A man whose allegations sparked an investigation into a VIP child abuse ring at Westminster can now be identified as Carl Beech after a judge lifted reporting restrictions.

Beech, previously known by the pseudonym “Nick”, is to stand trial next year at Newcastle crown court, charged with 11 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud. No pleas have been entered.

Announcing the charges in July, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said an investigation by Northumbria police had provided evidence that Beech – then protected by a legal blackout – had made “a number of false allegations alleging multiple homicides and sexual abuse said to have been carried out in the 1970s and 1980s”.

His claims centred on a number of establishment figures, including the former Conservative prime minister Ted Heath; Leon Brittan, a Tory former home secretary who died in 2015 before learning that he had been cleared of all wrongdoing; a former head of the armed forces, Lord Bramall; and the former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor.

The Metropolitan police launched Operation Midland after it received allegations of a VIP paedophile ring operating in Westminster. However, the £2.5m investigation closed after finding no evidence of any wrongdoing.

The charges Beech faces include allegations that he made a false allegation of witnessing Proctor kill a child, and that he had falsely alleged “that he had been sexually and physically abused by a paedophile ring, with senior ranking officers within the military, military intelligence, a TV presenter and other unidentified men”.

He is also accused of falsifying an email account and providing false information purportedly sent from “Fred”, an individual whom he had named as present when he was abused by a paedophile ring.

The fraud charge accuses him of making a fraudulent representation to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority on or around 26 September 2013, “namely that he was subjected to abuse by a paedophile ring, knowing this to be untrue and intending thereby to make a gain for himself”.