Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson is facing calls to quit after he championed paedophile Carl Beech's lies about being abused by a murderous VIP sex abuse ring.

Beech - known as 'Nick' - made up preposterous tales and ruined the lives and reputations of some of Britain's most distinguished public servants.

Daniel Janner QC branded Watson a 'paedo-finder general', slamming the 'moral panic' after it included Beech accusing his father, Lord Janner.

Today Beech was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and fraud. His lies were swallowed by bungling Scotland Yard detectives who launched a £2.5million taxpayer-funded 'witchhunt' that resulted in Thatcher's Home Secretary Lord Brittan dying under a cloud of suspicion and an ex-Tory MP losing his job and home.

Today former nurse turned NHS manager Beech is confirmed as one of Britain's most malicious and monstrous liars after a jury at Newcastle Crown Court took just a few hours to convict him of perverting the course of justice and fraud. He now faces years in prison.

Fantasist: Carl Beech was today confirmed as one of Britain's most notorious liars as he was found guilty of completely making up claims about a VIP paedophile gang

Beech wiping a wear a tear as he tells police how he saw his friend 'Scott' run over and killed by the supposed paedophile ring. Scott never existed

Last year, Beech was convicted of child porn charges and was himself was branded a 'committed and manipulative' paedophile by a judge.

Watson faces calls to quit after he said that Beech's claims left 'no doubt in my mind that sexual abuse by powerful figures took place.'

In October 2012, Watson claimed in Parliament that he had seen 'clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10.'

Two years later he met with Beech, 51, who could therefore brag to police that Mr Watson was his confidante, protector and a key part of a 'little group supporting me' as he made baseless claims of sexual abuse and murder in Westminster.

Describing his encounter with Beech months after they first met, Watson said: 'It was a very, very traumatic and difficult conversation, as you would imagine. He only told me about one murder. He spoke very slowly, very intermittently, and I didn't need to hear any more.'

Today these claims were destroyed after Beech was convicted of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud. At his trial, Beech described Watson as 'part of the little group supporting me and putting my information out there.'

Huge questions remain over how the nation's biggest police force failed to test his paper-thin claims about some of the UK's most towering establishment figures and why they spent almost 18 months insisting his allegations of paedophilia, abuse and murder were 'credible and true'.

The police watchdog announced today it has cleared three detectives following an investigation into the granting of warrants used to raid the homes of Beech's innocent victims.

Beech made claims that former PM Edward Heath (left), ex-home secretary Leon Brittan (right) and others including Proctor were part of a child abuse ring. His claims were totally invented

Harvey Proctor, one of those falsely accused by Beech, branded the investigation a 'truly disgraceful chapter in the history of British policing', which was allowed to happen by 'internal failings at the highest level' of the Met Police.

MailOnline can reveal today that three detectives being investigated over their handling of the case, dubbed 'Operation Midland', have been allowed to quietly retire with their pensions intact.

Beech, 51, the son of a vicar, had lived a mundane suburban life in Gloucester where he had been a care manager in the NHS and a school governor.

Carl Beech's middle-class upbringing While fraud Carl Beech told the world he had seen unimaginable horrors in his childhood, including rape, torture and murder, the truth is that he had a comfortable, somewhat privileged middle-class upbringing. As an only child, he was given his own English setter named Heron to smooth over a house move to leafy Kingston-upon-Thames in south west London. In his early teens he also a had horse called Sam, which was stabled at Hampton Court House and which he would ride in Bushy Park. There were summer holidays in Malta and Tunisia, a ski trip to Austria when he was 15 and he and his mother Charmian, a former nurse who became a vicar, formed a tight bond. What he would claim was the start of a childhood of horror was her brief marriage to his stepfather, the late Major Ray Beech, but they separated after just four months in 1976 because of his drunken domestic violence. Beech was to say in his adulthood that his stepfather, who was retired from the Army on health grounds, physically abused him before going on to rape him, and then passed him on to his superiors to be exploited by paedophiles at the top of British society. Many observers now doubt that accusation of abuse by his stepfather, given the way he has subsequently changed his story in blogs, to police and in a sketchy draft of his memoir. Advertisement

But in a quest for attention and money he cooked up a VIP paedophile ring using newspaper cuttings and Google results before he spoke to police in 2014, two years after the Jimmy Savile scandal came to light.

He was later awarded £22,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and spent £10,000 on a Ford Mustang. He hoped to go on to make a comfortable living on the 'abuse survivors' speaking circuit before his lies were finally exposed

Beech was given the moniker 'Nick' by officers to protect his identity while he was spinning lies that would send a wrecking ball through the reputations of some of Britain's most dedicated public servants.

His ludicrous claims came months after police were shamed after it was revealed they had missed chance-after-chance to investigate paedophile Jimmy Savile's abuse of children on an industrial scale.

Met detectives pursued Beech's fabricated claims with zeal, raiding the homes of former Home Secretary Lord Brittan and former head of Britain's Armed Forces Lord Bramall, seizing their belongings without a shred of evidence they had abused him.

He even took up Beech's claims that former Tory MP Harvey Proctor tried to castrate him with a penknife and later murdered another boy called 'Scott' in front of him by stabbing him for 40 minutes with a kitchen knife.

Police also probed claims that ex-Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath abused him on a double bed inside his yacht Morning Cloud - even though a quick check would have revealed there was only room for hammocks in the narrow racing boat.

And ex-head of MI5 Michael Hanley, ex-head of MI6 Maurice Oldfield and Labour MP Greville Janner were also accused of being part of a paedophile ring operating in the luxury Dolphin Square apartment block near Parliament and inside one of London's most exclusive private clubs.

Scotland Yard then spent £2.5million running its Operation Midland probe into the Westminster paedophile scandal that ending up failing to produce a single prosecution.

'Nick' also had the backing of Labour deputy leader Tom Watson who championed his claims - which largely centered on Tories - as evidence of a 'powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10' and Beech bragged to police that the MP was part of a 'little group supporting me'.

