Woman, 67, ‘arrested’ as police probe claims Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer was sexually abused aged 11 at school
A 67-year-old woman has been arrested after cops probed claims Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer was sexually abused at school.
The woman was arrested a day after Northamptonshire Police announced they had opened a criminal investigation into Spencer’s allegations that he was molested, aged just 11, at Maidwell Hall preparatory school in the 1970s.
Details of the alleged sexual assaults he suffered at Maidwell Hall boarding school were published in his biography.
Earl Spencer, now 60, claims that an assistant matron, who he dubs a “voracious paedophile”, preyed upon him and other boys by grooming them and going on to abuse the in their dormitory beds at night.
He said that she was 19 or 20 at the time.
The Earl wrote how the matron, whom he did not name, had first “kissed me on the lips” before she “promoted me to the second rank of her reverse harem: those she intimately touched”.
Northamptonshire Police announced they had opened an investigation on June 10 and detectives arrested a Stafford woman the following day.
The woman has since been released on conditional bail, said the force.
A police spokesman said: “We are in the early stages of investigating a number 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 enquiries.
“Northamptonshire Police takes all allegations of abuse very seriously and where reports are made to us, we will pursue all available lines of enquiry to help bring perpetrators to justice.”
The suffering the Earl endured during his five years at the prep school led him to deliberately make himself sick.
Spencer claimed that as a result of the abuse he suffered, he lost his virginity to an Italian prostitute aged 12.
His sister Princess Diana would later struggle with bulimia.
Maidwell Hall, is just 10 miles from Althorp House, the family seat of the Spencers and where Diana is now buried.
Maidwell Hall has previously urged anyone with similar allegations to Spencer’s to come forward and contact the police or the local authority.
Northamptonshire Police have also encouraged “anyone who has suffered abuse” to contact them and stressed that people reporting sexual abuse have the legal right to lifelong anonymity.