Leon Brittan's accusers must now show us their evidence
Everyone knew about Leon Brittan and the Westminster paedophile ring. Nobody had any evidence. But it had to be true, because everyone said it was
I hope Leon Brittan was a paedophile. That he abused boys. Raped women. Made snuff films. Sat at the heart of a sprawling Westminster web of perverts and child killers, and then used his vast power and influence to cover up his heinous crimes.
I pray every single one of these horrific allegations are true. Because if they’re not, then what Leon Brittan and his family and friends have had to endure in the final years of his life represents abuse that in its way is as sickening and destructive as any of the abuses of which he was charged.
Though of course Leon Brittan was never charged with anything. Except in the court of public opinion.
Actually, he never even got that far. In the court of public opinion Brittan would at least have had the ability to defend himself. Instead, he found himself trapped within a Kafkaesque purgatory of rumour and innuendo and suspicion.
And what were those rumours? The strong favourite was
The Parliamentary Child Abuse Ring. I do mean favourite. When I began working at the House of Commons in the early nineties,
I must have been there for less than a month before I was brought up to speed on it. The Tories – and strangely it was only ever senior Tories that shared this sexual predilection – were running an underage vice network. Brittan was its ringleader, the Yellow King of his day. Its tentacles spread far and wide. A number of other household political names were at the heart of it. And unlike other parliamentary rumours, this one was true. It had to be true, because it was so well established.