Among the ludicrous claims by Beech, initially believed by police, were:

He saw Harvey Proctor, then a Tory MP, murder a boy after tying him to a table, torturing and raping him at a sex party at a London townhouse

Former Prime Minister Ted Heath abused him on his yacht and was part of a shadowy ring of high society paedophiles called 'The Group'

The heads of MI5 and MI6 and top generals were part of 'The Group' and filmed themselves raping boys, torturing them with spiders

Ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan raped him while holding his head under water

The head of MI5 kidnapped Beech's dog as punishment for missing a meeting

Former head of the Army Lord Bramall repeatedly raped him

The Group deliberately ran over and killed one of Beech's young friends

Nick and two other boys were ordered to choose which of them would be murdered before one was beaten to death at a paedophile party

Wrongly accused former MP Harvey Proctor and General Sir Hugh Beach gave evidence at the trial

Carl Beech's lies: He concocted extreme claims that unravelled as the case unfolded His claim: Ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor tried to castrate me with a pen knife and made me keep the blade The truth: The knife belonged to his grandmother and he kept it in a 'happy memories' box His claim: VIP paedophiles abused me in the Dolphin Square pool The truth: He had never been to Dolphin Square and used a Culture Club video to make a totally incorrect sketch of the pool His claim: Paedophiles exploited my fear of water The truth: He has no fear of water and photos show him swimming throughout his life His claim: I have to live with a litany of injuries The truth: His body has no evidence of injuries His claim: My fellow victim Fred will corroborate my story The truth: 'Fred's' email account was created by Beech His claim: I was abused by Labour MP at the Carlton Club The truth: Only Conservtive MPs can attend the Carlton Club His claim: I haven't googled my abusers The truth: He had Scroll to the bottom of this article for a full description of how his lies were exposed Advertisement

MailOnline can reveal there were stifled laughs at his Newcastle Crown Court trial as Beech told them his abusers flew him to Paris in a 747 jumbo jet they rented to take him to an 'abuse party' in the French capital - but had forgotten to tell police.

He also said VIPs stabbed while he was used as a 'human dartboard' common in a circus and said his tormentors used snakes and spiders to bite him, spiked him with needles, burned him and beat him so badly he suffered broken bones.

Police appeared to accept all these outlandish and incredible claims but a medical examination would later reveal he had no historic injuries, scars, or healed bone fractures of any kind.

Police officers called Beech's claims 'credible and true' in an incredible public statement and investigated them for more than a year in Operation Midland.

Heavy-handed officers investigating the claims raided the homes of Lord Bramall, Mr Proctor and Lord Brittan who died while the investigation was still active.

The three men suffered 'immeasurable distress' and Lord Bramall's wife died during the investigation.

But in reality Beech was a 40-something divorcee paedophile from Gloucester in desperate need of attention - who named the high profile figures after being shown their photos by a journalist at Exaro website and browsing the internet.

Beech's claims began as he claimed £22,000 in victim compensation for his supposed ordeal and hoped to go on to make a comfortable living on the 'abuse survivors' speaking circuit.

By the time police raided his home in 2016 after his claims had been proved false, he had already purchased a £34,000 Ford Mustang sports car with his compensation money.

The former-nurse's wife, Dawn, had left him after years of complaining about his poor personal hygiene and problems with 'intimacy'.

He had debts of £70,000 and had repeatedly told his wife about how he had been abuse by his violent army officer stepfather, but never mentioned any other abusers.

Unhappy marriage: Beech's ex-wife Dawn Beech divorced him in 2014, just before he went to police with the fantastical stories about a VIP paedophile ring

He had one son who he would ultimately try to blame for child porn that was found on his iPad after his claims were shown to be false.

Carl Beech is himself a convicted paedophile after child porn and 'peeping' pictures he took were found on his iPad After Carl Beech's claims were debunked, officers found child abuse images on his iPad along with covert images of boys taken by him, and recordings. An app disguised as a calculator stored indecent images of boys and the code to unlock the images matched the last four digits of his NHS office phone number. But Beech tried to deflected blame onto his teenage son and his mother, saying: 'My son uses it to watch Youtube videos and my mum uses it, everyone knows the code.' Advertisement

His wife also suspects that a non-fiction book her husband wrote about being a nurse, under the pseudonym Lucy Samuels, was made-up. It featured tales of a three-year-old girl who arrived at hospital without any adult supervision and told medics to 'f*** off'.

And his trial was told that is fantastical tales of murderous paedophile MPs appeared to be based on a book called How I Survived A Child Porn Ring by Timmy Fielding.

Beech began the VIP peadophile ring deception in 2012 after his divorce, when he went to police and told them he was raped as a child by his Army major stepfather. He also claimed Jimmy Saville had raped him as part of a shadowy paedophile ring called 'The Group'.

His claims to officers with Operation Yewtree, who were focusing primarily on the crimes of Savile after his death in 2011 - did not result in any further action. Beech had previously told his wife in 1990 about being sexually abused by his stepfather.

At this stage there was no mention of Edward Heath, Harvey Proctor, Leon Brittain or any other senior intelligence and military figures he went on to accuse two years later.

And while he was making the claims to police, Beech was himself a paedophile.

As his lies finally started to fall apart in 2016, officers found a secret app on his iPad that contained child pornography. He would also later admit recording a young boy on a toilet and prosecutors described him as a 'committed paedophile'.

HELP FROM TOM WATSON AND EXARO

Labour Deputy leader Tom Watson, left, invited Beech to his office and later went public with claims that he there was 'clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10'. Exaro reporter Mark Conrad, right, contacted Beech after seeing his blog. He showed him photos of people the fantasist would then go on to accuse

In April 2014, two years after his first allegation, Carl Beech started blogging about his 'experiences' at the hands of the supposed child sex abuse ring on a survivors' website called The Tangled Web.

His blog was seen by Exaro journalist Mark Conrad who contacted him for further information. Once they met, Conrad showed him photographs of people 'to see if there was anyone that I recognised'

Conrad showed him a selection of 42 pictures in a dossier including the pictures of high profile military and political figures he accused, the trial head.

Beech told police: 'I was just asked to mark on them if I recognised them, and if I did recognise them and they took part in the abuse.

'Then he had a whole bunch of photos that I just looked through.'

News reports: The Exaro News website published reports of a paedophile ring operating at the Dolphin Square apartments. It also took credit for police launching an investigation

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson refuses to apologise for championing 'Nick' in the VIP paedophile scandal Tom Watson today refused to apologise for his role in bringing convicted liar Carl Beech's false claims to prominence, insisting his intervention led to the conviction of three child abusers. In October 2012 Watson claimed in Parliament that he had seen 'clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10.' Two years later he met with Beech, 51, who could therefore brag to police that Mr Watson was his confidante, protector and a key part of a 'little group supporting me' as he made baseless claims of sexual abuse and murder in Westminster. Today these claims were destroyed after Beech was convicted of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud. Mr Watson said: 'I met the man I knew as 'Nick' once, on 8 July 2014, two years after I had raised my question in Parliament. During that meeting Nick said very little and did not name any of his alleged abusers. 'I reassured Nick that the police had made clear that all allegations of historic sex abuse would be taken seriously and treated sensitively. That is what the police had asked me to do, and it was the process I followed with all those who claimed to be survivors of historic child sex abuse. 'It was not my role to judge whether victims' stories were true. I encouraged every person that came to me to take their story to the police and that is what I did with Nick.' Advertisement

Beech added: 'I picked them out, I didn't know either their first name or their surname, some of them I knew what they did. That made a difference. He [Conrad] has not told me how he has found out who they were.

