Harvey Proctor blasts Met Police for handling of case after false accusations he was a child killer

Former MP Harvey Proctor arrives at Newcastle Crown Court this morning

Ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor has blasted police for being ‘rude, arrogant and aggressive’ after he was falsely accused of raping and murdering children as part of a secret network of Westminister paedophiles in the 1980s.

Mr Proctor, 72, erupted with fury as he described his accuser as ‘mischievous and malicious’ and fumed that police mishandled his case. 

In a clear voice, Mr Proctor replied ‘no sir’ when the details of the ‘horrendous’ accusations were put to him, as alleged to the police by former nurse Carl Beech, 51.

Beech is on trial for perverting the course of justice after accusing a dozen prominent men – including Mr Proctor and former Prime Minister Ted Heath – of heinous crimes.

In heated exchanges at Newcastle Crown Court today, Mr Proctor said he had every right to be indignant with how the police conducted their inquiry.

Discussing how he was not interviewed until June 2015, despite having his home searched three months earlier, he said: ‘If they genuinely thought that I had murdered anyone, why would they have waited three-and-a-half months to interview me and then interview me on a voluntary interview but not charge?

‘They’re allowing a murderer to roam the streets of Leicestershire for three-and-a-half months?

‘An absurdity, but just another absurdity in the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Midland.’

Beech claimed that when he was a child of around 12 in 1980, Proctor demanded oral sex, abused him with a pen knife, and murdered two children, one after tying him to a table, raping, and stabbing him. 

Mr Proctor was also accused of murdering a third boy by beating him to death.  

The politician blasted the Met Police for letting Detective Sergeant Danny Chatfield – Beech’s direct liaison officer – be involved in the 15-hour search of his home in Belvoir, Leicester, in 2015. 

At the time, detectives referred to Mr Proctor’s accuser as ‘Nick’ and said the allegations were ‘credible’.

Mr Proctor said: ‘I am surprised that the Metropolitan Police chose the family liaison officer for Nick to be in that house for the search or involved in the interviews I gave. It was quite wrong in my view, quite wrong.’

The former MP was accused of ‘facetiously’ asking of the interviewing detectives: ‘How do I know Nick even exists?’   

Mr Proctor defended himself, saying: ‘I wanted to know what the police’s game was. I knew it was not credible or true as they had said, so why were they going on with this charade.

‘I wanted to discover whether these police officers interviewing me also thought Nick was credible and true.

Carl Beech, 51, on trial at Newcastle Crown Court accused of perverting the course of justice

Carl Beech, 51, on trial at Newcastle Crown Court accused of perverting the course of justice 

‘If they thought what he was saying was true what was the point of interviewing me?’

He added: ‘I was angry, I was angry at having for three and half months having the foulest allegations over me, having lost my job, having lost my home, I had every right to feel indignant.’ 

Mr proctor said he was not completely surprised that the police raided his home in 2015 because he had been involved in a ‘high profile homosexual case’ in the 1980s. 

However he said: ‘I did not expect the police to arrive mob handed in blue forensic suits.’ 

Collingwood Thompson, QC, for Beech, who denies inventing ‘extraordinary tales’ of murder and abuse began his cross examination today at Newcastle Crown Court. 

Mr Thompson said: ‘Yesterday you had allegations put to you which you denied. I have to put to you that those allegations are in fact true.’  

He asked whether Mr Proctor had been surprised when the police ‘arrived en masse’ at his door. 

Mr Proctor said: ‘I was surprised to be woken at 8am by 15, 16, 17 police officers coming to my door talking about a search warrant regarding historic child sexual abuse of which I had of no knowledge. 

He was then asked: ‘But did you say to Detective Constable Chatfield words to the effect the visit to your address was not unexpected?’

Mr Proctor replied: ‘I cannot recall saying that, it is four or more years ago. 

‘I was a member of parliament at the time and I suppose I was a homosexual and had had that incident in 1986 or 87, there was history there. 

Mr Proctor said today the Met Police officers who handled his case were ‘rude, arrogant and aggressive’

Carl Beech aged 10

Carl Beech aged 10

The jury have been shown pictures of Carl Beech aged around 10 in his final year of primary school when he claimed the abuse began

‘If you are asking whether I expected them to call because I was guilty of the allegations surrounding their press conference of December 2014 then absolutely not. 

‘I had not met your client until I had seen him across the courtroom and have done nothing in connection with any of the allegations your client has mischievously and maliciously made against me.’ 

