A former nurse accused of fabricating claims of a murderous VIP paedophile ring in Westminster has opened up about his shame over being caught with a hoard of child abuse images.

Carl Beech, 51, pleaded guilty in a separate trial to viewing indecent images of young boys and covertly recording a child using the toilet at the same time he was claiming to police to be a victim of abuse himself.

The convicted paedophile, who initially lied to investigators and sought to frame his teenage son for the crime, at first pleaded not guilty to the indecent image offences before switching his plea and accepting he was responsible.

Newcastle crown court had earlier heard during the seven-week trial how Beech concealed some of the material – which included 28 child abuse images of the most serious category – on a secret calculator app on his iPad.

The divorced father-of-one is standing trial accused of falsely alleging he was among victims of a group of politicians and senior figures in the military and intelligence services that he claimed raped and murdered boys in the 1970s and 80s.

Beech – known under the pseudonym “Nick” – alleged the abuse gang included the former prime minister Edward Heath, the former home secretary Leon Brittan, the ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, the D-day veteran Field Marshal Lord Bramall and Jimmy Savile.

The allegations sparked a £2m Scotland Yard inquiry, which shut without a single arrest being made. Beech denies 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud over a £22,000 compensation payout he received.

On Friday, Beech told the court that staying in Sweden – where he had purchased a £17,000 property in a remote forested area – and not attending court last summer to face charges over the child abuse material found on his computers was a “stupid mistake”.

Northumbria police had earlier raided his home in Gloucester where they found the child sexual abuse images, as well as a video of a child urinating. He was charged with five counts of making indecent images of children and one of voyeurism, and was expected to appear before Worcester crown court last July.

Beech, giving evidence for the third day, was asked by Collingwood Thompson QC, defending, why he failed to show for the trial at Worcester last summer. He replied: “Because it was a stupid mistake on my part. I panicked and I was alone.”

Asked by Thompson why he initially told the police he had no idea how the material came to be on his devices, he replied: “Because I was totally ashamed of what I had done. I couldn’t admit it to myself. I was in denial.”

Beech told the court how he went under the name Andersson when he was travelling around Sweden last year and planned to change his identity to get away from his surname, citing “press intrusion”.

He could not explain why he used a third name when trying to buy a second property, telling the court: “I don’t know what possessed me.”

Asked by Thompson for his response to prosecution claims that he has invented his allegations about the Westminster paedophile ring and that “it is all untrue”, Beech said: “It is not, it’s something I lived through, it’s something that still affects me today, still causes me problems today.

“I can only report my memories, my own truths and it happened.”

Beech also refused to name in court another alleged victim he claimed had been abused at the hands of the paedophile ring who he said could corroborate his story, explaining he did not have the childhood friend’s permission.

Beech is accused of setting up an encrypted email account and posing as a fictitious witness in an attempt to corroborate his own claims.

The trial continues.