In a police interview Beech said a schoolboy friend had been murdered by paedophiles
VIP paedophile ring accuser Carl Beech invented a witness with the codename ‘Fred’ and produced a string of bogus emails to support his false claims, a court has heard.
Beech, 51,said ‘Fred’ suffered abuse alongside him.
But Fred was actually a figment of his imagination, according to prosecutors, and his email account originated with Beech.
Under the pseudonym ‘Nick’, Carl Beech, made heinous accusations against prominent men including a former Prime Minister, former MPs, a former Army chief, and the heads of MI5 and MI6.
An 18-month, £2million Met Police investigation into the men was wound up with no arrests.
A separate investigation by Northamptonshire Police then quickly unravelled Beech’s allegations, Newcastle Crown Court heard yesterday.
The jury were shown pictures of Carl Beech aged around 10 in his final year of primary school when he claimed the abuse began
Yesterday the jury was shown a photograph of the pen-knife Beech alleged MP Harvey Proctor has first threatened to cut off his genitals with, then given him as a gift
Beech’s claims were ‘totally unfounded, hopelessly compromised, and irredeemably contradicted by other testimony’, the jury were told.
This morning Newcastle Crown Court heard Beech agreed to act as an intermediary between investigating officers from the Metropolitan Police and Fred.
Officers were encouraged to receive emails from the ‘witness’ on an encrypted account, which appeared to support Beech’s claims.
But 18 months later when Beech himself became the focus of an investigation they were found to be an elaborate sham, jurors were told.
When Northumbria Police were called in to investigate Beech as a suspect in 2016, their detectives traced the email account to Proton Technologies in Geneva, Switzerland, encrypted email account software which Beech knew how to use.
They quickly discovered the account was registered with the address beechfamily1@gmail.com and realised it was Carl Beech who had created the ‘Fred’ address, the court heard.
Mr Badenoch said that while police thought they were in dialogue with a witness, accused MP Harvey Proctor had his house searched and had been forced to hold a press conference protesting his innocence of child murder.
During the correspondence Fred revealed himself as being called John. Mr Badenoch said Beech had modelled ‘Fred’ on John Prance, who was best man at his wedding.
Beech’s wife Dawn left him before the police investigations began, the court heard.
Mr Badenoch said Mr Prance matches the description of the person being given the pseudonym ‘Fred’ but had never witnessed any abuse nor been the subject of any abuse.
Mr Badenoch said: ‘This of course all adds up to a straightforward conclusion. There was no ‘John’ abused with ‘Nick’ in the way he alleged. He was a fabrication from beginning to end. ‘
Earlier the the jury were shown a video of Beech telling police he didn’t know why he’d kept a pen-knife he claims MP Harvey proctor threatened him with.
The clip shows Beech handing the knife to a Metropolitan Police officer in 2014, along with three journals, black books with post-it notes within them, which contained his notes and drawings.
He tells the officer: ‘It’s been in a box with other stuff, I don’t know why I kept it really.’
Mr Badenoch said yesterday Beech had asked the Met whether any forensic results had been produced from the knife.
H said ‘He was informed they were negative on 23 February 2015.
‘Of course they were going to be, it was yet another fabrication.’
He said when Northumbria Police spoke to Beech’s wife, she told them Beech had not only already shown it to her, but kept it in his ‘happy memory box’.
Court sketch of Carl Beech, 51, from Gloucester, known as Nick, at Newcastle Crown Court
Yesterday as prosecutors laid out their claims against Beech, the court was told that:
- Beech had lived as a fugitive abroad before he was tracked down in Sweden;
- He accused former Tory MP Harvey Proctor of murdering another young boy;
- He also gave police a pen-knife which he claimed had been a gift from Proctor;
- Beech named London Zoo, the Carlton private member’s club and military bases among the alleged places of abuse;
- He also made sketches of the places where he claimed he was abused, which were shown to the court;
- The defendant was accused of making up a story about a childhood friend being killed by a car;
- Edward Heath’s yacht was not as described by Beech, who claimed he had been abused there;
- Beech claimed he was afraid of water – but prosecutors showed pictures of him swimming.
Beech’s claims led to raids on the homes of prominent and elderly people including former army chief, D-Day veteran Lord Brammall, whose wife of 64 years died during the investigation, before his named was cleared.
Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor was accused of rape and murder by Beech. The court heard he is still ‘enraged’ by the accusations
Field Marshall Lord Brammal, pictured with his wife of 64 years Dorothy, who died before his name was cleared
The charges relate to claims Beech made that former prime minister Edward Heath (left), ex-home secretary Leon Brittan (right) and others were part of a child abuse ring
Beech made extraordinary unfounded accusations 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
As well as Heath’s home and yacht, Beech claimed the venues for the abuse included Dolphin Square and the Carlton Club in London, Stowe School, London Zoo, and military bases including Imber, St David’s Barracks, Erskine Barracks which at the time was the HQ of the British Land Forces.
The Met Police spent 18 months and £2.5million investigating Beech’s claims of a Westminster paedophile ring
Beech accused 12 men: Major Ray Beech, his step-father; Lt General Beach; General Gibbs; Lord Brammall; Jimmy Savile; Peter Hayman; Harvey Proctor; Leon Brittan; Greville Janner; Edward Heath; Michael Hanley; Maurice Oldfield.
Mr Badenoch said the 12-week trial would show Beech’s accusations against the men were ‘demonstrably untrue.’
The Metropolitan Police’s disastrous £2 million Operation Midland investigation into Beech’s unsubstantiated and unsupported claims collapsed in 2016 with no arrests, despite a senior detective saying Nick’s stories were ‘credible and true’.
The Met has since paid six-figure sums in compensation to distinguished former Field Marshall Lord Brammall and to Lady Brittan whose late husband Leon was also accused by Beech.
The Met is yet to agree any compensation deal with former Tory MP, Harvey Proctor, 70, who was falsely accused of rape and murder and lost his home and his job as a result.
It is thought Mr Proctor, who received a personal apology from the then Met Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, is seeking more than £500,000 for loss of earnings and damage to his reputation.
Leon Brittan and another accused, Greville Janner, both died within a year in 2015, the year following these allegations.
Dorothy Brammall, who was married to Edwin Brammall for 64 years, died during the course of the investigation and before Lord Brammall’s name was cleared.
During the probe, teams of more than 20 officers mounted dawn raids on the homes of some of the suspects, many of them now old and in poor health.
Last year a review of the flawed investigation, conducted by retired High Court judge, Sir Richard Henriques, said the police had acted as if they were ‘looking for bodies or bodies parts’, when carrying out the searches.
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