Who? Edward Richard George Heath was prime minister of Britain from 1970 to 1974. During that time, his biggest troubles were unemployment, the miners and the inhabitants of the north of Ireland.
A keen fan of Europe, the Conservative Party leader took Britain into the European Economic Community in 1973, two years after he had overseen the decimalisation of British coins.
Heath was ousted as prime minister after he lost to Harold Wilson’s Labour Party in October 1974. Margaret Thatcher went on to win the leadership of the Conservatives.
Heath remained a backbench MP until he retired in 2001. He was Father of the House for his last nine years in the British parliament.
But he is dead. Why is he in the news? Edward Heath died in 2005 in Salisbury, where he lived. He is one of about 76 politicians – some alive, some dead – who have been or are still being investigated by police forces across Britain examining allegations of sexual abuse of children. The identities of most of the politicians have been kept out of the public domain. The name of Edward Heath has not.
Why now? On Monday, Wiltshire police appealed for any "witnesses or victims who support the allegations of child sex abuse" against Ted Heath to come forward. The announcement was made by a Wiltshire officer standing outside Heath's former home near Salisbury. Hampshire, Kent and Jersey forces have also said they are investigating allegations of abuse by Heath.
London's Metropolitan Police say they do not have an ongoing investigation into allegations of abuse by Heath. A complainant was interviewed in April and alleged in the Mirror newspaper this week that he was raped by Heath at the age of 12. A co-ordinated police investigation into claims about Heath is to be set up. This response is seen as necessary to bring together all the inquiries. It is likely to be carried out under the umbrella of Operation Hydrant.
What is Operation Hydrant? Earlier this year, Norfolk chief constable Simon Bailey, who runs Operation Hydrant, said forces across Britain are investigating or have investigated 1,433 men over allegations of child abuse. The suspects have included 261 high-profile individuals, of whom 76 were politicians, 43 were from the music industry, 135 from TV, film, or radio, and seven from sport.
According to Bailey, 216 of those named were dead.
Why has a former brothel keeper been in the spotlight this week? Key to the allegations against Heath was the alleged testimony of former Wiltshire brothel keeper Myra Forde (67). She was said to be the original source of claims in the 1990s that Heath abused boys.
Forde said on Wednesday that she had no knowledge of any misconduct by Heath, and denied threatening to expose him to escape prosecution in the 1990s. A prosecution against Forde was dropped in 1992. Forde was later jailed twice for operating a brothel in Salisbury.
What do we know about Edward Heath's private life? Heath was subject to lurid speculation about his private life. During his 51 years in the House of Commons rumours "swirled around Sir Edward Heath like a mist of innuendo", a Daily Telegraph political editor wrote last week. Grammar school-educated Heath was a very private man. He tended to talk openly only about his love of painting, sailing and his yacht, Morning Cloud.
It has often been mooted that Heath was gay, though being openly homosexual was not possible in his political times.
Of course, a politician’s sexuality remains irrelevant. What the police inquiry must discover is whether Heath abused children.
ANTHEA McTEIRNAN
