Today in court Carl Beech admitted he lied to police in his initial 2012 interview to Wiltshire Police, (Beech pictured in a 2014 interview with the Met Police)

The man accused of inventing a VIP paedophile ring at the heart of Westminster has admitted in court that he lied to police in his first interview.

Carl Beech, 51, accepted that when he first spoke to a Wiltshire police detective he withheld large parts of the story he would go on to tell the Metropolitan police two years later.

In the first interview at Swindon police station in 2012 Beech told Detective Constable Mark Lewis that he was abused by his step-father Major Ray Beech and the disgraced TV presenter Jimmy Savile.

In 2014 his 'extraordinary tale' had grown to include abuse by former Prime Minister Edward Heath, former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, military top brass, the heads of the secret service and former MPs.

He also alleged he'd witnessed the murder of three boys by, amongst others, the ex Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

Beech accepted that he held all that information at the time he went to Wiltshire police but said he did not know the names of anyone else in the abusers he called The Group.

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Carl Beech giving evidence at Newcastle Crown Court where today he admitted lying to police

At Newcastle Crown Court today, prosecuting QC Tony Badenoch (pictured) prompted Carl Beech to admit during cross-examination that he had lied to police

Tony Badenoch, QC, for the prosecution, asked him why he told Det Con Lewis he knew no names, only to go on to name people later.

Mr Badenoch said: 'That is a positive statement of untruth isn't it?'

Beech replied: 'Yes.'

Mr Badenoch continued: 'That is a complete lie isn't it? On your own version of events?'

He replied: 'Names were not used in that sort of context, you ascertained names during the abuse.'

The prosecutor also asked him why he told Wiltshire police that some members of The Group had codenames when he then went on to contradict that in later testimony to the second force to investigate his claims.

Mr Badenoch said: 'In 2012 you were aged 44, reached s a senior position in the NHS, you were well thought of, you speak well if I may say and here you are in a police station talking about codenames and it completely untrue. How did that happen.?

Beech replied: 'I don't recall why I would have said that.'

He was asked: 'You do agree it is a lie?' and he replied: 'Yes.'

The jury were shown pictures of Carl Beech aged around 10 in his final year of primary school when he claimed the abuse began

The discrepancy between the two accounts also included giving Wiltshire police the name Aubrey for a boy who Beech claimed was abused by The Group alongside him on a number of occasions.

He later told the Metropolitan Police that the boy's name was actually John.

Mr Badenoch told him: 'You gave that police officer a false name and sent him off in the wrong direction. It is the first example of you telling an important lie to a detective.'

It was also put to Beech that he downloaded a criminal injuries compensation form in 2011, a year before he even made his complaints to Wiltshire Police.

He accepted the form was on his computer but that he had not read it at the point he spoke to Detective Constable Lewis.

Field Marshall Lord Brammal, pictured with his wife of 64 years Dorothy, who died before his name was cleared

The charges relate to claims Beech made that former prime minister Edward Heath (left), ex-home secretary Leon Brittan (right) and others were part of a child abuse ring

Timeline of Beech's alleged falsehoods and the investigations they launched 2014/2015: Over more than 20 hours of recorded police interviews, Carl Beech makes lurid allegations of child rape and murder against senior Establishment figures including Ted Heath and Lord Brammall. November 2014: The Met Police launch Operation Midland, which raids the homes of several elderly men looking for evidence to support Beech's claims. A detective calls the accusations 'credible and true'. April 2015: D-Day veteran and former Army chief Lord Brammal interviewed. June 2015: Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, whom Beech accused of child murder, interviewed under caution. March 2016: Beech notified no further action was to be taken in respect of the allegations he had made. 2016: Northumbria Police conclude Beech's claims are 'totally unfounded, hopelessly compromised, and irredeemably contradicted by other testimony'. November 2, 2016: Police arrive to raid Beech's home in Gloucester. January 23, 2018: Beech got £60,000 as an early pension from the NHS February 6, 2018: He travels to Calais preparing to flee to Sweden, where he buys a cabin in the woods and lives under a series of assumed identities, travelling hundreds of miles from city to city to stay on the run October 1, 2018: He was tracked down by Swedish and British police and arrested in advance of a 20-hour train journey to Gothenburg booked in the name of 'Samuel Karlsson'. 2018: A highly critical review of Operation Midland reports police 'acted like they were searching for bodies' during raids on homes. 2018: Beech pleads guilty to possessing indecent images of children, in a separate trial. December 2018: restriction on reporting of Carl Beech's real identity lifted. May 2019: Beech goes on trial for perverting the course of justice. Advertisement

