Police would have had sufficient grounds to question Sir Edward Heath over allegations he raped and indecently assaulted boys were he alive today, an investigation has found.
Wiltshire Police said seven historic claims spanning from 1956 to 1992 would have been sufficiently credible to justify interviewing the former Conservative Prime Minister under caution.
The £1.5m operation, codenamed Conifer, only aimed to assess whether there would have been enough evidence to question the late MP for Bexley, who died in 2005.
Police said none of the allegations, claiming Sir Edward assaulted victims as young as 10, took place while he was Prime Minister.
“No inference of guilt should be drawn by the decision to interview under caution,” a spokesperson added.
“The account from Sir Edward Heath would have been as important as other evidence gathered as part of the wider investigation.”
They include 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”, and are said to have occurred between 1961 and 1992 in London, Kent, Sussex, the Channel Islands and Wiltshire.
Chief Constable Mike Veale said there were “compelling and obvious reasons to investigate” the allegations.
“Sir Edward Heath was an extremely prominent, influential and high profile person who was arguably one of the most powerful people in the world,” he added.
“The allegations against him were of the utmost seriousness and from a significant number of people.
“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 added that children and adults who say they have been abused “deserve to be listened to and taken seriously”, and must have confidence in the police.
“That is what I will continue to do, without fear or favour,” Chief Constable Veale added. “I believe this was the right moral, ethical and professional thing to do.”
He also said the report was a “watershed moment” for those who made claims of an establishment cover-up, with the investigation team concluding there was no evidence.
During the investigation, three people were arrested on suspicion of non-recent child abuse, with two released without charge and the third still under investigation.
Lord Macdonald QC, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, accused Wiltshire Police of “covering their backs” at the expense of a man who can no longer defend himself.
"This gives entirely bogus credibility to their investigation without meaning anything in forensic terms,” he added.
"The bar for interview is low, in most investigations as low as the police want it to be - and in the case of a dead man, virtually non-existent.
"They are covering their backs at the expense of a dead man. Shame on them."
Lincoln Seligman, Sir Edward's godson, has called for a judge-led review into the investigation and heavily criticised the police’s televised appeal for potential victims to come forward
“I don’t believe any of the allegations,” he told a press conference. “I knew him to be a man of great integrity and not so idiotic as to go and jeopardise his career and the things he wanted to achieve himself and for the country by indulging in something so dangerous and pointless.”
He added: "What's been left is a black cloud that cannot be dispersed and that's not justice."
Mr Seligman said he wanted the outstanding allegations “cleared up”, while the Conservative MP for North Wiltshire said some were “incredible”.
James Gray said Sir Edward “couldn’t possibly have done” what was claimed at times where he was under 24-hour close protection or taking thyroid medication that made him “sexually inactive”.
He added that he would be raising calls for a review in the House of Commons on Monday.
Lord Hunt of Wirral, chairman of the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, called Wiltshire Police's report "profoundly unsatisfactory because it neither justifies nor dispels the cloud of suspicion".
The force called its investigation “impartial and thorough”, stressing its legal duty to look into criminal allegations made against deceased suspects.
It received 42 disclosures relating to 40 people over 14 different police force areas in the UK.
Of those, 19 were found not to meet the threshold for interview, three complaints were withdrawn, 10 were reported by a third party and another three allegations were made anonymously.
The report revealed that there was “reason to suspect” two people may have intentionally misled the police by claiming that they were abused by Sir Edward.
“In the case of one of these disclosures, a live criminal investigation remains ongoing,” it states.
Another person was formally cautioned for wasting police after admitting that they had misled the investigation falsely claiming to be three different people in three separate claims.
Wiltshire Police said its conduct was scrutinised by an independent panel and a “value for money” review by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, which found no wrongdoing.
Operation Hydrant carried out two reviews on Operation Conifer, which concluded that the probe was proportionate and being carried out in line with national guidance.
The report marks the official end of the probe, which was launched in 2015 after Sir Edward was named as a suspect in an investigation into historical child sex abuse.
Its findings will be passed to the wide-ranging Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is being chaired by Professor Alexis Jay.
Wiltshire Police’s probe has proven controversial since a senior police officer made a television appeal outside Sir Edward's former home in Salisbury in August 2015, urging victims to come forward.
Friends and relatives of the former Prime Minister had maintained the “completely asexual” politician’s innocence and heavily criticised the police handling of the investigation.
Operation Conifer began as a corruption probe over claims the prosecution of a brothel owner was dropped after threats were made to expose Sir Edward, with Wiltshire Police leading at least seven forces carrying out inquiries into the former Prime Minister.
But in May last year, the probe found no evidence to support the corruption claims involving madam Myra Ling-Ling Forde, who herself said she had no knowledge of misconduct.
Dr Rachel Hoskins, a leading criminologist enlisted by detectives to examine evidence, said she had “exposed a catalogue of fabrication” at the heart of the investigation and warned the force it should immediately end its consideration of key accuser's “pernicious” claims of satanic ritual abuse.
Dr Hoskins branded the inquiry “a disgrace” and said that, while the force had accepted her report, she had “little confidence” police would pass the findings on to MPs.
It came after another high-profile child abuse investigation, Operation Midland, closed without any arrests being made over investigate claims of a VIP paedophile ring after the evidence provided by a sole witness known as “Nick” was discredited.
Sir Edward was the most high-profile political figure to be linked to the child sex abuse allegations that swept across Westminster.
A raft of politicians from across the political spectrum have been accused of abusing children, including Liberal Democrat Sir Cyril Smith and Labour peer and former MP Lord Janner.
Additional reporting by PA
