Child abuse accuser is ‘habitual liar and sophisticated paedophile’, jurors told
The ex-nurse accused of inventing a murderous VIP Westminster child abuse ring is a “sophisticated paedophile” who lies as habitually as someone having a cup of tea every morning, jurors have been told.
Carl Beech (pictured), 51, denies 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud, after telling the Metropolitan Police how powerful figures from Parliament, the Army and security services sadistically abused him and others in the 1970s and 1980s.
During his nine-week trial at Newcastle Crown Court, the jury has heard that Beech has admitted downloading indecent images of boys – some of them from the worst category – and filming a child using the toilet.
In his closing speech, prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said: “The defendant Carl Beech is a sophisticated paedophile.
“I make no apology for saying it, the evidence proves it.
“At some stage Carl Beech appears to have convinced himself that such behaviour is acceptable for whatever purpose he had.
“Spying on children, covertly filming (a child), gathering literally hundreds of images of the rape and abuse of children, each of them a criminal offence.
“That behaviour, ladies and gentlemen, requires manipulation.”
Mr Badenoch said the former Care Quality Commission inspector then lied repeatedly to the police about this behaviour.
He said: “This sort of corrupted mindset provides a very good answer as to why it was the defendant was able and willing to tell bare-faced lies so many times to law enforcement and to do so in such graphic detail, about such horrific and repugnant things.”
Beech, he said, operated under different names at times, listing some of them as Lucy Samuels, his pen-name for a light-hearted book on nursing, his Twitter personas, “Nick” the name used by the police and media, as well as identities he used while hiding from the Swedish authorities.
Mr Badenoch said: “He presents himself at any given moment as he chooses to at that point in time.
“False identities, creating fictional people, pretending to be someone else, but all the while knowing very well that he was doing it, because he did so consciously, and being prepared to tell deliberate lies about the same.
“That sort of conduct in the life of Carl Beech was as habitual and easy as starting the day with a cup of tea might be to some of you.”
Mr Badenoch said Beech gave the impression to detectives that he was reluctant to speak about his allegations, and that they were drawing the horrific detail from him.
He told the jury Beech also hid in plain sight, reminding the jury how he wrote to his counsellor in 2014 of his fury after finding out a teacher had been charged with indecent image offences.
The divorced father-of-one from Gloucester wrote to her: “Just don’t think I have been cross like this before. It’s a new feeling.”
Mr Badenoch described it as an example where the “hypocrisy is breathtaking”.
Beech accused Field Marshal Lord Bramall, a Normandy veteran and former head of the British Army, of being involved in the ring and the jury has seen video of his police interview as he banged on the table as he insisted he had no sexual interest in children.
Mr Badenoch said: “Lord Bramall answered all questions fully and truthfully, gave details, spoke about his life, spoke about things intimately personal to him.
“Compare what he was to say and the manner in which he was to say it, to this defendant, shifting, shuffling and lying, and deceiving and dancing and twisting and twirling and running.”
Mr Badenoch said Beech picked out Lord Bramall and his fellow generals Sir Roland Gibbs and Sir Hugh Beach – three of the most senior people in the Army in the 1970s – among his abusers after picking his late step-father, who served as a Major, as the “entry point” to the rich and powerful.
Mr Badenoch said although Major Beech was a violent man, there was no evidence he had sexually abused his stepson.
“The defendant’s word on this topic is hopelessly discredited because he cannot get his story straight,” he told the court.
The trial continues.
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