London: A third woman claiming she was sexually abused by the late British Liberal MP Sir Clement Freud has called for his knighthood to be revoked.
But the request is likely futile with the Cabinet Office re-confirming that knighthoods are only given to living persons and they cease once the recipient dies.
British woman Vicky Hayes, 64, has accused Freud, a friend of her family's, of frequently molesting her when she was seventeen.
She reported the crime to the Suffolk police in 2010, one year after Freud died.
Clement Freud is the grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and was revealed to be a friend of McCann family, whose four-year old daughter Madeleine disappeared from Portugal where they were holidaying in 2007. She has never been found.
Freud was in the UK at the time of Madeleine's disappearance but befriended the girl's parents Gerry and Kate shortly after.
Sylvia Woosley has claimed Freud began grooming her when she was ten years old, and the abuse escalated when her mother sent her to live with him in London four years later.
"I just want to clear things up before I die ... I want to die clean," Ms Woosley said.
Another anonymous woman has told ITV's Exposure program that Freud groomed and later raped her when he was a Liberal MP in the 1970s.
A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats described the allegations as "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," the spokesperson said in a statement.
"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."
Clement Freud had a variety of careers, including as a famous chef, media personality and society regular. He is reported to have boasted to have been the first person to book Australian entertainer Rolf Harris, who has been jailed for indecently assaulting underage girls.
Harris' honours in Australia and Britain were revoked in 2015.
In a statement released in response to the program, his widow Jill Freud, 89, said she was "deeply saddened and profoundly sorry for what has happened to these women".
with AAP