'It really helps me because it fills another blank, it just puts another piece of the jigsaw in place, but it's annoying and he knows that.'

At this time Tom Watson first became involved, inviting Beech to his office in Parliament.

At his trial, Beech described Watson as 'part of the little group supporting me and putting my information out there to encourage other people to come forward — hence the piece they did on Dolphin Square.

'I went to meet Tom Watson in his office and talked to him at some length when they put that bit out there. It has been a positive experience for me.'

Watson also said: 'What I'm certain of is that he's not delusional. He is either telling the truth, or he's made up a meticulous and elaborate story. It's not for me to judge.'

'What I was hoping to do was build a relationship with him and get him back into the system, so he could make his allegations to the police. And to make sure that he had a degree of protection. With all the things that come from making these sort of allegations.'

Beech emailed Detective Sergeant James Townly of the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Operations unit in October 2014, to say he could help with the Met's ongoing investigation into allegations that high-ranking paedophiles had operated out of Dolphin Square, London.

He said he was nervous and needed to feel safe, and asked whether Mr Conrad could attend their meeting.

They initially met at a Gloucestershire police station for around 20 to 30 minutes, the court heard, and Beech explained he had gone through therapy since 2012 and was ready to speak to the police again.

He provided the detective with a list of typed names, some of which were underlined.

In the video of his police interview, played for the jury in Newcastle, Lord Bramall says: ''Please report to your superiors and say there is no evidence, there is no case to answer. Make it clear I am no longer a suspect'

Tom Watson MUST quit for 'politicising' Beech's lies to rise up Labour ranks, says son of Lord Janner Tom Watson should quit as an MP after he stands accused of using Carl Beech's lies to unleash a 'political bandwagon' that took him to the very top of Labour, the son of the late peer Greville Janner told MailOnline today. Daniel Janner QC also called him a hypocrite for the moral stance he is taking on his party's anti-Semitism crisis after accusing him of creating a 'moral panic' about the Westminster VIP paedophile ring invented by Beech. Mr Janner, whose father Lord Janner was falsely accused of rape by Nick, told MailOnline today: 'Tom Watson should resign. He appointed himself Britain's chief paedo-finder general and created a moral panic by swallowing Beech's lies and spreading them. Advertisement

In the same month, Watson bolstered Beech's credibility by using the legal protection afforded to MPs in the Commons to say there was 'clear evidence of a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10' the fantasist had invented.

Throughout this period Mr Watson and Exaro enjoyed a close relationship.

Watson was quoted in a series of Exaro stories about paedophile abuse while he in turn tweeted enthusiastically about the website. One tweet said: 'I've spent all week telling reporters to phone Exaro if they want to know what's going on.'

BBC News also bought into Nick and his claims. In December 2014, Nick's interview with BBC News about his alleged child sex ordeal was broadcast on primetime news bulletins.

One journalist was so excited that he is alleged to have described it as potentially 'the biggest political scandal since Watergate'.

The Mail was first to throw doubt on Nick's credibility, as early as 2015.

After the claims fell apart, Exaro shut down in July 2016, with founding editor Mark Watts dismissed.

Following the shuttering, BBC Panorama editor Ceri Thomas called Exaro an 'unpleasant and wrong-headed' organisation which had 'done damage' to public interest journalism.

He accused the site of publishing without supporting evidence and said it had been 'the most shameful piece of work in this area in recent times.'

In a statement tonight, Watts refused to apologise, instead claiming Beech had not been given a fair trial.

Tom Watson says it was not his role to judge truth of Carl Beech claims Tom Watson (pictured) has said it was not his role to judge the truth of Carl Beech's claims about a paedophile ring The Labour deputy leader said it was not his role to judge whether convicted fantasist and fraudster Carl Beech was telling the truth. The MP said he only once met the man known as 'Nick', in 2014, two years after speaking out in Parliament about the existence of a high-profile paedophile ring. Mr Watson also declined to apologise to former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, one of Beech's victims, but appreciated he was 'hurt and angry'. Mr Watson said in a statement: 'I met the man I knew as 'Nick' once, on 8 July 2014, two years after I had raised my question in Parliament. 'During that meeting Nick said very little and did not name any of his alleged abusers. 'I reassured Nick that the police had made clear that all allegations of historic sex abuse would be taken seriously and treated sensitively. 'That is what the police had asked me to do, and it was the process I followed with all those who claimed to be survivors of historic child sex abuse. 'It was not my role to judge whether victims' stories were true. I encouraged every person that came to me to take their story to the police and that is what I did with Nick. 'I hope this trial, and the case of one person, does not prevent survivors of child sexual abuse coming forward and reporting their experiences to the police.' In an emotional statement, Mr Proctor called on the Labour deputy leader to apologise and said Mr Watson had said in a Guardian interview that Beech 'was not delusional'. Mr Watson said: 'Harvey Proctor makes an understandably emotional attack today. 'I appreciate that he is hurt and angry but in justifying his attack he has disingenuously used a selective quotation from an interview I did... 'What I actually said in that interview was: "What I'm certain of is that he's not delusional. He is either telling the truth, or he's made up a meticulous and elaborate story. It's not for me to judge." 'My actual quotation made clear that I did not know if "Nick" was telling the truth, or lying, but that it was for the police, rather than me, to make a judgment about that.' Mr Watson said 'Nick' never alleged to him that Mr Proctor had abused him. He said he was justified in speaking out in Parliament about a paedophile ring, as his pressure had led to lost police files being recovered, and three men being convicted for child sexual abuse. He said: 'As a public figure of responsibility I felt it was my duty to respond to the claims that had been made to me. 'To stand aside when there was a possibility that children were at risk of sexual abuse was not an option.' Advertisement

THE VICTIMS BEECH ACCUSED Lord Bramall General Sir Edwin Bramall, Chief of Defence Staff Edwin Bramall joined the Army in 1943 and stormed the beaches of Normandy as a 2nd Lieutenant. He fought until the end of the war and was awarded a Military Cross He rose steadily through the ranks and became a general in 1972. From 1979-82 he was Chief of the General staff, head of the Army, and from 1982-85 he was Chief of the Defence Staff, head of Britain's armed forces.

