QUEEN RULES
A FANTASIST and paedophile has been found guilty of making false claims of murder and child sex abuse against several VIPs.
The lies of Carl Beech, once known only as Nick, are likely to have cost taxpayers at least £4million.
Wrongfully accused former Tory MP Harvey Proctor called the case “a truly disgraceful chapter in British policing”.
A 10-week trial revealed quietly spoken vicar’s son Beech – who worked as a school governor and NSPCC volunteer – had duped Met detectives.
They called his lurid claims “credible and true”.
A £2million operation followed, with raids on the homes of Field Marshall
Lord Bramall, now 95, the late Lord Leon Brittan and Mr Proctor, Newcastle crown court heard.
A second police inquiry into his claims, and his trial, is likely to have cost another £2million.
Often breaking down, Beech initially told police that his late stepfather, an army major, raped him, then passed him to generals to be tortured at military bases. He claimed he was sadistically sexually abused by leading politicians and VIPs in the 70s and 80s.
Beech named ex-PM Sir Edward Heath, Jimmy Savile and security chiefs Sir Michael Hanley, the head of MI5, and MI6 boss Sir Maurice Oldfield among his abusers. He claimed a schoolboy – named only as Scott – was deliberately killed and another boy, possibly missing London teen Martin Allen, was raped and strangled in front of him. Another youth was “battered to death”.
A series of witnesses disproved his claims, with compelling testimony from men whose reputations Beech ruined chasing compensation. General Sir Hugh Beach, 96, told the jury allegations against him were “beyond grotesque”. But Beech, 51, stood by his lies and showed no emotion at the jury’s guilty verdicts. He was convicted of 12 charges of perverting justice, and one of fraud over a £22,000 claim for compensation based on a false tale of rape by Savile. Beech, of Gloucester, fled to Sweden after police found child abuse images on his computer. He later admitted possessing hundreds of images and voyeurism. He is due to be sentenced for all offences on Friday. Mr Proctor, 72, is still to settle with the Met, saying that its raid cost him his home and the job he loved, working for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland. The Independent Police Complaints Commission found no case to answer against three officers. CLAIMS Ex-PM Heath RAIDED Harvey Proctor QUEEN’S 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody is the first pre-90s music video to get a billion views on YouTube. It cost £4,500 to make.