I repeated a line used by one of the alleged survivors, who said: “He is close to evil as any human being could get”. Lord Brittan’s brother, Sir Samuel Brittan, demanded an apology from Watson over “unfounded accusations” after police dropped the rape inquiry.
Advertisement
Lord Brittan died of cancer earlier this year, unaware that police had decided there was no case for him to answer over allegations that he raped a 19-year-old student in 1967.
Although seriously ill, detectives interviewed Lord Brittan under caution.
I still am. But I wanted the claims made against him properly investigated.
“The choice facing anyone who is presented with testimony of this kind is whether to pass it on to the authorities and urge them to investigate, or to ignore it”, Mr Watson said yesterday.
Mr Watson was a central figure in Parliament spreading claims of an Establishment paedophile scandal, and played a key role in having a rape case against Lord Brittan reopened after it was closed because of a lack of evidence.
Sir Samuel Brittan accused the MP of making “unfounded accusations” which had prompted police to reopen the case against Lord Brittan.
“Even when Leon had died, Tom Watson chose to repeat the allegations”, Evans said. “I felt it was my duty”.
“And he should apologise in public as well”, he told the Daily Mail. “I did not and could not know if they were true but I did believe their claims should be fully investigated”.
A spokesperson for the BBC dismissed the claims and said the report was “important and fair investigative journalism that rightly asks legitimate questions about the conduct of the police, journalists, campaigners and politicians in handling historic allegations of child abuse”.
Home Secretary Theresa May said: “I think those of us in public life should be careful about the language we use”.
Mr Watson had been contacted by people who said they were abused by the Tory grandee and passed their details on to the police.
In a letter to Lady Brittan’s lawyers, he said: “I do recognise that this clarity should have been provided at an earlier stage and I apologise for any distress this has caused to Lady Brittan”. This was an extremely painful time for his wife.
Advertisement
Former Chancellor Norman Lamont said police investigations into historical abuse risked becoming a “witch-hunt”.
