Wiltshire police spent the past two years reviewing allegations against 40 people, revealing a string of sex attacks spanning decades.
The report includes the alleged rape of an 11-year-old boy, indecent assault of a 10-year-old boy and the indecent assault of a 15-year-old boy during three “paid sexual encounters,” The Guardian reports.
The various assaults are said to have occurred between 1961 and 1992 in London, Kent, Sussex, the Channel Islands and Wiltshire. Sir Edward Heath was PM between 1970 and 1974, with police saying none of the allegations took place while he was Prime Minister.
Though authorities stress the report makes no judgement on the former politician's guilt or innocence, Chief Constable Mike Veale said there were “compelling and obvious reasons to investigate” the allegations.
“I hope people will understand that, given these circumstances, it would be an indefensible dereliction of my public duty as a Chief Constable not to have investigated such serious allegations against a former Prime Minister, even though he is deceased,” he said, as reported by The Independent.
Children and adults who report sexual abuse “deserve to be listened to and taken seriously,” he added.
