Carl Beech, a 50-year-old former NHS manager, has been jailed for 18 years after being convicted of 12 charges of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud on Monday, 22 July.
Beech — who had previously been known only as “Nick” - made up multiple false claims about sex crimes and murders carried out by powerful men at Dolphin Square in Westminster, which prompted Scotland Yard's £2.5 million Operation Midland probe.
The judge, Mr Justice Goss, said the claims were all a "fabrication" and it was clear Beech had "no remorse" for his claims.
— Simon Warr (@bbcsimonwarr) July 26, 2019
Simon Warr, a former headmaster and author of Presumed Guilty, said the police’s mistakes dated back to the revelations about sex abuse carried out by TV presenter Jimmy Savile, which emerged after his death in 2011. Police forces and other institutions were accused of overlooking Savile’s crimes, because he was a celebrity.
Mr Warr said: “The insanity which gripped this nation post-Savile led to people coming out of the woodwork and all sorts of people started to get accused.”
He said he was wrongly accused by two former pupils of sexual touching dating back to the 1980s but was acquitted after a trial.
Mr Warr said: “After the Savile exposé there was an edict from the head of the CPS, Keir Starmer, who said ‘If you come forward with an allegation you will be believed’. This created a liars’ charter. That is what prompted Beech to come forward. He put in a claim against Savile and got £22,000. So he decided to do it again but on a much bigger scale.”
Mr Warr said Beech had deliberately targeted institutions like the British Army.
“He thought if you target institutions the money triples. If he had been believed he would have earned an enormous amount of compensation from the Army,” said Mr Warr.
— CPS (@cpsuk) July 22, 2019
Mr Warr, who has sat through most of Beech’s trial at Newcastle Crown Court, said Beech also wanted to be thought of as a “heroic figure” who was standing up against the establishment.
But he said the Metropolitan Police officers who ran Operation Midland failed to check Beech’s allegations properly.
Mr Warr said: “It is not the police’s job to believe complainants. It’s their job to investigate without fear or favour and that is something they lost track of. They disregarded anything which disproved Beech’s allegations.”
Mr Warr also criticised Tom Watson - who is now the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party - for the credibility and support he gave to Beech’s allegations.
Mr Warr said: “He knew it was politically expedient. He was trying to damage the Tory Party. He also set himself up as a hero. He bought into it and fell for it hook, line and sinker.”
— Bad Labour Right Tweets (@rightwingtwits) July 23, 2019
Mr Warr said Operation Midland had been a huge waste of money as well as “the biggest police fiasco ever” and he said the three-month trial had probably cost another £1 million.
Beech accused the former prime minister Edward Heath and the late home secretary Leon Brittain but Mr Warr said Beech’s mistake was to include in his allegations people who were still alive - notably former army chief Lord Bramall and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who both denied his claims strenuously and in public and began to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of journalists and police officers.
“If Beech had only picked people who were dead he might have got away with it,” said Mr Warr.
He said he expected Beech to get a longer sentence than online troll, Sabine McNeill, who was jailed for nine years in January for perverting the course of justice after she claimed there was a “baby-eating satanic child abuse ring” in Hampstead, north London.
The views and opinion sexpressed in this article are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik
