Carl Beech was released from prison last week less than half way through his 18 year sentence for lies that led to raids on the homes of D-Day veteran Lord Bramall and Lady Diana Brittan, the widow of ex -home secretary Leon Brittan
A paedophile fantasist who made allegations of sexual abuse and murders committed by VIPs has been freed from prison under Labour’s early release scene.
Carl Beech, 58, who went by the pseudonym Nick, was released last week after serving just over 40 per cent of an 18-year term. The lies told by Beech led to raids on the homes of D-Day veteran Lord Bramall; Lady Diana Brittan, the widow of ex -home secretary Leon Brittan; and the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor.
Beech was jailed for fabricating a series of claims about innocent, well-known names from the military, security services and politics. Mr Proctor lost his home and his job because of the Operation Midland raids.
His barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC said: “Operation Midland was conducted incompetently, negligently and almost with institutional stupidity.”
In 2014, Beech told senior Met detectives that he had been abused by a group including ex-PM Sir Edward Heath. He claimed he saw members of the group murder three boys, prompting police to launch a £2.5million homicide investigation with no known victims. Instead of carrying out basic checks, the Met declared the allegations to be “credible”.
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Including time spent on remand before his trial in 2019, Beech served just seven years and four months. The father-of-one, a former paediatric nurse and chairman of a board of school governors, sparked Operation Midland, which was wound up with no arrests having been made.
The Metropolitan Police had to apologise and pay compensation over its handling of the allegations.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Carl Beech’s crimes were shocking and had far-reaching consequences, and our thoughts remain with all those affected. Offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions and can be returned to prison immediately if they breach them.”
Beech was sentenced to 16-and-a-half years for fraud and perverting the course of justice, and 18 months for possession of child abuse images. He had been due for release on October 1, 2027, but the date was brought forward following changes brought in by Labour.
Beech, who spent much of his prison sentence at HMP Garth, a Category B jail in Lancashire, was reportedly freed last week and taken in a van to a hostel in Gloucestershire.
Sentencing him at Newcastle Crown Court in July 2019, Mr Justice Goss described him as “intelligent, resourceful, manipulative and devious”. Sir Richard Henriques’s review of Operation Midland revealed how police believed the rape and murder allegations despite earlier investigators saying they sounded like an episode of television show Spooks.
DC Mark Lewis of Wiltshire Police, who investigated Beech’s claims in 2013, described them as “a bit odd” and said in an email to the Met that “it all sounds a bit ‘Spooks'” – a reference to the BBC’s TV drama about the security services.
Wiltshire Police had first investigated after Beech claimed his step-father and Jimmy Savile, both by then dead, had sexually abused him. The case was not proceeded with and a file was sent to the Met who opened a new probe after Beech made further allegations.
