway on her way to have a shower about 6.15am. 'He asked me if he was grounded from everything or just driving, and I told him everything. And then, I went into the bathroom to take my shower,' she said. 'He seemed fine, he just said, "OK", and turned around and went to his room. He didn't argue it, he didn't huff and puff or show any attitude.' Laura explained that she discovered Jarrett had broken the $100 car part when he turned in his phone, as all their children are required to do before bed so they don't get distracted instead of sleeping. Phones were also subject to random checks, and Laura founds texts between Jarrett and his friends discovering how to fix the car before his parents found out. When Laura got out of the shower about 15 minutes later, Jarrett was gone - but it wasn't until about 6.45am when she realized he wasn't at the house. While his mother was in the shower, Jarrett had grabbed the gun, changed into his pants and boots, and slipped out of the house undetected. Jarrett's parents still had his phone, and his wallet - containing his license and cash - was found in the pocket of a pair of gym shorts in his car. Jarrett's parents believe the teen (pictured as a child, at bottom left) is possibly being held against his will Jarrett's parents are increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of the investigation and Jarrett continuing to be treated as a runaway, not a juvenile in danger - which has only recently changed Brooks woke up about 8.30am and together they looked around the town and checked with his friends and their parents, but there was no sign of him. The Navajo County Sheriff's Office was notified at 12:28 pm, and Jarrett was initially treated as a teenage runaway. Only then, about 1pm, did Brooks check the gun safe in the den and discover the pistol was missing. Police responded with a wide search of the area and soon learned of Zabadal's sighting hours earlier. Friends joined the search over the rest of the afternoon, along with a Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter and search dogs from Winslow Prison. The search continued for the days that followed, combing a wide radius in a grid and going door to door.
Daily Mail
07-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Woman faces jail after admitting she lied to police that she had been sexually assaulted
A woman who lied about being sexually assaulted has been warned she is facing a prison sentence over the fake claims. Elizabeth Bates admitted perverting the course of justice on August 26, 2022 with the particulars of the offence disclosing she did so by 'making false statements to police alleging sexual assault'. It came a year after she appeared on This Morning for a different reason, when she told how her six-year-old son had alerted an Amazon driver to help save her life. Bates, from Newtownards, Co Down, had at an earlier hearing admitted two further similar charges in that on August 24 and 30, 2022, she 'made a statement to police containing false allegations'. At Downpatrick Crown Court, defence KC Richard McConkey asked for the 26-year-old to be re-arraigned on the second count and accordingly, she admitted the perverting the course of justice charge. Mr McConkey told the court that in addition to a pre-sentence report from the Probation Board, he will also be directing a medical report. Adjourning the case to June 20 and freeing Bates on bail, Judge Geoffrey Miller KC told Bates: 'Offences of this nature are very serious because it impacts on the administration of justice.' He added that such fake accusations also 'impact on the livelihoods and wellbeing and reputation of a person against whom an allegation is made,' before warning her that 'the custody threshold is inevitably crossed'. The mother-of-three made headline news last July after her quick-thinking six-year-old son was captured on video asking an Amazon delivery driver for help after she collapsed Bates, from Newtownards, Co Down, had at an earlier hearing admitted two further similar charges in that on August 24 and 30, 2022, she 'made a statement to police containing false allegations' Judge Miller warned that the question of whether that jail term would be suspended or immediate, or whether there would be an alternative sentence, would hinge on the contents of the various reports, so it would be in her best interests to co-operate. The mother-of-three made headline news last July - going by the name Liz or Elizabeth Crooks at the time - after her quick-thinking six-year-old son was captured on video asking an Amazon delivery driver for help after she collapsed. Footage from her home's ring doorbell went viral with more than 20 million views worldwide after it captured the little boy accepting a parcel from a delivery driver and asking him 'to come and help his mummy'. The boy takes the parcel from the driver before asking him: 'Can you help my mummy? She's fainted.' And after asking if his mummy is unwell, the driver then follows the six-year-old into the home and calls for an ambulance. It led to her and her son featuring across the national media, including an appearance on This Morning where she was interviewed by Dermot O'Leary and Rochelle Humes.
