“A curious quirk in the law”: should the falsely accused be recognised as victims?

Between 2014 and 2016 the Metropolitan Police ran Operation Midland on the strength of claims by Carl Beech that a Westminster paedophile ring had abused and murdered children. The claims were fabricated. The operation closed after two years with no arrests and no charges, having cost around £2.5m, and Sir Richard Henriques’ independent review found 43 serious failings and concluded that the search warrants had been obtained unlawfully. No officer has been disciplined. One of those searches was of Lady Brittan’s London home, about eight weeks after her husband’s death, while she was sorting through letters of condolence; she describes it as probably the worst day of her life. Beech was jailed for 18 years in 2019 for perverting the course of justice, and released in February 2026 having served less than half. Because that offence is committed against the Crown, the people he accused are not in law victims of it — so none of them was told he was being freed, and none knows what conditions he is living under.

Those Beech accused included the former Home Secretary Lord Brittan, who died in January 2015 without being told he had been cleared; Field Marshal Lord Bramall, whose home was searched and who died in 2019; and the former MP Harvey Proctor, who lost his home and his job. Those who survived it, and the families of those who did not, are now campaigning for a change in the law. Fronting it are Lord Brittan’s widow, Lady Brittan of Spennithorne, a magistrate, who gives the interview below, and Harvey Proctor, now president of FACT — Facing Allegations in Contexts of Trust. Sir Cliff Richard joined them in October; his home was searched in 2014 over an allegation that never led to an arrest, filmed live by the BBC from a helicopter, and he later won a privacy action against the broadcaster. The family of Lord Bramall and Peter Batey of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation have also signed.

Their letter of 22 October to the Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, asks whether the new provisions of the Victims and Courts Act 2026 extend to people harmed by malicious false allegations — in particular the right under section 44M to be told of an offender’s release and licence conditions — and if not, whether the framework will be reviewed so that “these forgotten victims are no longer excluded”. An earlier letter in July went unanswered. The Ministry of Justice told Sky News that assessments are made case by case, and that victims who have suffered harm as a direct result of criminal conduct can request information about an offender’s release “and receive it where appropriate” — which restates the test without saying whether the falsely accused meet it. We have covered the campaign twice already: Sir Cliff Richard’s intervention on 30 October, and the earlier call for victim status on 11 October.

The segment is from Sky News’ The UK Tonight, broadcast on 2 November 2026 and available in full on YouTube. The presenter is not named on air.

This is a transcript of the false-allegations segment, about ten minutes of an hour-long programme. The views are the speakers’ own.

The interview

Presenter: Sir Cliff Richard has joined calls for people affected by malicious and false allegations to be legally recognised as victims. The singer’s home was rated live on TV in 2014 over allegations which never led to an arrest. That was one of two catastrophic policing failures around that period, both related to claims of sexual assault and both sparking investigations which were devastating for those involved. One of those people was former Home Secretary Lord Britton, who was accused of being part of a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster. That claim totally made up, but it sparked a major police investigation, Operation Midland. Lord Britton died of cancer before he was officially cleared. Well, the man who invented the claims, Carl Beach, was jailed for perverting the course of justice. But in a quirk of the law, the Crown is seen as the victim in such cases, not the subject of the allegations.

And that means those falsely accused by Beach and their families were not told that he was being freed earlier this year and still don’t know the conditions he’s living under. I’ve been speaking to Lord Britton’s widow, Dame Diana Britton, who along with Sir Cliff Richard and the other families affected by Operation Midland is calling on the Justice Secretary to ensure that no one else goes through what they have.

Lady Brittan: You could argue that for me, of course, as the spouse of somebody who has been falsely accused, it’s different. But it doesn’t mean to say that it’s not been a long, hard battle for me personally, because what I had to try and do from day one, because from day one were extremely unpleasant stories once he died, I’ve had to fight my hardest to clear his reputation, to make sure that the things that he did during his life which were entirely in public service were recognized a bit. And now we’re now sort of 10, 11 years on. And I just feel that it is, would have been nice to have been treated a little bit better all the way along the road, and particularly now as somebody who has been affected by this particular crime.

Presenter: Your husband had to go through being falsely accused publicly. He had terminal cancer when he was interviewed under caution in May 2014 over allegations. I think it’s important to put across the effect that it had on him and on you, because as I said, people will not understand when they hear your story why you aren’t considered a victim.

Lady Brittan: Well, that perhaps is the $64,000 question. Certainly he was questioned under caution for a slightly different matter when he was alive. And I did my very best in that last year because he was really extremely ill and died shortly afterwards, to protect him as best I could from the worst effects of it. But the cumulative effect, of course, is on the family as well. And when, after my husband died, my daughters, who lived elsewhere out of London, were quite worried about my safety. Now this, perhaps I wasn’t worried myself, but you know, it does have a ripple effect on the family. My daughter lives in Australia and there were television programs there and she had to live through the repetition of the accusations against him.

Presenter: As I said, legally, your husband, your family, not seen as a victim in perverting the course of justice the Crown is, which means that you are not afforded the usual rights of victims. And you want to change this.

