Ted Heath Fixed It For Jimmy Savile To Receive OBE

Fact checked
Ted Heath

Ted Heath fixed it for Jimmy Savile to receive an OBE and to attend Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) meetings.

Edward Heath backed ­paedophile Jimmy Savile for a royal honour  even though two years before the previous Prime Minister warned the Queen against it.

The Mirror reports:

Savile was passed over for an MBE a month before the former Conservative leader moved into No10, the Sunday People can reveal.

But less than two years after Heath took office, the TV presenter – exposed after his death as a serial child-sex abuser – was awarded the HIGHER honour of an OBE.

Heath later appeared on Savile’s BBC TV show Jim’ll Fix It when it was one of the nation’s favourites.

We can also reveal that Heath, under investigation by seven police forces over child abuse claims, was present at more than half a dozen Westminster meetings of the notorious Paedophile Information Exchange.

The perverted group was formed to persuade politicians to lower the age of sexual consent to only ten.

The revelations raise fresh doubts over the character of Heath, who died aged 89 in 2005.

Government files show that in May 1970 the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson did “not wish to submit the name of Mr Jimmy Savile for an MBE in the Birthday List”.

Heath took office weeks later after a June General Election and stayed in power until 1974.

And records reveal how Savile was put forward for an OBE midway through Heath’s stint as PM.

The award was made in the New Year’s Honours List of 1972.

Top of the Pops presenter Savile ­officially received the honour in March of that year.

A source said: “While nothing has been proven against Heath, these sort of links show why the fullest possible investigation is necessary.

“The authorities must find out if there was any sinister reason for this apparent U-turn over honours to be awarded to Jimmy Savile.”

The words: “The Prime Minister would not wish to submit the name of Mr Jimmy Savile for an MBE in the Birthday List,” appeared in a heavily censored note to civil servant Sir William Armstrong dated May 5 1970, when Wilson was still in power.

The notes goes on: “He would, ­however, be ready to consider his name again for a future list.”

Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, became a Sir in 1992 following ­repeated attempts by Margaret Thatcher to have him knighted.

Jimmy Savile knighthood

The relationship between Savile and Heath is being probed by North Yorkshire Police.

The Yorkshire-born DJ had a home in Scarborough, North Yorks, where he is suspected of abusing ­children with local ice cream parlour boss Peter Jaconelli.

A picture published by the Sunday People in June showed Heath meeting 21-stone Jaconelli, who had become the ­resort’s mayor, at a civic ­reception in 1970.

Savile and Jaconelli are suspected of being ­involved in the abuse of 35 young ­victims as part of a paedophile ring operating in Scarborough.

Jaconelli, who died in 1999 aged 73 and is buried in the same cemetery as Savile, is feared to have ­escaped charges because of his links to the rich and powerful.

North Yorkshire Police said last week they were “undertaking a ­comprehensive search of force systems to ­assess if there is any ­information or intelligence held in relation to Mr Heath”.

A dossier of files compiled by former Labour minister Baroness Castle showed Heath was present at Westminster meetings ­with paedophile rights campaigners from the PIE group.

Heath is said to have attended at least a quarter of the 30 or so monthly or bi-weekly meetings.

His name is said to have appeared on minutes of the private gatherings, also apparently attended by other MPs, along with scoutmasters and headteachers.

But the Castle files have been ­missing since the mid 1980s.

The baroness, a former MP for Blackburn and Euro MP for Greater Manchester, died in 2002. It was claimed by Savile’s nephew Guy Marsden last week that a boy of 14 was abused by Heath at a London party.

The unnamed victim is said to have been targeted by the politician just over a year before he became Prime Minister after the boy was picked up by Savile.

The man claims he ­recognised his alleged abuser as Heath only when he saw the politician on TV several years later.

Earlier it was revealed a man had come forward to claim to police he had been abused by Heath at the age of 12 in a flat in Mayfair, central London, after he was picked up as a ­hitch-hiker when he ran away from home in 1961.

London’s Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that it had been decided “there were no lines of inquiry that could proportionately be pursued” in relation to that rape allegation.

Heath’s supporters have been highly critical of the allegations being made against him. Former Tory MP Matthew Parris today slammed the “idiocy” surrounding the claims.

But Heath is the highest-profile figure to emerge in allegations of a VIP paedophile ring.

The Sunday People has led the way since campaigning Labour MP Tom Watson first asked David Cameron to investigate historic ­allegations of paedophile links to 10 Downing Street.

We told how the initial focus of investigations by the Met focused on the notorious Elm Guest House in Barnes, South West London.

Among the names said to have visited were politicians Leon Brittan, Cyril Smith, Nicholas Fairbairn and Sir Peter Morrison, along with Soviet spy Anthony Blunt.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.