The court has previously been told Mr Proctor had admitted four charges of gross indecency relating to homosexual relationships with younger men in 1986 when the age of consent was 21. 

It was put to Mr Proctor that he had been closely monitoring matters in Operation Midland -which was launched on the back of Beech’s claims against high-profile politicians.  

Mr Thompson asked him why he had mentioned being approached by a journalist in 2014 about rumours which surfaced online about him running over and killing a boy. 

Timeline of Beech’s alleged falsehoods and the investigations they launched

2014/2015: Over more than 20 hours of recorded police interviews, Carl Beech makes lurid allegations of child rape and murder against senior Establishment figures including Ted Heath and Lord Brammall.

November 2014: The Met Police launch Operation Midland, which raids the homes of several elderly men looking for evidence to support Beech’s claims. A detective calls the accusations ‘credible and true’.

April 2015: D-Day veteran and former Army chief Lord Brammal interviewed.

June 2015: Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, whom Beech accused of child murder, interviewed under caution.

March 2016:  Beech notified no further action was to be taken in respect of the allegations he had made.

2016: Northumbria Police conclude Beech’s claims are ‘totally unfounded, hopelessly compromised, and irredeemably contradicted by other testimony’.

November 2, 2016: Police arrive to raid Beech’s home in Gloucester. 

January 23, 2018: Beech got £60,000 as an early pension from the NHS

February 6, 2018: He travels to Calais preparing to flee to Sweden, where he buys a cabin in the woods and lives under a series of assumed identities, travelling hundreds of miles from city to city to stay on the run

October 1, 2018: He was tracked down by Swedish and British police and arrested in advance of a 20-hour train journey to Gothenburg booked in the name of ‘Samuel Karlsson’.

2018: A highly critical review of Operation Midland reports police ‘acted like they were searching for bodies’ during raids on homes. 

2018: Beech pleads guilty to possessing indecent images of children, in a separate trial.

December 2018: restriction on reporting of Carl Beech’s real identity lifted.

May 2019: Beech goes on trial for perverting the course of justice.

One of Carl Beech’s allegations was that a childhood friend had been run over and killed by The Group – a fictitious group of VIPs who raped and tortured him and other boys. 

Mr Proctor told the court: ‘I told the journalist I was not prepared to talk to him, I wasn’t connected. 

Did I run over or was I part of a group that arranged the running over of a friend of Mr Beech in Kingston? 

‘The answer is certainly not. I did not play a role in any group that organised the running down by car of Mr Beech’s friend.’ 

Mr Thompson put to him: ‘This interchange with the police officer and the remark you made was because you were monitoring what was going on in Operation Midland and that is why the visit of the police was not unexpected?’ 

Mr proctor replied: ‘Given that the police were looking at matters that happened while I was an MP and I was involved in a high profile homosexual case, I don’t think it is unfathomable I might be connected with what the police were saying, but not because I had anything to hide, quite the reverse.’ 

In earlier evidence Mr Proctor said Beech’s allegation that he murdered at least two boys ’emanates from a polluted imagination’ and his accusations were ‘the ravings of a fantasist.’ 

In a tearful account to the Metropolitan Police in 2014, Beech graphically laid out the rapes and murders he claimed he watched Mr Proctor carry out. 

Two boys, whose names he was never able to reveal, died horrifically at Mr Proctor’s hand in London townhouses, he claimed. 

Another boy was mown down by a car in Kingston upon Thames, just because he was Beech’s friend, he told Detective Sgt James Townly. 

Beech wept as he described how Mr Proctor raped a boy who was tied to a table, stabbed him in the arm and eventually strangled him to death. 

The boy died as Beech held his hand, he claimed. Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald of the Metropolitan Police described his account as ‘credible and true’ before the police had even spoken to Mr Proctor, the court has heard. 

The ex MP told how he lost his job on the Duke of Rutland’s estate as a result of those words. 

He told the court: ‘They were working on the principle based on the words of the Metropolitan Police – ‘credible and true.’ 

‘Detective Superintendent Kenny Mcdonald of the murder squad held a press conference in December 2014 before the start of any Metropolitan Police investigations and declared that he thought the person making these allegations was credible and true. 

‘I thought it was an extraordinary statement to be made by a senior police officer at the start of any investigation. 

‘At that time I did not know they referred to me. When I realised it did refer to me I knew It was utterly balderdash and the most extraordinary thing.’ 

