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Conservative MP's half-brother charged over alleged historical sex abuse Conservative MP's half-brother charged over alleged historical sex abuse
(about 7 hours later)
The half-brother of a senior Conservative MP has been charged over alleged historical sex abuse. Charles Napier, the half-brother of Conservative MP John Whittingdale, has been charged as a result of a criminal investigation into allegations of historical child sexual abuse. Richard Alston, a former head teacher at a boarding school, has also been charged.
Charles Napier, 67, from Dorset, is accused of one count of inciting a child to commit an act of gross indecency, Scotland Yard said. The Metropolitan police said the charges relate to alleged offences in the late 1970s when the alleged victim was an 11-year-old child.
He is the half-brother of MP John Whittingdale. Napier, a former teacher, has also lived in Sweden and worked for the British council in Cairo.
Police also charged a second man, Richard Alston, 69, from Suffolk, who is accused of five counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency with a child. The Metropolitan police said Napier, 67, had been "charged with one count of inciting a child to commit an act of gross indecency contrary to section 1 of the Indecency with Children Act (1960)."
The charges date back to the late 1970s and concern an alleged victim who was 11 years old at the time. The Met said Alston, 69, was charged with five counts of indecent assault and three counts of gross indecency with a child.
Both men are due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 29 July. Napier, now a resident in Sherborne, Dorset, where he lives with his 92-year-old mother, was arrested in June 2013, by Operation Cayacos, which is a strand of Operation Fairbank.
The men were arrested last year under Operation Cayacos, a strand of a wider investigation that was launched following claims by MP Tom Watson. Detectives launched Operation Fairbank after Tom Watson MP made claims in parliament about a paedophile ring with establishment connections.
In 2012 Watson used parliamentary privilege to claim that a file of evidence used to convict Peter Righton of importing child pornography in 1992 contained "clear intelligence" of a sex abuse gang. Both men have been released on bail and are scheduled to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 29 July.
He wrote to Scotland Yard, who launched criminal investigation codenamed Operation Fairbank, which has since spawned two more inquiries – Fernbridge, which is looking at claims linked to the Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London in the 1980s, and Cayacos. The Met said that the "charges relate to offences which occurred in the late 1970s when the victim was 11 years old".