Former children’s nurse repeats Heath and Proctor abuse claims in court
An ex-nurse accused of inventing a VIP paedophile ring has repeated his claims in court that Sir Edward Heath, the former head of the British Army and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor were part of a ring involved in sadistic physical and sexual abuse.
The Metropolitan Police spent £2 million on the Operation Midland probe into Carl Beech’s claims that “The Group” was operating in the 1970s and 1980s, and murdered three boys, and the investigation ended without a single arrest, jurors have been told.
Newcastle Crown Court has heard strenuous denials of any involvement from the senior figures he named who are still alive – retired generals Field Marshal Lord Edwin Bramall, 95, and Sir Hugh Beach, 96, and Mr Proctor.
Beech, 51, from Gloucester, entered the witness box to make his claims that he was raped by his stepfather, the late Major Ray Beech, then to allege he was passed on for a naked inspection by Lord Bramall at barracks in Wiltshire.
Beech claimed he was raped by the general, who was seen by the jury on video banging a table and telling detectives in 2016 that he was “absolutely astonished, amazed and bemused” by the claims.
The defendant told the jury he was sadistically abused at other Army locations, including in the presence of retired general Sir Hugh Beach, a Normandy veteran who previously told the jury the claims were “beyond grotesque”.
After he and his mother left his stepfather in Wiltshire and moved to Bicester in Oxfordshire, Beech said he was raped over a bath by Jimmy Savile, who was visiting as a guest of the abusers.
Beech’s voice cracked when he was asked by Collingwood Thompson QC, defending, how it felt, saying: “Like you’re dying. Like you can’t, as soon as you scream, or anything, you take in water.”
The incident left him with a lifelong fear of bathing, he told the court.
He alleged Sir Michael Hanley, head of MI5, and Sir Maurice Oldfield, who ran MI6, were members of the gang, and claimed Sir Michael kidnapped his dog as a warning when he missed an abuse session.
He claimed he was taken to the Carlton Club in London where he was introduced to Sir Edward Heath, alleging: “He told me he used to run the country.”
He claimed Sir Edward stepped in to prevent Mr Proctor from cutting him with a penknife, claiming: “He thought it was fun, I would be in pain and he did not like me.”
He claimed the former prime minister told Mr Proctor not to do it.
The court has heard that Mr Proctor and Sir Edward had a political and personal dislike of each other.
Mr Proctor previously told the court the allegations against him were the “ravings of a fantasist”.
Beech claimed he was taken out of school by a driver after teachers had told him he had to go and he feared the consequences if he refused.
He did not tell his mother Charmian Beech, who became a vicar, what was happening and made excuses for being away.
He said: “I could have said I was at the stables. I joined a shooting club which took up some evenings, if it was a weekend I could have said I had gone round to someone’s house.”
Jurors have been told Beech, who worked for years as a children’s nurse, has admitted charges of making indecent images of children and voyeurism.
Beech denies 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud. The case was adjourned until Thursday morning when he will continue giving evidence.
VIP ABUSE RING ACCUSER WORKED AS CHILDREN’S NURSE, COURT TOLD
A former NHS manager accused of lying about a high-ranking paedophile ring worked for several years as a children’s nurse, he told jurors at his trial.
Carl Beech, 51, who has admitted making indecent images of children and voyeurism at a previous hearing, took a specialist paediatric nursing qualification, he said.
The father-of-one from Gloucester told Newcastle Crown Court that after leaving school in Kingston-upon-Thames, he tried to emigrate to America prior to starting work as a healthcare assistant at a home for the elderly at the age of 19.
He said that after qualifying as a nurse he took a Registered Sick Children’s Nursing course in Brighton, before working at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, Cheltenham Hospital, and in hospitals in Swindon.
He was promoted to a project manager’s role at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, he told the court, before taking on managerial roles at hospitals in Hereford and Gloucester.
He later became an inspector for the Care Quality Commission in 2012, where he worked when he made the allegations, and was still in the role when police raided his home as part of their perverting the course of justice investigations.
Beech denies of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud.
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