Lady Brittan: Well, I’m trying to say that this is a curious quirk in the law. Mr Beach was convicted of the perversion of the course of justice, and if you rightly said, it’s an offence against the Crown, which of course assumes, or assumes in people’s minds, that there are no, quote, victims, unquote, of it. But of course there are, because in this particular case, the three of us, or the three of us and our families, were affected by the accusations because it was about the snatching away of reputations very quickly. Now Sir Cliff has said all of that as well, because of course his case is different, but he was raided publicly, which is completely different with it all being filmed. And I think that he’s, I’m very pleased that he’s joined the campaign because he too has been the victim of false accusation.

Presenter: The letter from yourself, Sir Cliff and others, says to the Justice Secretary that no one should have to endure what we suffered. And while it is too late for families like yours, you’ve lived with the effects of it, continue to do so. You want to change this for others.

Lady Brittan: Well, I’ve always said when asked in any interview that I don’t do this for myself. It’s too late for me. And it’s probably too late for my husband. But what I’m absolutely convinced of is that in every community, in every housing estate, in every school, in every church, there are leaders. And the effects of false allegations against leaders of any community is devastating. Reputations get trashed very quickly, and it’s very hard to repair a reputation only because, of course, it’s very difficult to prove a negative. So I’m really trying to campaign as much as I can to say, don’t let it ever happen to anyone else. And on that particular point, it’s also the fact that I think it’s very easy to misunderstand how quickly reputations go and how very difficult it is to get them back.

Presenter: If you and Sir Cliff Richard were to be afforded the usual rights of victims, how would that have changed things for you with Carl Beech’s release?

Lady Brittan: I think there are two things that would have happened. Firstly, we would have known, perhaps, when the release was going to take place. And secondly, it would have been very interesting, I think, for us, certainly, for Harvey Proctor and myself and for the Bramall family to find out if there were licensed conditions that directly affected us. Like, for instance, the propagation of more information or the saying to the press that none of it was true. I mean, there are all sorts of things. It would have been nice to have known that there were prohibitions for Carl Beech about doing things that perhaps we wouldn’t want.

Presenter: Lady Brittain, you sit here today and you are very calmed and measured and very stoic about something monumental that happened to your husband. I mean, for those who aren’t familiar with this story, it did occur over a decade ago, but it spawned a police operation, the Met Police Operation Midland, which was the investigation into allegations made by Beech, with no arrests or charges after two years of that operation. And it cost over two and a half million pounds. No police officer has been disciplined or held to account despite an independent review that found 43 serious failings, including that searches of the homes, including yours, were unlawful.

Presenter: I’ll just let that sit because that is a lot. It is a lot. To comprehend, for you to live through. And I just want to know your feelings now at this point because it seems to me that you don’t carry any bitterness or anger, which I find quite remarkable.

Lady Brittan: Well, I’ve always said to myself, there’s no point in being bitter, twisted, a victim. I’ve always been very careful to say, I don’t really feel a victim, but I do feel very strongly because I very much uphold the rule of law. I do feel strongly that what happened to me in particularly as far as the searches are concerned, and indeed all the subsequent action that came as a result of it. But I don’t want anyone to go what I went through because after all, when that search took place, my husband had died something like eight weeks before and I was on my own in my house in London, trying to sort through some letters of condolence and knock at the door and all of that, search warrant appeared. And I just feel that it was a most traumatic event. I mean, if I were to describe it as probably as an upholder of the law and a magistrate, it was probably the worst day of my life, but for all sorts of reasons, you don’t remember it.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a very clear memory because I put it out of my mind, but it has been a tough battle and you do need a lot of inner resources to keep going.

Presenter: Well, as I said, Lady Brittain, I find your attitude remarkable. Thank you. And you’re doing this, sharing your story again for the benefit of others, this open letter that you and the other families affected, including Sir Richard, Sir Cliff Richard, that has gone to the Justice Secretary. What would your message be about not being ignored this time?

Lady Brittan: Well, I just hope that by putting a little pressure and with Sir Cliff’s edition, that’s a very good edition, at least we’ll get some sort of answer out of it. And the glaring hole is a glaring hole. I mean, I think people like us, maybe there aren’t very many cases on a yearly basis, but nonetheless, it doesn’t mean to say that we were not profoundly affected. We were profoundly affected in a totally different way from having an injury or something of that nature. And so, because the trashing of reputations is a completely different matter to say, you know, a biff in the face. And I just hope that we get some sort of definitive answer which says, at least we’re looking at your situation and we’re going to try and move it forward.

Presenter: Well, we have asked the Ministry of Justice to respond to Lady Brittain’s comments in that interview and the call for new rights for those affected by malicious allegations. The spokesperson telling Sky News, this was a terrible case. And our thoughts remain with all those affected by Carl Beech’s crimes. While assessments are made on a case-by-case basis, victims who have suffered harm as a direct result of criminal conduct can request information about an offender’s release and receive it where appropriate.