‘Fantasist’ Carl Beech is found guilty of inventing Westminster VIP paedophile ring

A FANTASIST known as Nick has been found guilty of lying about a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster that sparked a £2million police probe.

Carl Beech, 51, spun an "extraordinary tale" about "three child murders, multiple rapes, kidnapping, false imprisonment and widespread sexual abuse" that sparked a £2.5million witch-hunt.

Among those he accused were prominent figures including a former Prime Minister, a former Army chief, and head of MI5 and MI6.

But in a chilling twist of "breath-taking hypocrisy", Beech was himself was a paedophile with an interest in pre-teen boys.

He was today convicted of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud by jurors after just four hours of deliberation at Newcastle Crown Court.

The fraud relates to a £22,000 criminal injuries payout he falsely claimed for being raped by Jimmy Savile.

MULTI-MILLION POUND PROBE

Jurors heard how in 2014, Beech told cops had been raped and abused for nine years by a VIP paedophile gang nicknamed "the Group" during the 1970s.

He claimed the abuse took place at the home of former Prime Minister Ted Heath - as well as in Dolphin Square, the Carlton Club, Stowe School, London Zoo, and military bases.

This led to a multi-million pound investigation codenamed Operation Midland with cops raiding the homes of 12 elderly and prominent figures.

Over 20 hours of police interviews, Beech also said he had held the hand of a dying young boy - murdered in front of him by former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

The politician was forced to deny "he is a sadistic child killer and that he committed other serious sexual offences".

He said after the trial he was still to settle a claim against the Metropolitan Police, saying their raid cost his home and the job he loved, working for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.

WATSON DEFENDS RAISING ALLEGATIONS

In October 2012 Labour's Tom Watson, now deputy leader, first raised the claims in Parliament and later met Beech to discuss the allegations he made.

Mr Watson claimed he'd seen "clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No10".

But today insisted he had nothing to apologise for.

He refused to say sorry to former MP Harvey Proctor, one of Beech's victims, but admitted he was "hurt and angry".

Mr Watson defended his actions today, saying he'd only met him once and assured him that he would take his claims seriously, as he did with other alleged victims.

"During that meeting Nick said very little and did not name any of his alleged abusers," he said.

"It was not my role to judge whether victims' stories were true.

"I encouraged every person that came to me to take their story to the police and that is what I did with Nick.

"I hope this trial, and the case of one person, does not prevent survivors of child sexual abuse coming forward and reporting their experiences to the police."

But Mr Proctor earlier called on the deputy Labour boss to apologise for saying Beech wasn't delusional and supporting his case.

"I appreciate that he is hurt and angry but in justifying his attack he has disingenuously used a selective quotation from an interview I did," Mr Watson said.

But he insisted he was justified in speaking out about the claims of the fantasist.

"As a public figure of responsibility I felt it was my duty to respond to the claims that had been made to me," he insisted.

";To stand aside when there was a possibility that children were at risk of sexual abuse was not an option."

And he stressed that his comments led to old cases to be re-opened, and did lead to the conviction of three other child abusers.

"Had I not raised this matter in Parliament I do not believe that the Righton files would have been revisited and three dangerous men guilty of child sexual abuse would not have been brought to justice," he said.

WEB OF LIES

Among those also accused was ex-British Army chief Lord Bramall, whose wife of 64 years died during the investigation before his named was cleared.

In tearful police interviews that spanned multiple hours, Beech brazenly told officers how his late step-father, an Army Major had raped him.

He sobbed as he claimed he was passed to generals to be tortured at military bases and sadistically sexually abused by other Establishment figures in the 1970s and 1980s.

Beech named former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, Mr Proctor, disgraced Savile and security chiefs Sir Michael Hanley, the head of MI5, and MI6 boss Sir Maurice Oldfield among the gang.

CHILLING 'ABUSE' IMAGES

Bizarrely, he showed police sketches to highlight the “horrific abuse” he suffered as a child.

One image showed a child in a pool of blood surrounded by three demons next to the caption: “Please no more.”

Another drawing shows a person with their arms restrained above their heads and with the heading, “Imber”, one of the military locations where he claimed to have been abused.

Next to it were notes that read: “Cold…chained to the wall…???...something around the middle…pain.”

Another sketch showed someone shackled to a wall that appeared to be covered in blood after being stabbed.

Sickeningly, Beech claimed a schoolboy named Scott was deliberately knocked down and killed and another youth was battered to death by the ring.

He also said that another boy who might have been the missing teenager Martin Allen was raped and strangled in front of him - leading to anguish for his family.

At the time, Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald said the admissions were "credible and true".

'BEYOND GROTESQUE'

But the court was told his lies were later found to be "totally unfounded, hopelessly compromised, and irredeemably contradicted by other testimony".

Jurors were told that at very base level that Army generals, at the height of the IRA terror threat, couldn't sneak off unguarded to join horrific child abuse sessions.

Prosecutor Tony Badenoch, QC, said the claims caused "immeasurable distress" to those accused and those close to them  suffered "obvious reputational damage".

The investigation saw the homes of powerful figures raided - including  91-year-old Normandy veteran Field Marshall Lord Bramall.

He had thumped the table in front of him and denied having any sexual interest in children in interviews.

Another falsely accused general, 96-year-old Sir Hugh Beach, told the jury via videolink that the allegations against him were "beyond grotesque".

Speaking after the verdicts, Jenny Hopkins, head of special crime and counter-terrorism at the CPS said he "revelled in the attention that his tales were attracting".

She added: "He is not a fantasist, as some people have described him, nor is he a victim of abuse where there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

"We've been able to prove that actually he was a very prolific and manipulative liar. He enjoyed the limelight, I would say that he thrived on being in the limelight.