Beech has insisted from the witness box that his accounts of abuse were all genuine.

Mr Badenoch later put to Beech that his testimony to the force contained a series of untruths, withheld information and 'made positive statements to send the police in the wrong direction.'

To each proposition, Beech replied: 'Yes.'

Mr Badenoch went on: 'You asked for a crime number to make an application for criminal injuries compensation from that same detective who you had told a pack of lies.'

He added: 'Your knew the crime you had been putting forward to Wiltshire police was full of falsehoods didn't you?'

He replied: 'On occasion, yes.'

The prosecutor continued; 'You decided to make a claim based on those falsehoods for money from the state?'

Beech replied: 'Based on my experience.'

Mr Badenoch said: 'But you experience was telling lies to Wiltshire police wasn't it?'

He replied: 'Not all of it, no.'

Beech has also told the trial at Newcastle Crown Court for the first time that he was abused at London's Saudi Embassy.

The subject of 'the diplomats' is something Beech refused to discuss in detail with either Wiltshire or Metropolitan police detectives.

In 2015, when pressed by a detective from the Met about that subject, he walked out of an interview designed to challenge his story.

But in court today he revealed the names of some of the diplomats he claims were involved and gave the embassy as a location.

Pressed by Mr Badenoch, Beech revealed the name John Louis, a diplomat he had previously referred to as 'The American.'

And he gave the names of two Saudi abusers, who he says raped him and his best friend John, as Abdullah and Turkey.

Mr Badenoch asked him: 'Where did this happen? What were the locations?'

After a pause, Beech answered: 'Other hotels, houses. The Ritz Hotel, Winfield House, the Saudi Embassy.'

He was asked for the surname of John, a detail he has always refused to give for a person who would potentially have been a corroborating witness for his allegations against Edward Heath, Lord Brittan, Lord Bramall, Harvey Proctor, Greville Janner and others.

He told Mr Badenoch: 'I don't have his permission to give you that.'

The 51-year-old father of one, former nurse and £45,000-a-year NHS care quality inspector, is accused of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraudulently claiming £22,000 in criminal injuries compensation.

Previously the trial at Newcastle Crown Court has been told Beech falsely claimed he had been raped by senior army officers and the disgraced television presenter Jimmy Savile.

He told the Metropolitan Police that around 15 men attended weekly abuse parties all over the South of England, including the late former Tory PM Ted Heath's yacht, exclusive clubs and Dolphin Square, where many MPs lived near Westminster.

Beech also said former MI5 and MI6 heads tortured him by tipping spiders over him, gave him electric shocks and threw darts at him.

And he alleged the former Conservative Home Secretary Leon Brittan was also part of the ring. His claims led to the Met Police launching Operation Midland, which cost £2 million which was dropped after 16 months without anyone being charged.

It was then that Northumbria Police were called in to investigate Beech and unpicked his alleged web of deceit, the court has heard.

He denies 12 charges of perverting justice and one of fraud by falsely claiming £22,000 criminal injuries compensation.

When the Met asked Northumbria Police to investigate Beech in 2016, cops raided the rented three-bedroom house in Gloucester where he lived with his son.

They discovered on the drive a new £34,000 white Ford Mustang convertible which was bought with the compensation cash he received, it is alleged.

Beech later fled to Sweden but was tracked down and extradited back to the UK to face justice.

The trial continues.