Late UK PM Heath suspected of sexually abusing five boys
Former British prime minister Edward Heath would have been questioned over claims that he sexually assaulted five boys if he was still alive, UK police say, the latest institutional sex abuse accusations in Britain.
Heath, who was Britain's premier between 1970 and 1974, would have been interviewed under caution over seven abuse allegations dating between 1961 and 1992, relating to five boys and two adult men, Wiltshire Police revealed Thursday following a massive two-year investigation.
Police said none of the allegations took place while he was prime minister.
Heath, who died in 2005 aged 89, is alleged to have raped an 11-year-old boy during a paid sexual encounter in 1961 and the indecent assault of a 10-year-old boy in 1962.
In addition, he allegedly sexually assaulted two boys aged 15 in the 1960s, a boy aged 12 in the early 1990s, as well as two adult males in 1976 and 1992..
Of the 42 allegations made against Heath, seven were sufficiently credible to justify the police questioning him under caution.
"Sir Edward Heath was an extremely prominent, influential and high-profile person who was arguably one of the most powerful people in the world," Wiltshire Police chief constable Mike Veale said, announcing the investigation's findings.
"The allegations against him were of the utmost seriousness and from a significant number of people."
Heath was named as a suspect in 2015 in an investigation launched in July 2014 into the so-called historical child sex abuse.
The former prime minister never married and rarely spoke about his private life despite years of media speculations that he was a homosexual.
Heath's supporters have described him as "asexual" and say the accusations were unlikely due to the high level of security he would have received from 1970 onwards.
The UK has been struggling to deal with a series of sexual abuse scandals that have raised doubts about how institutions, including the church, sports teams and the news media respond to those who are vulnerable to abuse.
A vast inquiry has been opened into child sexual abuse at a string of British institutions from parliament to the BBC, children's homes to churches.
The number of abuse allegations being made in the UK has spiked since one of the BBC's top presenters, Jimmy Savile, was exposed as a serial paedophile after his death in 2011.
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