A man accused of making false allegations that sparked a multimillion pound police investigation into a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice and fraud.
Carl Beech, 51, told police that as a child he was among victims of a group of establishment figures – including senior politicians and military figures – who he alleged raped and murdered boys in the 1970s and 1980s. The allegations led to a £2.5m Scotland Yard inquiry, Operation Midland, which was closed in 2016 without any arrests.
Beech, known under the alias “Nick” before being stripped of his anonymity by a judge last year, faces 12 charges of perverting the course of justice during the period from December 2012 to March 2016, and one count of fraud over a criminal compensation payout he received.
Appearing via video link from prison, a grey-bearded Beech, flanked by his solicitor, pleaded not guilty to each of the 13 counts at a hearing at Newcastle crown court on Monday morning.
Among the charges, which were read to Beech in court, is one in which he is said to have made a false allegation of witnessing the murder of an unnamed child by the former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. The court also heard Beech is accused of falsely claiming to have witnessed the murder of two other children.
He is also accused of falsely alleging that he was “sexually and physically abused by a paedophile ring, with politicians, a TV presenter, and other unidentified men accused as members”.
Beech is charged with falsely claiming to have drawn sketches from memory of locations where he was abused and producing a penknife he said he had retained from the time.
He is also accused of setting up a fake email account and providing false information from a man called “Fred”, whom Beech had named as being present when he was abused by the paedophile ring.
The recorder of Newcastle, Judge Paul Sloan QC, remanded Beech in custody before trial on 7 May. At a previous hearing in December, the judge lifted a reporting restriction preventing the media from naming the defendant.
The trial, which is expected to last up eight weeks, will be presided over by Mr Justice Goss.
