Ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor gets emotional while describing ‘horrendous’ ordeal of being wrongly caught up in false VIP paedophile ring claims fuelled by Tom Watson – as he blasts decision to make former Labour deputy a peer
- Harvey Proctor was falsely accused of being part of a VIP paedophile ring
- Former Labour deputy Tom Watson petitioned police to investigate allegations
- Mr Proctor says Mr Watson has never apologised for his involvement in trauma
- Now, he’s slammed Keir Starmer’s decision to award Mr Watson a peerage
- If you need support, call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org
The former Tory MP who was falsely accused of being in a paedophile ring fought back tears as he revealed details of the harrowing ordeal and expressed his disgust in news former Labour deputy Tom Watson would be made a peer.
Mr Watson, 55, is said to have pressured Metropolitan Police officers to investigate claims made by fantasist Carl Beech of a paedophile ring at the heart of Westminster, which were later found to be completely false.
Mr Proctor was one of several high-profile figures linked to the fake ring and was driven to consider taking his own life when the investigation was made public.
With a quivering lip and fighting back tears, he told TalkTV the allegations ruined his life.
‘I lost my job, my house went with my job. I lost my repute. I felt, at that time, I’d lost everything. Subsequently, through my own hand, I thought I would lose my life,’ he said.
Mr Watson, 55, is said to have pressured Metropolitan Police officers to investigate claims made by fantasist Carl Beech of a paedophile ring at the heart of Westminster, which were later found to be completely false
‘I thought that life had come to an end when I was innocent of all those charges. Sorry to get emotional… It was devastating.’
Mr Proctor was accused of murdering children as part of the paedophilia ring, and Mr Watson became an advocate for the accuser by lobbying police and politicians to conduct a thorough investigation.
The man who made the accusations is now serving an 18-year prison sentence for 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud.
But Mr Watson, who gave him a platform to spread the vile lies and ‘invited’ Beech to the House of Commons, was recently awarded a peerage on nomination by Labour leader Keir Starmer.
‘He used this as a way of promoting himself within the Labour party and politics generally,’ Mr Proctor said on Saturday night. ‘I’m sickened by the fact that police and politicians connected with Operation Midland have not been held to account.
‘They’ve been promoted, enriched, ennobled.’
Mr Beech had claimed he and other boys were raped and tortured in the 1970s and 1980s and that one young boy was even murdered by members of a VIP paedophile ring.
The man who made the accusations, Carl Beech (pictured) is now serving an 18-year prison sentence for 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud
Named Operation Midland, Met officers probing the bogus allegations carried out dawn raids at high-profile addresses including the homes of D-Day hero Lord Bramall, Lord Brittan and Mr Proctor.
Mr Watson was recommended for a peer two years ago but the House of Appointments Commission blocked his application.
Now, Mr Proctor is demanding to know what has changed in those two years that allowed Mr Watson to earn the honour.
‘The whole thing was a charade, and Tom Watson played an integral part in it.’
‘When the allegations were made against me, when my house was searched illegally for 15 hours by 20 officers of the Met, I felt I’d already been found guilty and had to prove my innocence. That is not the way that British justice should work.’
Mr Proctor once again got emotional as he recalled the effects of being accused of murder.
While he’s never received answers as to why detectives were so quick to believe Beech – a fantasist – he suspects they ‘took advantage’ of his homosexuality.
‘My suspicion is that they knew I was homosexual… They believed they could take advantage of it.’
With a quivering lip and fighting back tears, Mr Proctor told TalkTV the allegations ruined his life
Mr Proctor addressed the allegations during a 2015 media conference in which he said: ‘I am a homosexual. I am not a paedophile. I am not a murderer.’
Up until that point, he’d never publicly spoken of his sexuality. ‘I was not out… I thought it had nothing to do with whether I was a good or bad member of parliament,’ he said.
Years on, while Mr Proctor has rebuilt his life, he acknowledges that he will never be the same person.
‘I will think about these matters until the day I die,’ he said, fighting back tears.
‘Tom Watson says he has apologised. He has not apologised to me in writing, or verbally.’
Mr Proctor called on Mr Watson to hand back his peerage – ‘out of no other reason than a feeling of guilt and shame’.
A report into the Met’s handling of the case carried out by retired High Court Judge, Sir Richard Henriques later found that Mr Watson ‘raised in Parliament suggestions that a paedophile ring was operating in the heart of Westminster’ on October 24, 2012.
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