BBC apologises for Tory’s link to abuse accusation

The BBC “unreservedly” apologised last night for broadcasting a programme concerning allegations of sex abuse at a children’s home which led to a former Tory party treasurer being wrongly accused.

Earlier yesterday, Alistair McAlpine denied the claims, calling them “wholly false and seriously defamatory”.

McAlpine, 70, who served as treasurer under Margaret Thatcher, said he had never visited the Bryn Estyn care home in Wrexham, Wales, and denied abusing residents there.

McAlpine had been widely named online as the senior Tory who allegedly committed historic abuse at the home. Steve Messham, a former resident, told BBC2’s Newsnight last week that he had been repeatedly abused by a prominent Conservative figure in the 1970s.

However, in a video statement to the BBC’s website last night, Messham said he had not identified McAlpine as his abuser, and apologised to McAlpine for any distress the matter had caused.

“[McAlpine] is certainly not the man who abused me. That is certainly not the man I identified as [abusing] me,” said Messham.

This contradicts the apology issued by the BBC, also on its website, which said: “Mr Messham has tonight made a statement that makes clear he wrongly identified his abuser.”

Responding to the allegations earlier yesterday, McAlpine said: “I have never been to the children’s home in Wrexham, nor have I ever visited any children’s home, reform school, or any other institution of a similar nature.

“I did not sexually abuse Mr Messham or any other residents of the children’s home in Wrexham.”

McAlpine branded as “ill- or uninformed commentators” those who had used the internet to name him as the senior figure referred to by Messham, whose name was withheld by the BBC.

Prime minister David Cameron warned on Thursday against a “witch-hunt”, particularly against gay people.

On the ITV daytime television show This Morning, presenter Philip Schofield handed Cameron a card with a list of names drawn from internet gossip of Conservative Party figures.

Schofield later issued an apology, which was read out on yesterday’s show, after it emerged viewers may have been able to see some of the names for a split second due to a “misjudged camera angle”.