THE Conservatives are facing allegations they covered up for a serial rapist MP and made “support” payments to one alleged victim.
Former party chairman Jake Berry wrote to police about the MP – who has been called X for legal reasons – last year, the Mail on Sunday reports.
In the letter, he said the party believed there were five alleged victims and that the “failure of others to act has enabled X to continue to offend and victimise women”.
The letter was reportedly co-authored by former chief whip Wendy Morton and was written after Berry (below) left the party chairman role following the end of Liz Truss’s brief premiership.
He told police that a Downing Street official looking into the MP found “there may be five victims of X who have been subject to a range of offences including multiple rapes”.
Berry added: “We are aware that this matter has been ongoing for over two years… This is not something we are prepared to see continue and collectively we have therefore raised the issue with both you and the Speaker’s Office in the House of Commons seeking an immediate investigation.”
The Mail on Sunday reports the payment to one of the alleged victims was for treatment in a private hospital.
The paper also reported that neither he nor Morton were satisfied with the “scant information provided to us by those who were already aware of the extant allegations”.
He added: “Additionally, neither were we satisfied that enough effort had been made to ascertain the nature of the allegations against X nor were we sure that victims had been properly advised about relevant procedures to bring a complaint.”
Berry and Morton are said to have tasked a Downing Street official and a senior MP to investigate the allegations and produce a report.
Their report found there were two separate complaints against the same MP, with one woman alleging she had been “date-raped” at Conservative Party conference, and that when he had been notified about the complaint he had went on a “spree” of attempting to discredit the woman.
Another related to a woman who had said she was “frightened” to report the alleged attack to police out of fear her alleged attacker may try to ruin her reputation.
The second woman was reportedly paid for treatment in a private hospital and the party is also said to have installed a Ring doorbell at her home.
It is also claimed that “on several occasions” the woman reported the MP had “had called on her and raped her again” and that “huge amounts of bruising” had been noticed on her.
The report warned there was a possibility that the party could find itself criminally liable for its handling of the situation, stating: “It is my view that if this did end up in court, not only would [one of the alleged victims] be poorly served and have a poor success rate but the party would be severely at risk of prosecution because of the peacemeal [sic] approach we have applied in this case and no doubt others.”
And concerns were raised about the risk of the matter becoming public, with the report’s authors warning: “We as a party are still at risk of this being exposed to the press. If that does happen soon, then we will have to deal with whatever the outcome is of such action.”
The Conservative Party declined to comment.
