ITV News tonight had a very disturbing story about former Liberal MP Clement Freud, who died in 2009. Two women have gone on the record to say that he sexually abused them, when they were teenagers, two decades apart.

From ITV News:

One of the women, Sylvia Woosley, spoke in public for the first time to  ITV Exposure about the abuse she suffered at the hands of Freud, who died in 2009.

She said Sir Clement, who was a close family friend and 14 years older than her, initially started to groom her and touch her inappropriately when he lived close to her parents’ house in the South of France…

Exposure spoke to a second woman, on the condition of anonymity, who said she was groomed by Freud in the 1970s, when he was an MP…

The second woman said that he raped her when she was 19.

His widow also gave a statement to the programme:

This is a very sad day for me. I was married to Clement for 58 years and loved him dearly. I am shocked, deeply saddened and profoundly sorry for what has happened to these women. I sincerely hope they will now have some peace.

A party spokesperson said:

These allegations are horrific. We are desperately sorry to learn that lives have been ruined by a man whose public face was so greatly at odds to his true character. It has clearly taken a lot of courage for these women to speak out, after a lifetime of having to hide it.

This is the latest in a terrifying line of cases where high profile figures have systematically used their status, celebrity and power, to abuse and to rape.

Clement Freud was a senior figure in the Liberals, our party’s predecessor, and we are deeply shocked and horrified by this news. Our party was never aware of what happened, and our hearts go out to the women who were affected.

An ITV documentary will be broadcast tomorrow night.