When he became aware of the details of the allegations Mr Proctor was horrified. He said: ‘They were horrendous, horrible, heinous allegations, the worst thing one human being can say about another, it was all untrue. 

Beech denied 12 counts of perverting the course of justice by inventing his account of being abused by a VIP sex ring which also included Leon Brittan, Edward Heath and the former head of the British Army, Lord Bramall. 

He is further accused of fraud through falsely claiming £22,000 in criminal injuries compensation. The trial continues.  

Mr Proctor told the court he was sueing both Carl Beech and the Metropolitan Police for up to £1m.

He told the court: ‘I was annoyed with the police for what they had done, I remain annoyed with the Metropolitan Police for what they have done.’

Collingwood Thompson mentioned the civil case against the Met and Beech, asking him: ‘You are claiming a sum of something like £1m?’

Mr Proctor said: ‘I think the documents have to say that, I would be prepared to settle for much less as a matter of fact.

‘I sued not just Metropolitan Police but also your client and won a judgement in the civil courts for that matter.’

He was asked whether he thought Carl Beech had up to £1m to pay him.

He answered, referring to the Ford Mustang allegedly bought by Beech with criminal injuries cash: ‘I have no idea what your client has available to him. I know he has the ability to buy expensive motorcars.’    

Beech is on trial for claiming £22,000 criminal injuries compensation under false pretences and perverting the course of justice through lies which implicated Mr Proctor alongside Sir Edward Heath, Leon Brittan, army Commander-in-Chief Lord Bramall and the heads of MI5 and MI6.

When prosecutors laid out their claims against Beech at the opening of the trial opened, the court heard:

  • Beech is a convicted paedophile who pleaded guilty after police found indecent  images of young boys, including some recorded by Beech, on devices in his home
  • He fled to Sweden once police closed in and lived in a remote cabin in the woods under a series of assumed identities and false names
  • He claimed to have sketched the locations at which abuse took place from memory – but his laptop showed he had googled them before speaking to police
  • He claimed not to have researched the men he accused – but had googled them
  • He claimed his abusers mowed down and killed a boy, ‘Scott’, whom he tried to befriend – but the boy did not exist. He was shown in police footage telling officers about this fictitious incident 
  • He claimed a fellow victim, ‘Fred’ could corroborate his story – but in fact he made up the friend and posed as ‘Fred’, fabricating emails to police
  • He claimed he had been regularly taken out of school to be abused by multiple men at ‘parties’ – but his attendance at his schools was exemplary
  • He claimed he had a lifelong fear of water, abused by the men, who dunked him and threw him off boats – but photos show him snorkelling on honeymoon
  • He produced an ‘abuse map’ of the places and ways his body was tortured – but his medical records show no evidence of abuse
  • He claimed he was abused on beds in cabins on Ted Heath’s yacht – but the vessel was a racing yacht and only had hammocks
  • He claimed MP Harvey Proctor had threatened to cut his genitals off with a pen-knife Proctor later gifted to Beech. He gave the knife to police asking for forensic tests – but his estranged wife told police he’d kept it in a ‘happy memories’ box 
  • He had googled how victims of Jimmy Savile received compensation
  • He bought a £34,000 convertible Mustang with the compensation payout he received for the alleged abuse
  • He was in debt and living grossly beyond his means, intending to make money on the international speaking circuit, speaking about his ‘abuse’ 

Beech’s claims led to raids on the homes of prominent and elderly people including Proctor. 

Beech’s extraordinary unfounded accusations were levelled against a list of prominent men including:

  • Former PM Sir Edward Heath: he said he was sexually abused at Heath’s home in London and on his yacht
  • Former head of the army Lord Brammall: he said Brammall repeatedly raped him and was present at the first meeting of ‘the group’
  • Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor: he said Proctor demanded oral sex, abused him with a pen knife, and murdered two children, one after tying him to a table, raping, and stabbing him
  • Former head of MI5 Michael Hanley, and former head of MI6 Maurice Oldfield: said to be responsible for abuse and torture including spiders being tipped over him, electric shocks, and having darts thrown at him, culminating in threats ‘to make him disappear’
  • His step-father, Major Ray Beech: he said his step-father frequently and repeatedly abused, raped, and beat him, the first time in a public toilet at a wildlife park 
  • Former Home Secretary Leon Brittan: He said Brittan murdered a child, describing him as a ‘mini-Harvey’ who was sadistic and enjoyed putting his head under water

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