A man who allegedly invented claims about a VIP paedophile ring under the pseudonym “Nick” was shown images of potential victims by BBC journalists, a court has heard.
Carl Beech, 51, told a police officer that one of the two pictures shown to him by BBC reporters made him feel like someone had “pulled my heart out” as he recognised it as a boy who he said had been choked to death by former MP Harvey Proctor.
In a police interview that was conducted shortly after the meeting with the reporters, he said that he had cause to believe that the child in question was Martin Allen, who mysteriously disappeared from King’s Cross station nearly 40 years ago at the age of 15.
Prosecutors allege that Beech (pictured), who is currently on trial at Newcastle Crown Court, fabricated stories about a powerful group of abusers who he said were responsible for murdering three boys as he looked on.
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Tony Badenoch QC, prosecuting, had previously told jurors that allegations made by the defendant, of Gloucester, had given false hope to Allen’s brother, Kevin.
Jurors heard how Beech met with two BBC reporters, Tom Symonds and Tom Bateman, and retired social worker Peter McKelvie, on 21 November 2014, weeks after he had told Detective Sergeant James Townly, of the Metropolitan Police, about the supposed murders of the three boys.
Details of the conversations he had with the journalists came to light during a follow-up interview with DS Townly on 5 January 2015.
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He told the officer how one of the reporters produced an iPad with two images on it, describing how one was of an “Asian child” he had seen on the news but was not someone he recognised from his dealings with the alleged paedophile ring.
But Beech said that he thought he recognised the second image as the boy he had supposedly seen being choked to death by Proctor, telling the officer: “It was like somebody had reached inside and pulled my heart out. It was a pretty poor quality picture, but it just looked familiar.
“It hit me hard, and it caught me unawares.
“I was not expecting to see anything like that, I had to leave the room.”
Beech said that he had to take around 15 minutes to compose himself after seeing the image.
He explained how the image was not mentioned again during the meeting, telling the officer: “I just said that I did not want to talk about it any more and they did not push it any further.”
The defendant said that, following the meeting, he was sent a news story about Allen, in which it was said that his disappearance in 1979 may be linked to allegations made by “Nick”, a pseudonym for Beech which was used by the press at that time.
In the interview with DS Townly, a transcript of which was read to the jury, the defendant said he had covered up the image of the boy’s face to avoid “contaminating” his evidence about the VIP ring, but had been tempted to go against the officer’s advice and conduct his own research.
When asked how this situation affected him, Beech said during the January 2015 interview: “I don’t think it’s necessarily making it worse, but I don’t think it can make it worse.”
Jurors had earlier heard how, in November 2014, Beech gave a tearful account of the three murders to DS Townly.
During the account, he described how the former head of MI5, Sir Michael Hanley, told him and two other boys to decide how another child should be killed in front of their eyes, and was then punished sexually when he was unable to make a decision.
He said that he and the two others witnessed the boy be beaten to death by Hanley, Proctor and another man.
Jurors also heard how Beech helped create an e-fit image of the boy in that alleged killing and the one that he said that Proctor had murdered alone – despite prosecutors saying that neither murder ever happened.
Beech denies 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud.
The trial continues.
Picture: Crown Prosecution Service/PA Wire
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