Murder link to Margaret Thatcher aide accused of raping teenage boyExclusive: Police are examining whether Sir Peter Morrison could have been linked to the mysterious
death of young Vishal Mehrotra in 1981 By Bill Gardner9:31AM GMT 05 Jan 2015 Scotland Yard is investigating a possible link between one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest aides and the unsolved murder of an eight-year-old boy in the 1980s.
Sir Peter Morrison, the former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party who died in 1995, was a known child molester but was never charged with any crime during his lifetime.
Now police are examining whether the MP for Chester could have had any link to the unsolved murder of eight-year-old Vishal Mehrotra in 1981.
Last week a 46-year-old man told the Telegraph that Morrison raped him when he was 14, and claimed Scotland Yard covered it up.
The alleged victim said he was walking in the tiny village of Harting in 1982 when the MP “appeared out of nowhere”, gave him some money and later lured him to London.
There the man claims Morrison raped him in the notorious Elm guesthouse in London, reportedly used by a Westminster paedophile ring for years.
Just months before, the skeletal torso of Vishal Mehrotra had been found in woodland less than two miles away from Harting, which is in a remote corner of West Sussex.
The eight-year-old had disappeared on the day of Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981, less than a mile from the Elm guesthouse.
In November last year, Vishal’s father Vishambar Mehrotra, a retired magistrate, told The Telegraph he had recorded a male prostitute saying in a telephone call that his son may have been abducted and taken to the Elm.
He took the tape to police at the time but claims they refused to investigate an allegation implicating “judges and politicians”. Mr Mehrotra said it had been a “huge cover-up”.
The Metropolitan Police have already confirmed they are investigating possible murders linked to the guest house.
An Old Etonian and barrister by background, Morrison was Lady Thatcher’s trusted parliamentary private secretary and deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. In 1990, he led Thatcher’s disastrous leadership campaign team when she lost power.
Morrison was first exposed as a serial child abuser in 1998, three years after he died from a heart attack. The man, now a married businessman, is the first of Morrison’s alleged victims to speak publicly.
He believes the paedophile MP could have had some link to Vishal’s killing. Later this month, officers are due to visit the man at his home in Hampshire to interview him about the case.
The man said: “I believe that I might never have made it out of that house if I had stayed. Morrison treated me so viciously, and the guesthouse had such a threatening atmosphere with all these men hanging around.
”It felt like a place where terrible things had happened.
“That’s why I think there’s a chance that Morrison could have had something to do with the death of that little boy. He was so confident he was never going to get into trouble. He thought he had the right to do what he wanted.
“We were out in the middle of nowhere, and this little boy was dumped less than two miles from where I lived. And apparently he was abducted and taken to the same place where I was assaulted. To me, there are too many coincidences. It's got to be worth looking at."
The victim’s father also remembered that police had told him in the days after his son was attacked that officers were investigating possible links with the dead boy found nearby only months before.
But he says the family never heard anything more from police.
He said: “I got a phone call and they said the attack might have something to do with the disappearance of the little Indian boy who was found up the road.
“But we didn’t hear anything at all after that.”
Vishal’s father Vishambar Mehrotra said he “fully supported” the new line of enquiry into his son’s murder.
He said: “There have been enough cover ups already. It’s time for the truth to finally come out, one way or the other.”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the force was investigating Morrison’s alleged victim's claims.
