Met ‘gave oxygen to false claims’

FORMER Conservative MP Harvey Proctor has told a court he found it “extraordinary” that the Metropolitan Police allowed itself to lend weight to the “false and incredible allegations” that Carl Beech made against him.

During a victim impact statement that he read at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday, Mr Proctor said he has only a “feeling of icy contempt” for the man who wrongly accused him of being a murderer and paedophile.

Speaking before Beech was sentenced for 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud, he said: “His allegations, following the Metropolitan Police Service involvement, were the worst that can be made – that I was a serial child sexual murderer, torturer and abuser.

“I find it extraordinary that an institution which formerly I held in high regard, the Metropolitan Police Service, allowed itself to lend weight to such false and incredible allegations.

For Mr Carl Beech I have a feeling of icy

contempt HARVEY PROCTOR

“For Mr Carl Beech I have a feeling of icy contempt.”

Mr Proctor said that, as a result of Beech’s allegations, he was spat at by members of the public and wrongly called a paedophile.

Speaking about the claims, the former MP for Basildon and Billericay said: “He (Beech) knew that they would cause ordinary people to revile and despise me.”

The defendant’s actions had left him with “wounds that will never heal”, the court heard.

He had previously explained how, after having his home raided in 2015, he had to step down from his role as private secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.

Describing how the effect of the allegations had been “lifechanging”, Mr Proctor said they were “hugely magnified by the actions of the Metropolitan Police Service”.

Mr Proctor said the police “chose to conduct their investigation in a manner that did lose me my home, my job, my peace of mind and led to the necessity that I leave the country where I have spent my entire life”.

Mr Proctor said that the allegations, which were “beyond any sensible possibility of belief ”, had been given oxygen by “senior officers with the Metropolitan Police who must have realised” that the stories were false.

He added that Beech’s account could have been “torpedoed by elementary police investigation”.