Did he make up a second victim, too?

CLAIMS supposedly made by a second victim were ‘fabricated’ by Beech himself, jurors heard.

Beech is accused of creating an encrypted email address to pose as a man called ‘Fred’ in order to corroborate his own accounts.

It was Fred who told Scotland Yard investigators: ‘Nick and I went through hell together.’

But when officers from Northumbria Police investigated Beech for allegedly making false claims, they found the ProtonMail account, based in Switzerland, was in fact registered to the email address beechfamily1@gmail.com.

Beech claimed that he and Fred had been part of a group of boys subjected to sadistic child abuse in the 1970s by public figures including Sir Edward Health and Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

Prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC told the jury: ‘Unsurprisingly, investigators wanted to speak to Fred,’

When trying to make contact with Fred, investigators initially went through Beech. Mr Badenoch added: ‘Ultimately, Fred made contact by email with the Metropolitan Police. Or so it appeared.

‘When the investigation was completed by police officers, they went to the email provider. The encrypted email address from which Fred was corresponding had not been set up by Fred. The person behind the email account was Carl Beech.’

Mr Badenoch said that the Fred account was emailing Scotland Yard officers as Beech continued to make allegations about the paedophile ring to police. ‘All of this was going on while individuals were being traced, their houses being searched and their lives being turned upside down,’ he added.

The court was shown extracts of emails between Fred and investigating police officers and psychologists, where they asked if they could meet him. In one, Fred said his name in childhood was John.

He later said he had ‘concerns’ about meeting, adding: ‘I have received a threat that I take seriously. I have not told Carl about this, but if they can trace me, they can trace him.’

Mr Badenoch told the jury Beech knew a man called John, who was best man at his wedding. The ‘real John’ has never witnessed any abuse or been abused, he added.

‘This, of course, adds up to a straightforward conclusion,’ he said. ‘There was no John abused with Nick in the way he alleged. He was a fabrication from beginning to end.’

The jury was shown sketches Beech had produced for Scotland Yard that were said to depict places where he was abused as a child.

Addresses included the Carlton Club, where he said he had been abused by Mr Proctor, among others, and Dolphin Square, in Pimlico, also in central London, which was home to a number of politicians in the Seventies. He also provided officers with a list of names of alleged abusers and addresses.

Beech told officers he had drawn the sketches and provided names from memory, but jurors heard he used a work computer to make searches for images of and information about places including the Carlton Club and Dolphin Square.