A woman has been arrested by police investigating claims by Princess Diana’s brother that a midwife sexually abused him while he was at boarding school.
The 67-year-old was arrested a day after Northamptonshire Police announced they had opened a criminal investigation into allegations by Earl Spencer that he was sexually abused, aged just 11, at Maidwell Hall prep school in the 1990s. 1970.
In his powerful memoir, A Very Private School (an extract of which was published by The Mail on Sunday in March), Earl Spencer, 60, told how a matronly assistant, whom he called a “voracious paedophile”, groomed him him and other young children. .
He said she was 19 or 20 years old at the time.
The earl wrote candidly how the matron, whom he did not name, first “kissed me on the lips” before “promoting me to the second rank of her reverse harem: those whom she touched intimately.”
The 67-year-old was arrested a day after Northamptonshire Police announced they had opened a criminal investigation into allegations by Earl Spencer that he was sexually abused, aged just 11, at Maidwell Hall prep school in the 1990s. 1970.
In his powerful memoir, A Very Private School (an extract of which was published by The Mail on Sunday in March), Earl Spencer, 60, told how a matronly assistant, whom he called a “voracious paedophile”, groomed him him and other young children.
Charles Spencer, 12, reading about the Battle of Blenheim in the War of the Spanish Succession
A young three-year-old Earl Spencer is photographed with his sister, Diana, in 1967, before being sent to boarding school.
Extracts from Charles Spencer’s memoirs were published exclusively by the Mail.
Earl Spencer (left), Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales wait as the hearse carrying the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales, prepares to leave Westminster Abbey in 1997.
Northamptonshire Police announced they had opened an investigation on June 10 and detectives arrested a Stafford woman the following day.
A police spokesperson said: “We are in the early stages of investigating a series of non-recent allegations of sexual abuse at Maidwell Hall School.
‘As part of this investigation we have arrested a 67-year-old woman from Stafford. She has been released on conditional bail while we continue our investigations.
“Northamptonshire Police takes all allegations of abuse very seriously and when reports come to us we will pursue all available lines of inquiry to help bring perpetrators to justice.”
In his memoirs, the earl, who attended Maidwell Hall near Market Harborough between the ages of eight and 13, claimed that the matron abused children in their bedroom beds at night.
He described how the alleged abuse and the emotional turmoil it caused led him to self-harm and desire “full sex from too young an age”, losing his virginity at age 12 to a prostitute in Italy.
Maidwell Hall has previously urged anyone with allegations similar to those of Earl Spencer to come forward and contact the police or local authorities.
Northamptonshire Police has also encouraged “anyone who has suffered abuse” to contact them and has highlighted that people who report sexual abuse have a legal right to lifelong anonymity.