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Scotland Yard closes investigation into historical VIP abuse claims

Scotland Yard has said that Operation Midland, the police investigation into historical claims of a Westminster VIP paedophile ring, has closed.

The announcement came after former Tory MP Harvey Proctor - the last person to be investigated by Operation Midland - was told he will face no further action over allegations which he consistently denied.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse, the senior officer in charge of Operation Midland said "it is absolutely right that we assessed carefully the allegations made to us". The allegations - which spanned between 1975 and 1984 - were made by a single person.

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Victims do not want 'any innocent person to be pilloried'

Peter Saunders, Chief Executive, National Association for People Abused in Childhood Credit: PA

Alleged child abuse victims do not want "any innocent person to be pilloried, let alone convicted", a campaigner has said.

Founder of The National Association for People Abused in Childhood Peter Saunders said police made an "error in referring to somebody's testimony as 'credible and true'" during Operation Midland.

He called for a line to be drawn under Operation Midland so that police can continue to go after child abusers.

From a victim, survivor point of view I hope that there is a line drawn under that and we now allow the police to go after abusers, helping support survivors of these crimes and we don't spend too much time dwelling on something that went wrong.

Nobody, least of all victims or survivors, would want any innocent person to be pilloried let alone convicted. We do have an issue that many survivors are delicate, hurting people.

The initial investigation and initial accusations obviously carried enough credibility and weight that the police felt justified in launching an investigation. Where they made an error was to refer to somebody's testimony as 'credible and true'. That was very, very unfortunate.

– Mr Saunders
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Scotland Yard closes investigation into historical VIP abuse claims

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