When he was accused of murder, former Tory MP Harvey Proctor resigned as the Duke of Rutland’s private secretary.
After the allegation was proven false and his accuser, the visionary Carl Beech, is now serving 18 years in prison for perverting the law and other crimes, Proctor has regained his job at the age of 75. “After six years, my secretary has decided to leave the post, so I thought, ‘Who would be better than Harvey?'” the Duke tells me from Belvoir Castle, his ancestral home in Leicestershire. ‘He knows the castle, he knows the security and he knows some of the people here.’
The Duke, David Manners, adds: “When he resigned I would not have believed for a minute that the allegations were true. I am delighted that he has agreed to return to his job.”
After being accused of murder, former Tory MP Harvey Proctor (pictured) resigned as the Duke of Rutland’s private secretary. Now, at 75, he has his job back after the claim was debunked
The Duke of Rutland told the Daily Mail: ‘I didn’t believe for a minute the allegations were true’
When he quit his £40,500-a-year post, Proctor lost his home on the estate but was allowed to move back in after the Duke’s daughter Lady Alice Manners and her boyfriend Otis Ferry moved out in 2020.
Carl Beech has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after making false allegations of murder and child sexual abuse against prominent figures
“I’m back at my old house, a beautiful house in the Vale of Belvoir,” says Proctor. “I honestly don’t think I have any feeling or need for justification. Others proved what happened in 2015 was just nonsense and I managed to survive it and get out the other side.
Speaking to Iain Dale on his LBC podcast All Talk, he adds: “I thought there was no future and now I feel confident and relaxed and ready for whatever someone wants to bring me.”
Beech’s lies included claims that an established pedophile ring was responsible for three murders.
Proctor has urged the Met Police commissioner to give him transparency ‘before I die’. He said something had been “denied” to the late Lord (Leon) Brittan, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, Sir Edward Heath and others who were also being investigated.
Poignant letter shows Philip as a young outsider
Prince Philip has never forgotten what it was like to find himself in a foreign country as a young boy, according to TV presenter Floella Benjamin, who has revealed she received a poignant letter about his experience.
Greek-born Philip (right) wrote Floella Benjamin a poignant letter about his experiences of arriving in the UK as a child
“He wrote me a letter saying that he knew what it was like to come to a foreign country as a child,” says Baroness Benjamin. “After he came here from Greece, he went to Cheam School [aged nine]where he felt like an outsider.’
Lady Benjamin, 72, has told how her childhood was marred by racial abuse after moving with her family from Trinidad to Kent in the early 1960s. She confided in the Queen and Prince Philip at a royal event she attended.
‘[The Queen] talked about her family, cooking and the Commonwealth and gave the impression that she wanted to hear about my life,” she tells Saga magazine.
“I could tell she had great empathy. Prince Philip too.”
Shoeless Jodie steps back into the sun
Comer as Villanelle in the hit series Killing Eve
Jodie Comer is unbound and free of fantasies now that she has completed her acclaimed run in the one-woman Prima Facie.
The 29-year-old Killing Eve star, who rose to fame as the seductive assassin Villanelle on the hit BBC drama, was seen kicking off her sandals and relaxing barefoot under a tree on London’s Hampstead Heath. She took her final bow in the West End on Sunday, but hasn’t finally said goodbye to her role as attorney Tessa just yet as the play heads to New York next year.
“It has been an absolute privilege to tell Tessa’s story here in London and to now have the opportunity to bring Prima Facie to Broadway is a dream come true,” says the star.
Ms Comer relaxed under a tree with her sandals off on Hampstead Heath
The nocturnal Swan Lake star danced off his feet
The Oscar-winning film Black Swan follows a ballerina’s descent into insanity after taking on the role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake.
Now the Royal Ballet’s Francesca Hayward has pulled back the curtain on her own experience of the role.
She revealed how one night she was so exhausted that she had to be carried back to her dressing room at break. “I was so tired I could barely walk,” says Hayward, 29, who shared this picture, right.
Despite her fatigue, she kept fighting to appear in the tragic finale.
The designer lashes out at fashionistas
Bruce Oldfield was a favorite of Princess Diana and designed the gorgeous dress the Duchess of Cornwall wore in her new Vogue shoot – but don’t you dare call him a fashion designer.
“Fashion people scare me,” explains the couturier. “I just don’t want to be around her. Those people who spend all their time in fashion houses.’
Oldfield, 71, is even more scathing about the New York Gala. “When you look at the Met Ball, it’s embarrassing,” he says. “The women in the past who have gone have been so stylish and well dressed.
“But this new gang appears to be wannabe drag queens.”
Prince William has yet to reveal how he plans to celebrate his 40th birthday today, but perhaps he could follow the example of ‘Fifty Shades Of Grey’ star Jamie Dornan. He threw a 40th cowboy-themed party complete with a buffalo rodeo. “For people who think it’s weird turning 40, I tell them, ‘Don’t do it. It’s the best,” Dornan’s musician wife, Amelia Warner, tells me. She turned 40 this month. “We had a big party together and it was the best experience. Something about that birthday felt so happy and so celebratory.”
Until he tested positive for Covid last week, Sir Mick Jagger seemed to have been on the road as much as ever despite the pandemic, but his ex-wife Bianca has revealed she has refused to leave the house since Covid arrived in 2020. “Today was the first time I came out of my isolation after more than two years,” says the 77-year-old human rights activist.
“I took my dearest friends Eleanora Kennedy and her daughter Anna to Royal Ascot because she had a horse running, Warrior Brave. It’s wonderful to be alive again.’
Unfortunately, the horse finished 14th, proving you can’t always get what you want.