On January 20, an online portal Info Postalioni released an article titled “Scandal! The British Prime Minister raped children on his own yacht and threw their bodies into the water.” The article reads that the Wiltshire Police is investigating the case against British Prime Minister, Sir Edward Heath who is suspected of organizing satanic orgies, where participants raped children and ate their meat. The article, which refers to tabloid Daily Mirror as one of its primary sources, also reads that the former Prime Minister used violence against orphans and involved them in occult rituals.
The article received feedbacks from readers, part of whom accused the online portal of disseminating disinformation, while others expressed anti-Western views.
The material released by Info Postalioni is disinformation and it involves unverified facts. The British police carried out investigation dubbed Operation Conifer into child abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath in 2015-2017. The summary closure report into Operation Conifer reads that “the findings in the report do not state whether Sir Edward Heath was guilty of any criminal offences or comment on the prospect of a successful prosecution had he been alive today.” Moreover, “it is clearly inappropriate to speculate what Sir Edward Heath’s response would have been in relation to the allegations put to him under caution in an interview,” according to the report.
Real facts: Operation Conifer
Sir Edward Heath served as the British Prime Minister in 1970-1974 and died in 2005. In 2015, the British police launched a large-scale investigation dubbed Operation Conifer into child abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath. According to the summary closure report issued on October 5, 2017:
- Over a period of two years, Operation Conifer received 42 disclosures relating to 40 separate individuals. The disclosed offences spanned from 1956 to 1992, and they related to alleged offences of child sexual abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse against an adult. The policing purpose in any investigation was to objectively gather facts and examine evidence. For each of the 42 disclosures that were alleged against Sir Edward Heath, a proportionate investigation was undertaken.
At the end of the investigation, the available evidence and information gathered was considered, and the following conclusions have been made:
- In the case of seven individual disclosures, if Sir Edward Heath had been alive today, it has been concluded that he would have been interviewed under caution in order to obtain his account in relation to the allegations made against him. The summary closure report makes it clear that “no inference of guilt should be drawn by the decision to interview under caution.” The account from Sir Edward Heath would have been as important as other evidence gathered as part of the wider investigation.
- In the case of 19 individual disclosures, not relating to the time when he was the serving Prime Minister, three persons reporting alleged abuse have subsequently concluded that they were genuinely mistaken in naming Sir Edward Heath as the perpetrator.
- During the course of Operation Conifer three people were arrested in relation to offences concerning alleged child abuse. Two were later released without charge. In all the three cases, charges were not directly related to Sir Edward Heath. The summary closure report notes that the findings in this report neither state whether Sir Edward Heath was guilty of any criminal offences nor comment on the prospect of a successful prosecution had Sir Edward Heath been alive. It also reads that it is clearly inappropriate to speculate what Heath’s response would have been in relation to the allegations put to him under caution in an interview.
Groundless allegations on involving children in satanic orgies
Dr. Rachel Hoskins, an expert in ritual sacrifice who has been involved in Operation Conifer as an independent expert, said on November 27, 2016 that some of the evidence related to child abuse allegations against Sir Edward Heath was “fantastical.”
Dr. Hoskins said that the allegations being considered by police were “based on no more than two uncorroborated witnesses, whose claims of satanic abuse were made under the influence of controversial psychotherapists specializing in ‘recovered memories’”. She also added that “at least one of these witnesses was under the influence of hypnosis.”
Prepared by Dali Kurdadze
