Operation Conifer

Lord Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Tuesday 11th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as set out in the register, particularly that I had the honour to follow the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, as the chairman of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation. I am delighted with the speech of my former opposite number in the other place, the noble Lord, Lord Jones.

I congratulate my noble friend Lord Lexden, not only on making possible this important debate, and eloquently opening it, but on his dogged pursuit of justice and common sense in the wake of the highly unsatisfactory Operation Conifer. I very much welcome the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, who set out the origins of this nonsense and how it emerged so clearly.

Sir Edward Heath’s reputation matters to so many of us, as we have already heard. This is not only because he obtained the highest office in British politics. It is an open secret that politicians can be very exercised by the judgment of posterity. I recall that, in Shakespeare’s “Othello”, when Cassio is discredited, he cries out:

“Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial”.


The arch-manipulator, Iago, who has personally and insidiously orchestrated the ruin of Cassio’s reputation, responds:

“Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving”.


Because of a number of unproven accusations against him, and because of the apparent credulousness of Wiltshire Police, Sir Edward Heath’s reputation—his good name—was, for a time, in acute danger of being lost for ever, without deserving. I think this is such an important debate.

I believe Ted’s name has now been, to all intents and purposes, cleared, but that is no thanks to anyone associated with Wiltshire Police. Spurred on by frankly bizarre guidance from the then Director of Public Prosecutions, that force treated pathetic fantasies and deliberate, knowing lies as the truthful accounts of “victims”. Ted could not possibly defend himself against this web of deceit. Fortunately, others can and have defended themselves: Sir Cliff Richard; Paul Gambaccini; Lord Bramall, a hero who served his country nobly; and the late Leon Brittan, who could—and should—have been informed that the cases against him had been exposed as a tissue of lies before he died, but was not.

Ted Heath, who served this country with distinction in peace and in war, is now the real victim. Those who were complicit in creating and sustaining the slur against him must now realise they have lost, comprehensively. None the less, because he is dead, Ted is denied complete justice. He has had no opportunity to defend himself.

I have always admired what I have thought of as the traditional approach to policing, which dates back to Sir Robert Peel: a healthy balance between scepticism and credulity and an approach to investigation that is methodical, thorough, calm, well mannered and, above all else, always led by evidence. When police officers decide they are on some sort of crusade, they overstep a very dangerous line. Of course, the police enjoy operational independence—rightly so—but that cannot and must not mean they are not accountable for their actions.

If we are indeed to sanction full-scale investigations into allegations against deceased persons, we owe it to them to abide by the principle of habeas corpus; as the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, reminded us, this is the presumption of innocence, unless and until guilt can be established. That stretches back to Magna Carta and 1215. The officers in charge of Operation Conifer say that they would have investigated and interviewed Sir Edward Heath about those six or seven accusations. The final statement made in a lavishly expensive police operation, although no one now believes it, must have left a stain, a smell, a hint that all was not well—a possible imputation of guilt. Sadly, we know very little about the seven accusations. That makes it very difficult—almost impossible—for us to subject them to any sort of rigorous examination. I believe that three have already been straightforwardly disproven, but all seven should and could be rigorously scrutinised.

It should be up to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider all the evidence—if indeed there is any evidence, rather than accusations—very much as it would were the accused person alive. The CPS is well versed in knowing the difference between an accusation and evidence. Our conclusion is that a retired judge could easily consider both a prosecution and a defence case. I know many people who would gladly prepare the defence case, but I do not for one moment believe that the CPS would take any of these accusations seriously.

In welcoming my noble friend to the Front Bench, I hope she might disregard what is no doubt the very strong advice that she is receiving from within the Home Office that this move would set an unfortunate precedent. What is unfortunate about asking a retired judge to scrutinise these accusations properly?

