Lord Bramall owed police 'apology' over child sex probe

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has called for Lord Bramall to receive a "proper apology" for his treatment during the Metropolitan Police's child sex probe.

He said the former armed forces chief had been subject to "maximum pain" as a result of the mishandling of an investigation into claims he was part of a ring of high-profile child abusers.

The 92-year-old saw the allegations against him dropped due to a lack of evidence, although critics blame the Met for putting the D-Day veteran through the trauma of a 10-month inquiry.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Mr Fallon said: "Somebody, somewhere owes Lord Bramall a proper apology for a case that clearly was badly handed... Clearly he was mistreated extremely badly.

"The case itself it seems to have been handled very clumsily to cause maximum pain to the field marshal, and somebody somewhere owes him an apology."

Scotland Yard launched Operation Midland, a probe into allegations of historic abuse by senior public figures, after hearing claims from a man known as "Nick" who has been granted anonymity.

However the collapse in the case against Lord Bramall has led to questions over the veracity of his claims.

According to an investigation by The Sunday Times the allegations made by Nick bear striking similarities to an account by a male accuser of Jimmy Savile.

The man, known as Stephen, appeared in a 2014 documentary where he described abuse by the BBC star, but did not mention abuse by the other high profile figures that later sparked Operation Midland.