Sir Michael Hanley Sir Michael Hanley, former head of MI5 Michael Hanley was the head of MI5 from 1972-1978 after serving in the Army in the Second World War. He died in 2001. Sir Maurice Oldfield Sir Maurice Oldfieid, former head of MI6 Maurice Oldfield was the head of MI6 from 1973-1978. He served in Egypt, Singapore and Washington. He died in 1981. Lord Brittan Former Home Secretary Lord Brittan Leon Brittan became a Conservative MP in 1974 and was appointed Margaret Thatcher's Home Secretary in 1983. He was appointed a commissioner at the EU in 1989 and served until 1999. He was made a Lord in 2000 and was vice chairman of UBS AG investment bank. He died in 2015 under a cloud of suspicion. Ted Heath Ted Heath on the day he became PM Was prime minister from 1970 to 1974, and a Conservative MP from 1950 to 2001. He died aged 87 in 2003. Harvey Proctor Harvey Proctor Harvey Proctor was a Conservative MP from 1979-1987. In 1986 a newspaper reported that he had sexual relationships with men under 21, which was then the age of consent for homosexual relationships. He resigned and started a shirt company. Greville Janner Greville Janner Greville Janner was a Labour MP from 1970 until 1997, when he became a Lord. He died in 2015 before the investigation into Nick's claims was dropped Advertisement

ELDERLY HEROES RAIDED AND QUESTIONED BY POLICE

In November 2014, amid frenzied public interest in the VIP paedophile saga, the Met dramatically launched Operation Midland.

Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald described Beech's allegations of years of abuse at the hands of VIPs in Westminster as 'credible and true' and made an appeal for witnesses.

Officers have since come under criticism for their conduct - including the policy of unconditionally believing the claims of people who say they have been sexually abused.

This attitude stemmed from the fall-out of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse revelations and then Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer had changed CPS' guidance.

A series of police raids then ensued on the surviving elderly public figures that Beech had named.

Lord Brittain died in January 2015 under a cloud of suspicion and Tom Watson said after his death that he was 'as close to evil as any human could get'.

Watson later apologised to Lord Brittan's widow for the comment, saying: 'Some people's voices were not being heard but I used the wrong language and I am very sorry about that.'

Lord Brittan's family said the Met had hounded him in life and death and eams of police searched Lord Brittan's homes in early March 2015 - six weeks after he died aged 75.

In March 2015, twenty officers including at least one in body armour searched the home of D-Day hero and former army chief Lord Bramall and his dying wife.

The raids were considered so heavy handed that Leon Brittan's widow Diana and Edwin Bramall received about £100,000 in compensation payouts.

The homes of Harvey Proctor, the former Tory MP.

Last year a review of the flawed investigation said the police had acted as if they were 'looking for bodies or bodies parts', when carrying out the searches.

Lord Bramall, then 91, was interviewed by police for 100 minutes over Beech's claims - including allegations made by Beech that he had spiders tipped over him by his abusers and that he forced Beech to eat his own vomit after making him perform a sex act.

When Lord Bramall was asked about sex orgies in swimming pools and whether he could swim, he snapped to Detective Constable Gavin Sealey: 'I landed at Normandy and I jolly nearly had to swim.'

Harvey Proctor's house was raided and searched for 15 hours and he learned he himself was accused. He then lost his job organising weddings and events on the Duke and Duchess of Rutland's estate, and lost his home on the estate.

At Beech's trial, he broke down in tears as he recounted seeing his face 'looking back at me' on the television the morning after his house was raided.

'There was a story running at the head of the BBC news on TV that my house had been searched in connection with historic child sexual abuse including child murders.'

He then called Radio 4, which was covering the raid, and denied any involvement in the offences alleged live on air.

When he became aware of the details of the allegations Mr Proctor was horrified.

He said: 'They were horrendous, horrible, heinous allegations, the worst thing one human being can say about another, it was all untrue.

Several months later he was finally given the witness statement 'Nick' had given. It accused him of tying a boy to a table, stabbing him, raping him and strangling him to death. Beech also accused him of beating another boy to death.

He said: 'The difficulty was defending myself against these monstrous allegations. How do you defend yourself from things that didn't happen?

'I thought it was going to be very difficult to prove where I was at any one particular time. The range of dates was so great that it would be impossible prove where I was over a period of 18 months.

Mr Proctor described being 'very direct and forceful with police in a six-hour interview on June 18 2015.

He said: 'I'd wanted the opportunity to put my side of the case and question the police officers about what they said I had done. It was tiring answering questions for such a period of time on a subject that was unpleasant and distasteful. I had a duty to myself to persuade the police they were being taken for a ride.'

In August 2015 he underwent a second interview for a further two hours and afterwards held a press conference blasting the accusations and declaring his innocence.

He called the investigation a 'homphobic witch hunt' and said: 'I'm completely innocent of all these allegations. I'm a homosexual. I'm not a murderer or a paedophile. This whole catalogue of events has wrecked my life.'

'The police involved in Operation Midland are in a cleft stick of their own making. They are in a quandary. Support the 'victim' however ludicrous his allegations or own up that they got it disastrously wrong but risk the charge of a cover up.'

BEECH'S PREPOSTEROUS CLAIMS TO POLICE

In his new version of events that provoked the raids, Beech said the abuse began with his stepfather Major Ray Beech after he and his mother Charmian, now a retired vicar, moved into the officer's Wiltshire home in the mid-1970s.

He said that in 1976 he was taken to a wildlife park by his stepfather, accompanied by a friend, John, and John's stepfather, also an Army officer.

'John and I were taken into the toilets by our respective stepfathers,' he told the jury, and raped for the first time.

'I did not know what was happening. I tried to struggle and scream and I could not.'

He was later taken to Erskine Barracks by his stepfather, who is now dead. Beech told the jury: 'He took me into offices. There was one man in the office and I was introduced to General [now Lord] Bramall. Before that I didn't know who he was.

'He asked my stepfather to leave, or to wait outside rather.

'I wasn't in there for very long and he touched my head and he touched my body. I had to undress and then had to dress again. He didn't say anything, nothing at all.

'We left to go home, my stepfather was happy, he said I had done well but I don't know what I did but he seemed in a lighter mood I suppose, which I wasn't used to seeing.'

He said he then met Lord Bramall again at a house 'within a few days' of the first incident.

Beech said: 'My stepfather took me. We went into the back living room area. General Bramall was there, there were two other people who I was introduced to and another person, I don't know who he was.

