A charity is looking for new donors to help save dying heritage craft skills after it handed back a multimillion-pound donation due to sex trafficking allegations made against its philanthropic benefactor.
English Heritage welcomed an £11.2 million donation in August from the foundation of British businessman and philanthropist Hamish Ogston (pictured). It was earmarked to go towards training and apprentice wage costs on its heritage skills programme.
However, a Sunday Times investigation alleged in September that Ogston had engaged in the sex trafficking and attempted trafficking of southeast Asian women and the procurement of class-A drugs over a period dating back 15 years. Scotland Yard is now reviewing the evidence.
A month later, English Heritage announced that it had severed ties with the Hamish Ogston Foundation given the “extremely serious nature of the allegations”. The Charity Commission has also opened a regulatory compliance case.
