London: There were fresh twists in the child sex abuse allegations against former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, with two key players denying claims about the late Conservative leader.
Meanwhile two more police forces confirmed they were investigating allegations about Heath. Britain's Prime Minister between 1970 and 1974, who died in 2005 aged 89, Heath dominated domestic headlines this week as the most senior establishment figure to be named in investigations into historic abuse.
Several British police forces have confirmed they are investigating separate allegations about the former premier, with the Gloucestershire and Thames Valley constabularies saying yesterday they too were assessing fresh information.
The media storm began Monday when the police watchdog announced it was investigating a retired officer's claim that a prosecution against a Filipina brothel madam was dropped in 1992 when she threatened to expose Heath.
But Nigel Seed, the prosecutor in the 1992 case, insisted yesterday that it was dropped due to lack of evidence against defendant Myra Ling-Ling Forde. Forde herself, who ran a brothel close to Heath's home in Salisbury in southwest England, has also said she had no involvement with the ex-premier at all.
Seed said that on the day of the trial, the court was packed with reporters and the police told him this was because Forde had made it known that "she intended to allege that she had provided rent boys to Edward Heath".
There were no suggestions that the alleged male prostitutes were under the age of consent, the lawyer wrote in a letter to The Times newspaper. In the end, the trial was abandoned after three prostitutes called to give evidence for the prosecution failed to attend court.
"The decision for the case to proceed no further was mine and was based on the lack of evidence and had nothing whatsoever to do with any potential allegations against Edward Heath," Seed said.
Forde, 67, has meanwhile denied threatening to expose Heath at all, in a statement by her ex-lawyer Richard Griffiths to the Salisbury Journal local newspaper.
"At no stage did she state that Ted Heath was a client and at no stage did she threaten to expose him as a client of hers," Griffiths said. "Myra Forde wishes me to make it clear that she had no involvement with Ted Heath of any kind and has no knowledge of any misconduct on his part."