'I was asked to undress and turn around I suppose for want of a better word and then dress again.'

TORTURE BY THE HEADS OF MI6 AND MI5

He then claimed he was taken to 'Imber', a deserted village on Salibury Plain where he was raped by Lord Bramall and tortured by former MI5 boss Sir Michael Hanley and Sir Maurice Oldfield, a former head of MI6,

He said they used him as a human dartboard, poured spiders over his head and gave him electric shocks.

He said: 'Michael Hanley was someone to take notice of, he seemed important but no emotion at all. I remember the threats [from Sir Michael Hanley] more than anything.'

He said: 'They wanted to humiliate, to scare and to inflict pain.

'There was sexual abuse as well. I don't think Michael or Maurice did anything at that stage. Michael didn't physically do it himself, just instigated it.

'It was stabbing in the feet and the hands. I had darts thrown at me. I was the dartboard in effect.

'And electrocution as well. They held up these wires which sparked when they touched.

'They put them against me. My knees initially and then between my legs. It was a different form of pain, just excruciating pain, like you would explode.'

He claims the top spies video taped the attacks, and gave police a sketchbook that he said how the abuse took place.

JIMMY SAVILE

Beech also claimed around this time he was raped by Jimmy Savile at a meeting of 'the Group. He said he never saw Saville's face but recognised his voice.

He told the trial: 'It was his voice, his mannerisms, I am not sure it had sunk in at that stage. I had seen him on TV, I used to watch Jim'll Fix It, part of your brain thinks it couldn't possibly have been him.

'He was there as a guest because they said they were having a guest. They didn't say Jimmy Savile, just a guest.'

He alleged Savile raped him 'over the bath... there was water in it'.

MI5 BOSS KIDNAPPED MY DOG

Beech said he moved to Kingston upon Thames in south west London with his mother, but the VIP paedophile ring found him again.

He says MI5 chief Sir Michael approached him as he walked home from school.

He said: 'He said it wasn't over, they hadn't finished with me. It carried on and I had to be at a certain place for the next meeting.'

In a body map provided to the police, Carl Beech claimed he had suffered a horrendous catalogue of injuries including broken bones (marked in green), burns (red), needle punctures (blue), snake bites (purple), bruising (yellow) and objects inserted into him (pink). A medical examination found no sign of any injuries, scars, or healed bone fractures

Beech claimed Sir Michael punished him for missing an abuse 'meeting', with The Group kidnapping his dog Heron when 'she was out on a walk with my mum and her auntie'.

'Michael told me the dog had gone because I'd failed to turn up. He said they had got her and it was a lesser punishment for not remembering what I should have remembered and being where I should have been.

'He spoke to me as I was just going or coming from school. He said it was a warning and I wasn't to forget again, and if I did then she would not come back.

'She did come back. We got a call from a local police station saying she had been found or handed in and we went to get her.'

HARVEY PROCTOR AND THE PEN KNIFE 'CASTRATION'

Beech told the court how Sir Edward Heath met him at London's exclusive Carlton Club and called himself 'Edward'. He also claims Labour MP Greville Janner was there, despite the club only being for Tory MPs.

'He told me he used to run the country. That meant nothing at all to me at that stage,' Beech said.

'It was probably not until my 20s or so that I realised what that meant. There were other people there but he was on his own in a room at the back.

'Harvey [Proctor], Leon [Brittan] and Michael [Hanley] were definitely there. They were separate.

'I only saw Edward Heath and Harvey Proctor together once.'

Mr Thompson asked: 'What about Harvey Proctor?' Beech said he had to perform a sex act on the former Tory MP but Sir Edward stopped Mr Proctor 'hurting me', adding: 'He was going to use a knife but he was told not to by Edward Heath.'

Beech told Detective Sergeant James Townly that Harvey Proctor, now 72, was the most violent of the abusers and threatened to castrate him with a pen knife at the Carlton Club.

He said: 'He had a little pen-knife, he wanted to cut my genitals, he was stopped by one of the others.

Carl Beech's sketches that he said show how the abuse happened. This drawing carried the message: 'Please no more'

'He was not happy, he was so angry, he did not like being told what to do.and he gave me that knife as he left.

'He put it in my trousers and said: 'Next time you will not be so lucky'.'

The 51-year-old also alleged Proctor forced him to perform sex acts while being violent.

He said: 'He was not like the others, it was fun for him to choke you so you just couldn't breathe.

'Strangle. He just liked to strangle, he liked to hit. Anything that caused additional pain, physical pain.

'He liked knives. He was probably one of the youngest of The Group but he did not like being told what to do.'

The jury was shown pages from Carl Beech's sketchbook which he had told police showed abuse which took place in his childhood

He was asked again who told him [Proctor] what to do and Beech replied: 'The only one person I remember was Edward, just him. Harvey wanted to do more and Edward would not let him.'

The policeman interviewing him asked: 'Who is Edward?'

Beech replied: 'Edward Heath. He told him and he did not question that but I saw what harm he was capable of, I was on his hit list and he did not like me at all.'

Detective Sergeant Townly asked him to tell him more about Proctor but an emotional Beech began to break down and replied: 'I can't, I just can't.'

DOLPHIN SQUARE

Beech went on to accuse the late former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, later Lord Brittan, of raping him in a pool at the exclusive Dolphin Square development near Westminster.

Of Lord Brittan, who died in 2015 whilst still under investigation, Beech said: 'I suppose he was a mini Harvey, he just did not go as far as Harvey did, he was nasty but not as nasty, more reserved, more controlled.

'He was fairly sadistic in his own way but not as much as Harvey. He would not do things in front of anyone else, he liked to see pain but not inflict it much himself.'

A sketch made by Beech of the swimming pool at Dolphin Square where he was supposedly abused, left. It matches a Culture Club music video, right that claimed to have been shot there that Beech discussed on Facebook. In reality the pool looks nothing like the video

He said Lord Brittan raped him while holding his head underwater at Dolphin Square and also at a London townhouse.

'He liked to hold your head underwater, he was another person who liked to do that.

'He would hold my head under for a long time. He was strong, a strong man.'

Beech further claimed that he had been to the then home of Sir Edward Heath at Wilton Street in London as a young boy.

He told police that he recognised the address after being taken there by the investigative journalist Mark Conrad before he made his disclosures to the police .

Beech sketched the locations including the pool at Dolphin Square at which the 'abuse' took place.

But his trial was told that the sketches matched a Culture Club video he had dsicussed on Facebook. The video purported to show Dolphin Sqaure but was in fact shot somewhere else and did not resemble the pool at the apartment complex.

