The alleged victim, now 64, says the sexual assault took place in an exclusive Mayfair flat in 1961 when Heath was a Tory MP

Former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath raped a 12-year-old boy after picking up the youngster when he ran away from home, it has been sensationally claimed.

The alleged victim, now 64, says the sexual assault took place in an exclusive Mayfair flat in 1961 when Heath was a Tory MP.

Detectives from Scotland Yard’s sexual exploitation unit have been informed of the claims from the man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, and plan to interview him.

The Mirror can reveal for the first time specific details the alleged victim has made in statements to his legal team which are due to be passed to police.

The man reported the attack two months after the incident but says he was “fobbed off” by social workers.

Edward Heath: The boy claims the former PM raped him in a Mayfair flat when he was 12

It was not until four years later, in 1965, when he recognised Heath’s photo in a newspaper that he claims he finally knew the identity of his abuser, breaking down in tears in front of his mother, saying: “The man in this picture raped me, mum”.

The man, who worked as a rent boy throughout his adolescence and was in his later life convicted of child sex crimes, claims he kept his secret bottled up until this year.

In a letter to his solicitor, in which he tells how he was picked up in car, saying: “I think it was about August 1961 when I ran away again….I decided to hitch a lift.

“I stuck my thumb out as I walked….when a car pull up and the window was lowered and the driver asked me where I was going. I told him the West End (of London) and he told me to get in the car.”

Abuse claims: Former Prime Minister Edward Heath and Jimmy Savile

During the journey he started a conversation with a man who he later identified as Heath.

Describing the event, he says: “He was asking me why I was on my own and I told him I wanted to have time on my own and that I came to London on my own a lot and my mum wasn’t worried.

“He asked me if I had somewhere to stay to which I replied in the negative. He said if I wanted to I could stay at his place for the night.

“I was grateful and accepted but knew that he hadn’t asked out of generosity and that I would have to pay, probably with my body but it didn’t bother me, as I had been using my body for over five years now and it was almost second nature.”

Lifelong bachelor Heath was a champion yachtsman and world class musician.

Rape claims: MP Baron Reginald Prentice (right) with Cyril Smith (left) and Edward Heath (centre)

After describing being taken to “a very posh place” that the man called “my home”, the alleged victim adds in his letter: “I went into the living room where I had a cup of tea and a sandwich he had made.

“I noticed photos of yachts on the wall but one thing that intrigued me was a silver stick in an open box on a sideboard.

“I asked him what it was and he told me it was a conductor’s baton. It made him laugh when I said I had never seen a bus conductor with a baton. He explained it was an orchestra’s conductor’s baton.”

The man claims he was abused throughout his childhood by his father who sold him for sex to his paedophile friends on a Kent council estate.

The location he claims was picked up, along the A2 road in north Kent, is believed to be less than two miles away from where the Tory politician was allegedly warned by police in the 1950s to cease cruising for gay sex.

Sir Edward Heath: It is alleged he abused a boy when he was aged just 12

The area is also around two miles from the Old Bexley and Sidcup constituency Heath served for 51 years before he retired from politics in 2001.

The man adds: “I don’t know how the conversation got round to sex. After having a shower he said that he only had one bedroom and that if I was OK with that I could share his bed.

“We spent the night masturbating each other…..I don’t know what time we eventually slept.”

The man has told his legal team Heath also had full penetrative sex with him that night.

He continues in the note: “I woke the next morning….I got up and got dressed and went into the living room.

Child abuse claims: Edward Heath drives down a street in Bexley

“There was a sandwich on the table….he said he had a morning appointment and that it was time to leave….he let me out the front door and told me the way to the West End.”

He goes on to detail how in 1965, when the man was 15-years-old, he saw a picture alongside a newspaper article with Heath standing next to Margaret Thatcher.

Addressing the female Tory PM by her maiden name Roberts, he writes: “In the picture was Margaret Roberts (who became Margaret Thatcher), Edward Heath…..and a lady (somthing) (I think Smith).

“I realised at once that the man in the photo was the man who had given me the lift and had sex with me in an apartment in Park Lane.

Child abuse claim: Ted Heath singing copies of his book December 1975

“I learned that he was MP for Bexley. This answered a lot of questions as to why no-one believed me about the London saga. I got called a liar and a fantasist.”

Heath was Conservative Prime Minister Heath between 1970 and 1974 and leader of Party from 1965 to 1975 when he lost the leadership to Margaret Thatcher. He died in 2005 at the age of 89.

Scotland Yard have declined to confirm whether or not they were due to interview the alleged victim.

Labour MP and child abuse campaigner Simon Danczuk said: “These are very serious allegations and they need to be investigated as a matter of urgency.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/sir-edward-heath-child-abuse-6188388