‘ABUSE LIAR NICK WAS A PAEDOPHILE’
He hid child porn on an iPad and ‘tried to frame his own son...’ Trial hears how ‘VIP fantasist is committed, deceitful attention seeker’
THE former nurse who accused dozens of senior public figures of being part of a VIP child sex ring is himself a ‘committed and manipulative paedophile’, a court heard yesterday.
Carl Beech tried to ‘frame’ his teenage son after being caught downloading indecent images, jurors were told.
The father of one – known by the pseudonym ‘Nick’ during the £2million Scotland Yard inquiry into his claims of serial murder, multiple rapes and torture – hid his sexual interest in young boys behind a secret app on his iPad. He also covertly recorded another child using a toilet. Beech, now 51, viewed child pornography of the ‘gravest kind’ and spied on small boys during the period in which he was interviewed by detectives over his allegations against former politicians and military and intelligence chiefs, jurors were told.
He was convicted of making and possessing indecent images of young boys and voyeurism earlier this year, after going on the run to Sweden in a bid to escape prosecution.
Details of Beech’s child abuse image case were revealed at Newcastle Crown Court on the second day of his trial for 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud, all of which he denies.
Beech told police in 2014 that he and other children were sexually abused by powerful figures, including former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, ex-home secretary Lord Brittan, former Tory MP Harvey Proctor and ex-Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall. He also accused former heads of M15 and MI6 of being part of the alleged Westminster paedophile ring.
He even told Metropolitan Police detectives that the VIP child sex gang murdered three boys in front of him.
In 2014, a Scotland Yard officer described his claims as ‘credible and true’. Opening the case against Beech on Tuesday, Tony Badenoch QC, prosecuting, said his allegations were in fact ‘ incredible and untrue’, ‘ totally unfounded’ and ‘hopelessly compromised’.
Beech’s paedophile offences came to light after Northumbria Police launched an investigation into him after the Met’s VIP sex abuse inquiry, Operation Midland, was closed without any arrests or charges in 2016.
Officers raided his rented Gloucester home and seized electronic devices on which they found indecent images of young boys, covert images of schoolboys taken by him, and recordings.
Sitting in the glass-panelled dock, bearded Beech kept his head held high and looked at the prosecutor as he revealed what had been discovered on the equipment.
Mr Badenoch said: ‘These child sex offences were committed whilst he was speaking to police officers.
‘At the same time as he perpetuated these lies about Harvey Proctor and so many others, he was also viewing indecent images of the gravest kind and spying on small boys.
‘He had installed on his own iPad a secret app. It was an app which looked to all and intents and purposes like a calculator. Only it wasn’t.
‘Two codes were required to look at the content stored behind the calculator. What was that? Indecent images of young boys of the most serious kind and a covert recording.’ Mr Badenoch said Beech was prosecuted but initially denied several offences as he sought ‘ to point the finger of blame elsewhere – [ at] his own teenage son’.
Later, however, he pleaded guilty, after a jury had been sworn in, Mr Badenoch said. That took 18 months, and included the former nurse and £ 45,000- a- year Care Quality Commission inspector fleeing the country.
The prosecutor continued: ‘ This evidence demonstrates that Carl Beech is a committed and manipulative paedophile, capable of deceit to investigators and limitless manipulation when required, including, if necessary, framing his own child.
‘The sort of individual concerned only for himself, unconcerned with the impact upon others; whether it is falsely accusing them of heinous crimes. It also demonstrates that Carl Beech has an interest in child pornography. Not something which is learnt behaviour from something which happened, but the reverse.
‘He watches child pornography concerning boys, possesses it, records young boys covertly, and writes about it over hundreds of pages.’
HEAVILY IN DEBT
Earlier, the court heard that Beech’s claims of sadistic abuse were made because he ‘craves attention’ and intended to make money on the international ‘survivor’ speaking circuit.
Mr Badenoch said the defendant had an ‘audience’ when making his claims of a VIP paedophile ring to the Met, which led to appearances on television as a ‘shadowy figure’ under the pseudonym ‘Nick’.
Beech spent hours in the company of police, making the allegations and attending the alleged scenes of the crimes.
He also bought a white Ford Mustang convertible using a £10,000 cash deposit made from a fraudulent
criminal injuries compensation claim relating to his abuse allegations, the court heard.
Beech was said to be heavily in debt and ‘spending beyond his means’, regularly enjoying holidays overseas.
Mr Badenoch said: ‘Speaking and writing would have provided Carl Beech with an audience and probably some income.’
NICK’S ‘MEMOIRS’
Police found the draft of Beech’s memoirs, which extended to 150 pages, and a document titled Too Many Secrets, it was said.
However, Northumbria Police officers examining the documents found they differed to what he had told Scotland Yard. In one such example from 1976, he alleged he had been stripped and tied face down on a garden table. ‘It was the hottest summer on record until last year,’ Mr Badenoch said. ‘He’d passed out on the table, awoken to find the doctor, probably the doctor “the group” had, bathing his sunburn.’
He added: ‘ It was another example never made to the Metropolitan Police in the 20 hours of interviews.’
THE FUGITIVE
Jurors heard how Beech moved to Sweden when his ‘lies began to unravel’. In January 2018 he received nearly £60,000 from the NHS as an early retirement pension with an additional £752 per month. The court heard he paid £17,000 for a remote property in a forested area of northern Sweden called Overkalix.
Mr Badenoch said he then began preparing for his life as a ‘fugitive’ by changing his name and growing a beard as a disguise. He began using the name Carl Andersson, but also used the names Oskar Andersson, Sten Andersson and Samuel Karlsson.
He travelled throughout Sweden, catching overnight trains and using gift cards bought with cash to pay for tickets so he did not leave any ‘financial footprint’. But he was eventually arrested last October after a European Arrest Warrant was issued.
The trial continues.