A BOY CALLED SCOTT

Beech also told police he had 'blood on his hands' after a school friend called Scott was run over and murdered by 'The Group' when he ignored a warning from them not to make friends.

In a tearful police interview in 2014, he said: 'They warned me. I was selfish, I didn't listen to them because I wanted a friend. I didn't understand what the consequences might be.'

Beech told a Met officer that Scott died in 1979, when they were both students at Coombe Hill Primary School in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London.

Carl Beech aged around 10 in his final year of primary school when he claimed the abuse began

He said he heard a commotion, turned round and saw his friend get run over by a car. Beech added: 'Nobody mentioned him at school. They never mentioned him. It was like he never existed.'

Beech also gave false hope to the family of a missing boy who vanished at around the same time.

When a journalist showed Beech a photograph of Martin Allen, a 15-year-old who went missing in 1979, the defendant had a 'reaction'.

Mr Badenoch told Beech's trial: 'Martin Allen had a brother and he has never given up hope of seeing him. It was in 2014 that he was told his disappearance may have been linked to a VIP paedophile ring.

'The source of that false hope 25 years after his brother went missing was the false allegations of this defendant, Carl Beech.'

TIED UP, RAPED AND MURDERED BY TORY MP

In his original testimony to police, Beech claimed that after Scott's disappearance he was taken to a Pimilico town house in 1980 with another boy.

He says Mr Proctor took the boys to the back of the property and tied the other up in front of Beech. Then he started stabbing him with a large kitchen knife

According to the police documents, Beech told officers: 'Mr Proctor then stripped the victim and tied him to a table. He then produced a large kitchen knife and stabbed the child through the arm and other parts of the body over a period of 40 minutes.

'A short time later Mr Proctor untied the victim and anally raped him on the table. Mr Proctor then strangled the victim with his hands until the boy's body went limp.'

Beech also claimed that on another occasion he was taken to a home with three other boys. They were told that 'one of them would die that night' and they had to choose amng them who it owuld be. When they refused, Proctor and two other men beat one of the boys to death.

Beech also claimed that 'Remembrance Day abuse parties' were held every year in which boys had poppies pinned to their bare chests as they were being sexually abused.

Among those who attended the events every November were former heads of the British Army Lord Bramall and Field Marshall Sir Roland Gibbs, Carl Beech falsely claimed.

He told police: 'It was the usual sexual stuff. There was a difference with the Remembrance ones because of having the poppies pinned to your chest and it was not just the once.

'They got a bit of skin and put the pin through it. Then another would take it out and put it in somewhere else.'

On another occasion, he told police, that one of the parties took place on Ted Heath's yacht Morning Cloud which he said was large and white, but he was unsure where it was moored.

He told Detective Sergeant James Townly of the Metropolitan Police that he was sexually assaulted in one of the cabins, which he said were basic and not luxurious.

Beech told the detective in October 2014: 'He touched me, I didn't have to do anything to him, I just lay there.'

BEECH'S LIES UNRAVEL

But when other witnesses failed to come forward, despite the Met's bizarre insistence that 'Nick's' testimony was 'credible and true', the version of events put forward by Nick and Exaro looked more and more unbelievable.

By 2015 other news outlets including the Daily Mail were already starting to question the claims in the tale and what Exaro had published.

In March 2016, when Operation Midland ended without any charges, a report into the investigation found that detectives had fallen for false accusations and severely criticised the Met.

Author Sir Richard Henriques, a retired judge, said: 'The principal cause of the many failures in this investigation was poor judgement and a failure to accurately evaluate known facts and to react to them.'

The report also criticised the Met's policy at the time of believing the claims of abuse victims under any circumstances.

It said: 'A major contributing factor was the culture that 'victims' must be believed.

Then Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe apologised to Mr Proctor, Lord Bramall and Lord Brittain's widow.

Holiday photos disprove Beech's claim that he had a lifelong fear of water and could not swim

The Met has since paid six-figure sums in compensation to Lord Bramall and to Lady Brittan .

The Met is yet to agree any compensation deal with former Tory MP, Harvey Proctor, 70, who was falsely accused of rape and murder and lost his home and his job as a result.

It is thought Mr Proctor, who received a personal apology from the then Met Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, is seeking more than £500,000 for loss of earnings and damage to his reputation.

Leon Brittan and another accused, Greville Janner, both died within a year in 2015, the year following these allegations.

Dorothy Bramall, who was married to Edwin Bramall for 64 years, died during the course of the investigation and before Lord Bramall's name was cleared.

Northumbria Police was asked to look into Nick' and November raided his three-bedroom rented property, with his £34,000 Ford Mustang convertible parked outside.

Officers found child abuse images on his iPad along with covert images of boys taken by him, and recordings.

An app disguised as a calculator stored indecent images of boys and the code to unlock the images matched the last four digits of his NHS office phone number.

But Beech tried to deflected blame onto his teenage son and his mother, saying: 'My son uses it to watch Youtube videos and my mum uses it, everyone knows the code.'

As officers investigated Beech's claims, they easily debunked them:

He claimed to have sketched the locations at which abuse took place from memory - but his laptop showed he had Googled them before speaking to police

He claimed not to have researched the men he accused - but had googled them

He claimed his abusers mowed down and killed a boy, 'Scott', whom he tried to befriend - but the boy did not exist.

He claimed a fellow victim, 'Fred' could corroborate his story - but in fact he made up the friend and posed as 'Fred', fabricating emails to police

He claimed he had been regularly taken out of school to be abused by multiple men at 'parties' - but his attendance at his schools was exemplary and he was given awards for 100 per cent attendance

He claimed he had a lifelong fear of water, abused by the men, who dunked him and threw him off boats - but photos show him snorkeling on honeymoon

He produced an 'abuse map' of the places and ways his body was tortured - but his medical records and body show no evidence of abuse

He claimed he was abused on beds in cabins on Ted Heath's yacht - but the vessel was a racing yacht and only had hammocks

He claimed MP Harvey Proctor had threatened to cut his genitals off with a pen-knife Proctor later gifted to Beech. He gave the knife to police asking for forensic tests - but his estranged wife told police he'd kept it in a 'happy memories' box

He had googled how victims of Jimmy Savile received compensation

THE PEN-KNIFE

The pen knife that Beech claimed a Tory MP threatened to castrate him with. In reality his grandmother gave it to him

The most high profile of Beech's lies was the pen-knife which Beech alleged was used by Mr Proctor as he threatened to 'cut his genitals' was stored in a 'happy memory box'.

