Daily Express

FANTASIST WHO MADE A MOCKERY OF JUSTICE

Police blasted over £2million inquiry into VIP sex abuse lies

- By John Twomey and Paul Jeeves

POLICE chiefs were in the dock last night after a self-confessed paedophile was found guilty of falsely accusingVI­Ps of child murder and abuse.

Former children’s nurse Carl Beech was on suicide

watch as he faced a lengthy prison sentence for tricking the Yard into believing bizarre lies about a nonexisten­tWestminst­er child sex ring.

In one of the most controvers­ial inquiries in the history of the Metropolit­an Police, a team of experience­d Yard detectives took the pervert at his word.

Describing his claims as “credible and true,” they launched Operation Midland – a £2million investigat­ion which resulted in no arrests.

But many legal experts were astounded that Beech – who served as a school governor and NSPCC volunteer – was taken seriously.

One commented: “His statements about the VIPs sex ring were not only bizarre, they were simply incredible and untrue. They were transparen­tly false.”

Despite the debacle and waste of taxpayers’ money, no police officer has been discipline­d over Operation Midland.

There were calls for them to be investigat­ed last night led by the son of the late Lord Janner.

Daniel Janner QC, whose father Lord Janner of Braunstone QC faced allegation­s before he died, said police must be held accountabl­e.

He said: “The policemen who put out that Carl Beech’s lies were ‘credible and true’ in 2014 should be prosecuted for the crime of misfeasanc­e in a public office.”

Beech – then known only as Nick – told a stream of malicious lies leading to heavy-handed police raids on the homes of Second World War hero Lord Bramall, now 95, the late Lord Brittan and former Conservati­ve MP Harvey Proctor.

The three men, and a series of others named by Beech including Sir Edward Heath, were completely innocent. But their reputation­s were dragged through the mire.

Mr Proctor lost his job and his home after he was falsely identified by Beech as being one of the sadistic murder gang.

The former MP blasted the Met describing Operation Midland as a “truly disgracefu­l chapter in the history of British policing.” He is suing the force for £1million.

Lord Bramall and others have already received substantia­l payouts from the public purse.

Beech, 51, initially made his bizarre allegation­s through the now defunct Exaro news agency and won support from Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, then an influentia­l backbenche­r, the BBC and other news outlets.

He repeated the outrageous lies in a series of interviews with the Yard between 2012 and 2015.

Over hours of tearful interviews, Beech claimed that his late stepfather, an Army major, raped him, then passed him on to other officers including generals.

At a now notorious Scotland Yard press conference, Detective Superinten­dent Kenny McDonald described Beech’s allegation­s as “credible and true” even though there was no corroborat­ion.

He alleged he had been tortured at military bases and subjected to savage sex abuse by other establishm­ent figures in the 1970s and 1980s. Beech named Sir Edward, Mr Proctor and Jimmy Savile as well as former heads of the security and intelligen­ce services and other VIPs figures as members of the fictitious sex ring.

The fantasist claimed to have witnessed the rape and murder of a boy who could have been a missing teenager called Martin Allen.

Beech said another youth was beaten to death by the gang and a third was deliberate­ly mowed down by a car and killed.

After Operation Midland collapsed, retired judge Sir Richard Henriques was brought in to investigat­e the way the Yard carried out Operation Midland.

Damningly, Sir Richard said Beech’s claims should have been probed “without any of the men named by Nick ever knowing about it.”

Stung by the collapse of the operation, the Met’s then Commission­er Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called in Northumbri­a Police to investigat­e

 ??  ??
 ??  ?? Lord Janner faced accusation­s
Lord Janner faced accusation­s
 ??  ?? Sir Edward Heath was named
Sir Edward Heath was named
 ??  ?? Lord Brittan was investigat­ed
Lord Brittan was investigat­ed
 ??  ?? Harvey Proctor is suing police
Harvey Proctor is suing police
 ??  ?? Det Supt Kenny McDonald led hunt
Det Supt Kenny McDonald led hunt

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