by Our News Desk

FOUR police forces and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) are now investigating allegations that Tory prime minister Edward Heath abused children.

The Star reported yesterday that Heath was at the heart of an IPCC corruption probe into Wiltshire Police, which allegedly dropped the trial of a person arrested on an unrelated charge in the 1990s after they threatened to expose the then-backbench MP who died in 2005.

The probe is being backed up by Wiltshire Police’s own investigation — and now the States of Jersey Police’s Operation Whistle, Kent Police and the Metropolitan Police are also reportedly involved.

“Sir Edward Heath does feature as part of Operation Whistle, currently investigating historical allegations of abuse in Jersey,” a spokeswoman for the island’s force confirmed.

Wiltshire Police said that it and children’s charity NSPCC had received “a number of calls” after appealing on Monday for victims and witnesses to come forward.

One man has claimed that the former PM raped him in 1961 when he was just 12 years old, but that when he spoke up about the Conservative MP’s assault he was branded “a liar and a fantasist.”

Whistle was started following revelations about serious abuse at a Jersey care home and now notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile. Detectives on the island said in June that they were looking at 45 suspects, 13 of whom were “of public prominence.”

She said that Jersey officers were working with Operation Hydrant, a Britain-wide scheme that co-ordinates sex abuse probes.

The sprawling web of investigations is yet another indication of a potential cover-up of sex attacks on children by Establishment figures.

The cascade of revelations followed the IPCC’s announcement of its corruption probe into Wiltshire Police.

The force reportedly shelved the trial of a woman who was in charge of a brothel after she threatened to expose Mr Heath.

The Met refused to confirm whether it was looking into Mr Heath. Kent police has confirmed it is investigating a report of a sexual assault committed in East Kent in the 1960s, linked to Mr Heath by the alleged victim.