Beech told Met detectives that the former Conservative MP was 'sadistic' and threatened him with the pen-knife and then handed it over to him, saying he 'wouldn't be so lucky next time'.

Beech gave it to the Met when they investigated his claims.

But when Northumbria Police investigated Beech for allegedly making false allegations, they asked his ex-wife Dawn Beech about the knife.

Prosecutor Mr Badenoch told his trial: 'She told them that Carl Beech had not only shown it to her, but said he kept it in his 'happy memory box'. There was no mention or upset at what he told investigators was the real story.'

'NICK' GOES ON THE RUN

After the raid on his home, and with his lies 'unravelling before his eyes' Beech fled to a cabin in the Swedish woods.

Before fleeing, on January 23 2018 he received just under £60,000 from the NHS as an early retirement pension - with £752 per month payable - and on February he boarded the Eurotunnel to Calais.

He then began preparing a new life in Sweden. He purchased property in his real name for approximately £17,000 in a remote forested area of northern Sweden, Overkalix.

He then entered into an agreement for a second property using the name 'Sam Williams' in Sleddo around two hours from Overkalix.

Beech fled to a remote cabin in wooded northern Sweden (pictured) and lived under several false names as he tried to evade capture

Beech grew a lengthy beard to disguise himself and stayed in hotels under pseudonyms, regularly travelling hundreds of miles between cities, bought a Ford Kuga 4x4 and began the process of changing his name, jurors heard.

Among the names he used in Sweden were 'Carl Andersson' 'Oskar Andersson', 'Sten Andersson' and 'Samuel Karlsson' the court was told.

He paid cash for his goods and sometimes used gift cards in stores around the country.

But a European Arrest Warrant was issued for him and Sweden's fugitive task force - known as FAST - were asked to track him down.

According to prosecutor Mr Badenoch: 'The false names, remote forest property, multiple hotel stays, and repeated travel for hundreds of miles to at least eight Swedish cities could last for only so long with the Swedish FAST team, National Crime Agency, and Northumbria Constabulary engaged.

Beech was arrested on a train scheduled to leave Gothenburg on 1st October 2018 booked in the name of 'Samuel Karlsson'.

'He had with him his UK Passport in the name of Carl Beech. Gothenburg is over twenty hours by train from his remote forest properties.'

Beech appeared in court on 2 December 2018 and he was finally unmasked to the world after the Daily Mail challenged a reporting restriction. His trial began in May this year.

The cops who called Fantasist Nick 'credible' are cleared: NONE of the officers who spent 18 months and £2.5MILLION taking the ludicrous stories of a liar seriously will face disciplinary action

Bungling police spent 18 months and £2.5million investigating Carl Beech's dreamt-up VIP paedophile ring and have since allowed three detectives in the spotlight to quietly retire on full pensions, MailOnline can reveal today.

Met officers swallowed his lies and raided the homes of elderly suspects including Leon Brittan and Lord Bramall while giving their deceitful accuser anonymity and insisting his fabricated evidence was 'credible and true'.

But none of those involved in the probe are to face action and the force will merely carry out an 'internal debrief' over the scandal-hit investigation.

MailOnline can reveal three officers helping run Operation Midland were allowed to leave the force while being probed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) for alleged misconduct.

Detective Sergeant Eric Sword retired in 2017 at the age of 49 and his boss DCI Diane Tudway, who was promoted after Midland was shut down, retired last year. The third officer has not been identified.

Detective superintendent Kenny McDonald - who branded Beech's incredible claims 'credible and true' - and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse were both cleared by Britain's police watchdog.

This was despite judge Sir Richard Henriques saying in his 2016 report into the handling of Operation Midland that it was 'riddled' with errors and found 43 serious blunders in total after an eight-month inquiry.

Det Supt Kenny McDonald, L, and Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse, R, were cleared by the IOPC investigation despite a judge-led inquiry saying Operation Midland

Mr McDonald has also retired while Mr Rodhouse, who was in charge of a bungled Surrey Police inquiry into Jimmy Savile before transferring to the Met, has been appointed to one of the top jobs in the National Crime Agency.

Harvey Proctor, who was one of those falsely accused by Beech, branded the police 'lapdogs to Mr Watson's crude dog whistle' and said Operation Midland was 'a truly disgraceful chapter in the history of British policing'.

Daniel Janner QC, whose father Lord Greville Janner was falsely accused of sexual abuse by Beech, said today that the police officers who believed 'Nick' and gave him credibility should face arrest.

He told MailOnline: 'Even Inspector Clouseau would have realised that Beech was a manipulative liar. But the senior officers responsible for the scandal of Operation Midland should now be investigated with a view to being prosecuted for misfeasance in a public office'.

The Met was shamed today as Beech was convicted of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice after the prosecution convinced the jury his allegations were in fact 'incredible and untrue'.

Its officers accepted Beech's allegations that a gang of VIPs had killed three boys in the 1970s and 1980s as 'credible and true' - despite having no shred of corroborating evidence.

By believing his lies the Met spent £2.5million on their Operation Midland investigation that produced zero prosecutions.

The Met today admitted that 'our organisation did not get everything right', but insisted the watchdog the IPCC 'found no evidence to indicate bad faith, malice or dishonesty on the part of our officers'.

Sgt James Townly, specialist ops detective with the Met and the first to interview Beech, who claimed the police came to him not the other way round

Officers questioned more than 1,000 people and raided the homes of the living and dead elderly suspects Beech had falsely accused of child abuse and murder.

Labour MP Sir Keir Starmer is also in the firing line today, because he changed the CPS' guidance having claimed too many alleged victims of sexual abuse were first asked: 'Are you telling the truth?'.

In the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal in 2013, Sir Keir, who was then Director of Public Prosecutions, claimed that police aggressively grilling people to root out liars meant 'many victims didn't have the confidence to come forward'.

Daniel Janner said today: 'Keir Starmer was the DPP responsible for the policy of all victims are to be believed, which gave credibility to the incredible. Its is appalling that he has remained silent and not apologised'.

Detectives investigating claims of a VIP paedophile ring were accused of 'going rogue' in the wake of interviewing Carl Beech for 20 hours at the end of 2014.

Lord Brittan's family said the Met had hounded him in life and death after a woman accused him of rape and then Beech named him as a kingpin in a VIP paedophile ring he had made up.

Lord Brittan died before his name was cleared and police searched his home and rummaged through his clothes, diaries, personal effects and family albums, removing items for further analysis

Teams of police searched Lord Brittan's homes in central London and North Yorkshire in early March 2015 - six weeks after he died aged 75 and more than 18 months after prosecutors told them to drop a rape case against him.

