Beech used his ‘respectable’ background to trick police

AS A school governor, a former children’s nurse and an NSPCC volunteer, Carl Beech used his credentials to fool police officers into launching a disastrous investigation.

Born in Wrexham in 1968, Beech was the only son of Robert and Charmian Gass, who were both nurses.

His parents split up shortly after his birth and in 1976 his mother married army officer Raymond Beech and the family moved into military accommodation at Wilton Barracks in Wiltshire.

Major Beech, who already had three children from his first marriage, was an uncompromising disciplinarian who was nevertheless prone to violence when drunk and his relationship with his stepson was difficult from the outset.

The marriage only lasted a few months and Charmian and her son moved to Kingston Upon Thames.

It was while training at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading in 1988 that Beech met fellow nurse Dawn Morgan and the pair married in 1992 when he was 24.

The couple relocated to Gloucester, where Beech was employed at the local hospital. The couple had a son in 2002 and Beech was appointed chair of governors at Beech Green Primary School.

He eventually moved into hospital management at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust.

All of this was to prove key when helping to convince the police that his allegations of VIP paedophile abuse were “credible and true”.

On the surface he was a devoted family man but he spent well beyond his means and the family were often in financial difficulty.

In 2011 his marriage broke down and he moved into a house with his son.

But with his mother having been ordained as a Church of England vicar, she was less able to bankroll his spending and his debts began to mount.

The financial motive may explain why in 2012 Beech went to Wiltshire Police, claiming to have been abused.

He set up an organisation for child abuse survivors and claimed to have worked as a volunteer for the NSPCC.

But throughout this period Beech was accessing appalling videos and images of child abuse.

When his lies began to unravel Beech fled to Sweden, where he planned to run a guesthouse with his mother.