The case sounds like something out of a gritty British crime thriller: in England, a police investigation has been underway for a year against former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath, who died in 2005 at the age of 89. Known as a passionate yachtsman and owner of a total of five yachts called "Morning Cloud", Heath is alleged to have abused and murdered children on his yacht according to statements from alleged victims. According to the British daily newspaper "The Daily Telegraph", the investigation known as "Operation Conifer" is ongoing. So far, however, the statements and accusations of the alleged victims have apparently not been corroborated by evidence.
In a statement, according to The Daily Telegraph, Heath is accused of taking two boys from a children's home in Jersey sailing, where he allegedly abused one of the boys and then threw his body overboard. While Heath's former crewmates have stated that they never witnessed any misconduct, police have so far refused to provide information on when and where the offences are alleged to have taken place. Heath's former co-sailors have called the investigation "ridiculous" and are calling for it to be dropped immediately.
Former Morning Cloud sailor Anthony Churchill, 81, told the Telegraph: "We don't believe a word of it. I know eight of us have already been interviewed. We can all say the same thing: nothing untoward happened. We now feel victimised until the police clear this up quickly." A spokesman for Wiltshire Police told the newspaper: "We have a duty to proactively investigate on behalf of the people who have told us they have been abused. We endeavour to maintain proportionality, independence and fairness in order to meet the public's expectation of an appropriate police response. We cannot release details of the ongoing police investigation until it is complete because that would not be fair to either side."
So far, the police have questioned a dozen people who sailed with Edward Heath in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Heath won the Sydney Hobart Race in 1969 with the "Morning Cloud" and thus achieved an extremely high popularity rating in his home country. Shortly afterwards, he was elected Prime Minister. In 1971, Heath, who was regarded as likeable and fair by his crews and international sailors, won the Admiral's Cup with the British team. One of his long-time companions was Hans-Otto Schümann, a three-time Admiral's Cup winner from Hamburg who died in 2014 and, like Heath, survived the fatal Fastnet Race in 1979. The "Morning Cloud" and Schümann's "Rubin" crossed the finish line at almost the same time.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