It is a well-established rule of this great House to give voice to those who have no voice. In life, Sir Edward Heath had a very distinctive voice and, as we all have cause to remember, he was never afraid to use it. Thanks to his friends and former colleagues, here and elsewhere, although his voice is now stilled, his name has been comprehensively cleared. Other deceased individuals against whom false accusations are made may not be so lucky. We owe it to all of them, as well as to the genuine victims of crime, to ensure that justice is done and seen to be done. That can be now be done only by a proper independent judicial inquiry into these accusations. Ted Heath’s name has been cleared, but it has set an unfortunate precedent, which we must address.

[Lord Campbell-Savours (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Lexden. He has been a doughty campaigner on behalf of someone whom I believe was his friend. The House should also express gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, who gave us an excellent analytical examination of the past and brought the House’s attention to matters of which many of us were previously unaware.

Once again, we are cantering around a course of myth, hearsay and rumour. I have been raising this issue in this House for more than two and half years and we have got absolutely nowhere. Nothing has happened, although I sense a change in opinion in this House towards the events alleged, whereby basically no one now believes them. It is not that I think that the Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, has been unsympathetic. I think she is caught in the impasse of inexplicable fear at the top of government. There is no credible evidence whatever that a former Prime Minister was involved in child abuse or any other sexual abuse.

The issue is simple: who in authority will have the guts to stand up and say, “We are witnessing a quasi-judicial, historic miscarriage of justice without there ever being a trial”? That is what is so important. That is what a review would be all about. We want the historical record to be corrected in the court of international public opinion.

The Government have taken the position set out by the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, who said:

“The police are operationally independent of government”.


That has been referred to before. She went on:

“The Government would step in only where all other avenues had been exhausted”.—[Official Report, 11/10/18; col. 178.]


We are at that point. All other avenues have been exhausted. The proof of that is set out in the 2018 report of the Wiltshire Police commissioner, who states:

“It remains my hope and expectation that IICSA will have something to say on the strength or otherwise of any evidence against Sir Edward Heath”.


He goes on:

“Should IICSA maintain that position”—


of failing to act—

“the Home Secretary should, in my view, order a separate public inquiry with the necessary powers and the remit to establish the facts”.

He further states:

“Wiltshire has more than met its national responsibilities, and I will not commission any further work in relation to Operation Conifer”.


He goes on to refer to his limited resources.

My problem with all that is that, while I understand the resource argument at the local level, I hesitate over the prospect of an IICSA finding of fact when the accused is dead. If a man is dead, there can be no finding of fact because there is no defence. IICSA’s operations are based on hearings. There is no one to hear, apart from the accusers, which takes us right back to the Janner case. Indeed, I note that in all the cases where accusations have been levelled against individuals who are still alive, we have had either apologies or mealy-mouthed statements withdrawing accusations. In other words, attack the dead who cannot respond and run scared of the living for fear of legal action.

The Wiltshire Police commissioner says that the Government should do something, and they should. Sir Edward Heath was not a Wiltshire Council leader; he was a Prime Minister with an international reputation. We either give Wiltshire all the money it needs—not part of the money, as happened before—to draw up the Conifer review, or the Government carry out a judge-led review of the evidence. Anyhow, it should not cost much. There is very little evidence, just hearsay and untruths. The Nick case will prove that.

The powers that be have allowed this whole debate about sexual abuse to become bogged down in political correctness. We are entering a fantasy world where anyone without principle can make a claim of sexual abuse against any other person in the knowledge that there is a presumption that the accuser is to be believed. The whole process is being greatly aided by the sexual offences compensation scheme, otherwise known as the criminal injuries compensation scheme, with legal expenses funded by the taxpayer while the scheme is undermining the credibility of legitimate claimants. All you now need is a vivid imagination, a preparedness to lie and the ability to make the accusation seem realistic by drawing on other cases already on the public record that give credence to your accusation and you are on your way to a windfall.

I give your Lordships an example. Let us take the Janner case. Last week, IICSA informed me of a further accusation against Janner. It came after the collapse of the civil claims against the Janner estate when an unidentified man claimed that,

“he was raped at Dolphin Square”—

noble Lords will recall Dolphin Square—

“whilst in the care of social services by a person he subsequently believes to be Janner”.

