I never detected the slightest whiff of scandal about Powell , writes Simon Heffer . Four years before he died in 1998 , Enoch Powell did me the honour of asking me to write his biography . I spoke to almost everyone alive who knew him . When he died , I had unique access to a vast collection of private papers , including numerous intimate letters . If there is anyone alive other than Enoch ’ s widow and daughters who knows more about him than I do , I ’ d like to meet him . I never detected the slightest whiff of scandal about Powell . His probity in personal and financial matters was rock solid . When on Saturday evening a fellow journalist told me of the allegations made by the Church of England , my first instinct was to laugh : but that soon changed into utter outrage when I realised he was serious . The Church has publicly accused Enoch of being involved in ritual satanic abuse on hearsay , without the slightest evidence . They might as well accuse him of having been a war criminal or an armed robber , for there would be as much truth in either allegation . The appalling slurs are just like those made against 91-year-old Lord Bramall , a D-Day veteran and former chief of defence staff , whose homes in London and North Yorkshire were gratuitously raided by police recently on the back of an unspecified allegation of a sexual nature dating back to the 1970s . It is not just that the bishops who have made these accusations are behaving in a remarkably un-Christian fashion by putting this smear into the public domain . But that they do not appear even to have engaged what passes for their brains , or consciences , before behaving in this grotesque and offensive fashion . Scroll down for video . Their brains should have told them that a man of Enoch ’ s controversial reputation would never for a moment have got away with the type of behaviour they are alleging he indulged in during the 1980s . The Establishment turned against Enoch in 1968 after the so-called Rivers of Blood speech ; it would never have protected him for a second had it detected the slightest whiff of scandal . Their consciences should have told them that to make such an outrageous allegation about an enormously distinguished public figure who can not defend himself , and which would cause the deepest distress to his family and friends , was the height of mischief and irresponsibility . It is disgraceful and destabilising for clergy to behave in this way , and the Church needs to investigate those responsible for this smear and take action accordingly . These post-Savile accusations bring to mind the hysteria surrounding allegations of satanic abuse in the late 1980s and early 1990s , including notorious cases in Rochdale and the Orkneys that involved social workers and police forcibly removing children from their homes in dawn raids . Enoch Powell , pictured making a speech in 1977 , has been named in a Church of England review into historic sex abuse . When the London School of Economics investigated 84 alleged cases , it found no convincing corroborative evidence of any abuse – yet families had been torn apart on the say-so of those who insisted action be taken . For decades , Enoch Powell has long been a bug-bear of the liberal Establishment . He has been demonised not least because to attack his memory is a quick and effective way for them to score points by setting out their own political correctness . What better way for some mischievous Leftist priest to damage Enoch further than by linking him with the current rash of stories about child abuse ? In 1998 , just after Enoch died , the BBC broadcast a programme in which they railed at Enoch for his hypocrisy . They said this scourge of mass immigration had visited the West Indies in 1953 to recruit black labour for the NHS . I was told of the story before the programme was broadcast and informed its researcher that Enoch had never been to the West Indies in his life . I was told , effectively , that I was lying , and it was broadcast . The allegations are a monstrous lie . That the lie appears to have been retailed by a priest is beyond contempt , writes Simon Heffer . A black clergywoman , then resident in London , talked at length of Enoch having recruited her as a nurse . The story was rubbish . Detailed investigation by the BBC complaints department found that the woman had been recruited after a visit to her island by Jack Profumo , not Enoch Powell at all , and the Corporation was forced to make a grovelling on-air apology in peak time . I have long dreamt of the day when ignorant politicians and Establishment figures would stop manipulating Enoch ’ s memory for their own advantage . But I never thought I would hear of bishops of the Church of England doing it . The allegations are a monstrous lie . That the lie appears to have been retailed by a priest is beyond contempt . There must be an investigation and , for all the distress this outrage has caused , there must be a reckoning .
Late Tory MP was one of the most prominent politicians of the 20th century . He has been named in Bishop of review into historic sex abuse . Powell 's name was given to police by Church of England Durham Paul Butler .