Ex-UK lawmaker home searched by police investigating VIP child abuse claims

LONDON (Reuters) - A former lawmaker said on Thursday British police investigating allegations of historical child sex crimes involving powerful establishment figures in the 1970s and 1980s had carried out a search of his home. Harvey Proctor, who was a Conservative member of parliament during Margaret Thatcher's period as prime minister in the 1980s, told BBC radio detectives had visited his house in Grantham, in central England. "The police have said ... that they're investigating historical sex abuse allegations going back to the 1970s and 1980s," Proctor, who denied any wrongdoing, told BBC radio. "I find myself in a very Kafkaesque, fantasy situation." In a brief statement, a London police spokesman said officers from Operation Midland were searching a house in Grantham. Operation Midland was set up to investigate child sex abuse claims, which involve politicians and other high-profile public figures and include allegations that three young boys had been murdered. Police have said the "credible" murder claims were made by an alleged victim who said he was sexually abused at locations across London and southeast England including military establishments and at Dolphin Square, a central London block of flats close to parliament. Proctor was forced to step down as a lawmaker in 1987 after pleading guilty to four charges of gross indecency for having sex with young men under the age of consent, which was 21 for homosexuality at the time. He told the BBC those offences related to a man who was 19 but had said he was over 21. The age of consent has since been lowered to 16. "I have never attended sex parties at Dolphin Square or anywhere else. I have not been part of any rent boy ring with cabinet ministers, other members of parliament, generals or the military," he said. He said he would have contacted police if he had been aware of an organised child abuse ring. "I am sure some of the allegations are true. But I'm also sure that a lot of the allegations are pure and utter fantasy," he said. Over the last few years, Britain has been rocked by a series of child sex scandals and revelations that celebrities and politicians were involved in widespread abuse. A New Zealand High Court judge has been appointed to oversee a major inquiry into decades of child abuse and whether powerful figures covered it up. (Reporting by Michael Holden; editing by Kate Holton)