That is from paragraph 7 of Professor Jay’s letter of determination, dated 2 May 2018. Until then there had been no claim by anyone, ever, that Janner was linked to the infamously false Dolphin Square allegations. It is a patent lie, yet this individual, referred to as F54 in the IICSA inquiry, has been granted core participation status in the Janner strand, entitling him to legal representation by solicitors and counsel at huge cost to the taxpayer, running into tens of thousands of pounds. His lawyers will be able to charge for preparatory work leading up to proceedings and representation at a three-week hearing fixed for February 2020. I object, on behalf of the taxpayers of the United Kingdom: it is an outrage and it further affects the credibility of the IICSA inquiry.

--- Later in debate ---

The noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, made a very important point about improving reporting, and he asked about the work that the Government are doing to encourage this. Noble Lords will be aware that this Government have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat and have provided millions of pounds of extra investment, particularly through the police transformation fund, with the aim of transforming the law enforcement response and empowering police forces to apply their best skills and expertise in tackling the problem. Progress has been made in recent years in increasing victim confidence but we know that there is still significant underreporting, and this remains a major challenge not only for our criminal justice system but for our mental health services in dealing with the long-term impacts of abuse.

[Lord Campbell-Savours]

The noble Baroness has long professional experience in this area. How does she think we can move forward, protecting the reputation of people who have been falsely accused? Does she have a personal view on that?

[Baroness Barran]

I do not have a personal view on that but I thank the noble Lord for his question. In a moment I will comment on some of the ways in which we feel that progress can be made in this area.

In the words of the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, in an earlier debate on this subject, the police face an “unenviable and difficult task”, because they have a responsibility towards the accused as well as the victims. My noble friend Lord Lexden referred in the same debate to the research led by Professor Carolyn Hoyle and colleagues at Oxford University into the impact of false allegations of sexual abuse on those accused, particularly the fear of further allegations. Professor Hoyle rightly points out that this fear of further allegations is not true of other crimes. I know that pre-charge anonymity for suspects is of concern to noble Lords and has been raised by a number of speakers in this debate.

The release of suspects’ names to the media is addressed in the authorised professional practice guidance on media relations issued by the College of Policing. This makes it clear that the police will not name those arrested or suspected of a crime, save in exceptional circumstances where there is a legitimate policing purpose for doing so. Naming an arrested person before charge should be authorised by a chief officer, and the Crown Prosecution Service should be consulted. In May 2018, the college updated this guidance to make clear that this also applies where allegations are made against deceased persons. This seems to strike a sensible balance, but it is important that we get this right. The previous Home Secretary therefore asked Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to carry out a short, targeted review of police adherence to the guidance on media relations, looking in particular at pre-charge anonymity. The inspectorate is undertaking a scoping study this financial year to consider where inspection activity might best be focused. In addition, the College of Policing is consulting on this issue with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Police Superintendents’ Association and the Police Federation.

The Government are genuinely trying to ensure that lessons are learned from the experience of operating this guidance. I hope this will go some way to reassuring my noble friend Lord Sherbourne, the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, and others who mentioned this.

The Government’s position on Operation Conifer remains as set out in the letter that my right honourable friend the Home Secretary sent to the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, in October. The letter has been placed in the Lords Library. I thank all noble Lords for the careful consideration they have given to this matter. I recognise that the inconclusive nature of the investigation’s findings are unsatisfactory for everyone. I will make sure that my right honourable friend the Home Secretary gets a copy of the Hansard containing this debate.

I understand that there will be disappointment, especially among the many noble Lords who knew and worked with Sir Edward, but I repeat what I said earlier in my speech: no inference of Sir Edward’s guilt should be drawn from the conclusions of Operation Conifer. It is also absolutely clear that those noble Lords who knew Sir Edward well do not have any doubt about his innocence. I share the view of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary that the cloud of suspicion hanging over Sir Edward could be removed only if it were possible to interview him personally, something that, sadly, can no longer happen.

The response to my noble friend Lord Lexden’s final question, sadly, is no. We remain of the view that this is a matter for the local police and crime commissioner to handle, and it would not be appropriate for the Government to seek to persuade him how to go about this.