Harvey Proctor: ‘I have not murdered anyone’

The former Conservative right-winger gave a press conference earlier today in which he revealed an anonymous man known as “Nick” has accused him of raping and murdering boys as part of a Westminster paedophile ring in the 1970s and 1980s.

In his first TV interview, Mr Proctor told Channel 4 News he was innocent of the allegations and did not believe other establishment figures named by the complainant – including ex-Prime Minister Edward Heath – were involved in abuse either.

He said he went to detectives from Operation Midland voluntarily after allegations and rumours about him began to appear online.

Mr Proctor said: “I knew I had not done any of the things that this person called Nick has alleged. I cannot possibly believe that the other people can have possibly done those things either.

“It got to the point where I had to say to the police: ‘You are playing a press game here – you don’t believe this for one moment.’

Asked if he believed there was a Westminster paedophile ring, he said: “My gut feeling is that there wasn’t. I was certainly not part of it if there was.”

He said he was an “easy target” for the paedophile allegations because he pleaded guilty to four counts of gross indecency with two male prostitutes aged 19 and 17 in 1987, ending his political career.

Mr Proctor told Channel 4 News he believed at the time that the boys were over 21, the legal age of homosexual consent at the time, but that did not provide him with a legal defence then.

“I have not murdered anyone. I have not sexually abused children.” Harvey Proctor

Mr Proctor’s activities were recorded for a newspaper at the time. “On the press’s own tape, he admitted he was over 21. He lied on the press’s own tape,” he said.

“The law was different in the homosexual case in the heterosexual case in 1987. I thought until 1987, I had a defence,” the former Conservative MP added.

Asked whether he had been involved with other young men, he told Channel 4 News: “I have not commented on my sexual proclivities and activities because I believe that to be private. I don’t go around asking other people what they do in their bedroom.”

He had initially denied the offences because he did not want to be outed as a gay MP, something that would have been career “suicide” at the time, he said.

Mr Proctor insisted his activities with male prostitutes had been consensual, adding: “That consensual activity is a million miles away from what is being alleged against me now.

“I have not murdered anyone. I have not sexually abused children.”

He said the latest round of allegations had cost him his job and “wrecked 28 years of my life of rehabilitation since I left the House of Commons in 1987”.

“It has meant that I have had to move home. It is something that I think about every moment of the day.”

He added: “I have absolutely full support and sympathy for the genuine child sex victims or complainants – very much so. But that is nothing to do with me.”

The Metropolitan Police, who are leading Operation Midland, declined to comment on Mr Proctor’s allegations.