Officers, including at least one in body armour, also searched the home of the 95-year-old former head of the Armed Forces, Lord Bramall, and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor's flat in Leicestershire.

The raids were considered so heavy handed that Leon Brittan's widow Diana and Edwin Bramall received about £100,000 in compensation payouts.

Plain-clothes detectives had first examined Lord Brittan's home in Pimlico, central London, and his North Yorkshire country retreat.

The rural property, near the picturesque town of Leyburn, is in the Richmond constituency which he once represented as an MP.

In a co-ordinated swoop on his homes they also rummaged through his clothes, diaries, personal effects and family albums, removing items for further analysis.

Lord Bramall, pictured with his late wife Lady Avril, described how the police turned up as he ate breakfast with his seriously ill wife upstairs

The Met's hounding of Lord Brittan in life and death November 2012 A woman known as Jane tells South Yorkshire Police she was raped by Lord Brittan in London in 1967. The case was passed to the Metropolitan Police. August 2013 The Crown Prosecution Service says there is not enough evidence to charge him and sends the file back to the Met for the FIRST time. February 2014 Jane tells police she is upset that Lord Brittan has not been interviewed. April 2014 Commander Graham McNulty, boss of the sexual offences unit, orders a review of the rape investigation. May 2014 Jane goes public with her allegation of rape against an unnamed ex-Cabinet minister. Tom Watson express his concerns about the investigation. June 2014 The Met asks the CPS to review the file again – but it is bounced back to them for a SECOND time. November 2014 The Met sends the Brittan file to the CPS once again – only for prosecutors to reject it for a THIRD time. A senior Met officer appeals. January 2015 Lord Brittan dies. February 2015 The Met asks the CPS to review the file yet again. March 2015 Assistant Commissioner Patricia Gallan writes to DPP Alison Saunders requesting a change of CPS policy to allow files to be considered where there is 'significant public interest'. Detectives search Lord Brittan's homes in London and Yorkshire. April 2015 Yet again the Met asks the CPS to review the file. June 2015 CPS tells police they are no grounds to charge the Tory peer for a FOURTH and final time. Advertisement

The searches came just six weeks after the former home secretary died aged 75 with his family still deep in grief.

Officers also attended the home of Lord Bramall, chief of defence staff until 1985, who was then 91.

The Second World War hero won the Military Cross for bravery and rose to be Britain's top-ranking Army officer.

The team of police, including at least one in body armour, were seen at his £750,000 stone detached property in Crondall, Hampshire, near the Army town of Aldershot.

Lord Bramall recalled how police raided his home early one day and said: 'I was having breakfast and they said, 'Oh, we're the police' and I said, 'Oh, how nice to see you. Come along in.' They came into the drawing room and I said, 'What can I do for you?' And they said, 'Well, allegations have been made.' I said, 'Really, against whom?' And they said, 'Against you.' They said, 'We've got a warrant to search the house.' They told me the allegation was that I had abused an under-aged male 40 years ago.'

More than 20 officers were involved in the search of his home – which lasted most of the day.

Lord Bramall said: 'They were all over the house and they were in the kitchen. They had a special officer who had dealt with paedophile cases asking my daughter questions and so on.

'My wife was seriously ill, but she was downstairs and on a walker. And I had to move her from room to room and she kept on saying, 'What are they all doing here?' And I couldn't really explain it, because she had Alzheimer's.

'They didn't tell me anything, nothing… except what the allegations were... oh, and that it was part of a wider allegation, but they didn't precisely say what.'

The searches took place on the same day as officers searched the Leicestershire home of ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor, 68, prompting him to publicly deny any wrongdoing.

Proctor, whose Parliamentary career ended in a rent boy 'spanking' scandal, said he was trapped in a 'Kafka-esque fantasy'.

At least six spin-off inquiries were also launched, with the most high-profile one investigating claims a VIP sex ring operated out of the exclusive Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico.

One line of inquiry was supposedly a boy who was stabbed to death with a penknife 'over a period of 40 minutes' during a sex party at Dolphin Square, a block of luxury flats near Parliament.

Another young boy was mowed down by a car in broad daylight during a hit-and-run attack in Kingston upon Thames, between May and July 1979. A third was supposedly killed during a depraved assault at a different sex party.

But Beech, known was 'Nick' then, was unable to provide even the slightest piece of corroborating evidence to support his outlandish claims.

How Beech falsely accused one of Britain's greatest Army men Lord Bramall was head of the army from 1979-1982 before becoming Chief of the Defence staff - head of the whole armed forces - a position he held for three years. He first joined the army in 1943 and took part in the D-Day landings the next year. The young soldier was given the Military Cross at the end of the Second World War. Lord Bramall's glittering military career saw him promoted to lieutenant and sent to Japan in 1946, before serving in the Middle East during the 1950s as he climbed the ranks. He was given an OBE for his services to the Armed Forces in 1965, shortly before he was deployed to Borneo as commanding officer of the Royal Green Jackets regiment, where his actions were mentioned in despatches. He would later serve in Hong Kong before returning to Britain. In his role as Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord Bramall played an integral role in planning the Falklands invasion. After retiring he was made a Knight of the Garter and, as a life peer, spoke out against invading Iraq in 2003. Advertisement

Strangely unbothered by this fact, then Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe's Scotland Yard decided, in December 2014, to authorise Operation Midland's lead detective, Kenny McDonald, to give a TV interview describing 'Nick's' testimony as 'credible and true'.

Then, over the ensuing months, his officers conducted highly publicised raids on the homes of Lord Brittan, Lord Bramall and Harvey Proctor. They interviewed the latter two under caution.

But as the months went by Midland creaked and supporters of the accused men insisted they had been wrongly smeared by association with the operation.

Then, in September 2015, Hogan-Howe's force issued a 1,200-word statement admitting it had been wrong to describe the unsupported allegations as 'credible and true'.

Officers close to the inquiry had started having 'grave doubts' about 'Nick' and believed him to be a Walter Mitty fantasist who had made up his story of abuse and murder - but it had taken more than a year to realise it.

The following month, the force released another lengthy statement saying it had 'serious concerns' about a Panorama documentary which shed further light on the outlandish nature of Nick's claims. This statement failed to prevent the programme from being aired.

On the eve of its broadcast, Scotland Yard grudgingly admitted that Leon Brittan had been exonerated of a separate rape claim made by another suspected fantasist called 'Jane'.

The news came too late for Lord Brittan. He had died nine months earlier without that shadow being lifted from him or his family.

And the Met also announced that Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald, who once described Nick's claims as 'credible and true', had been removed from his job.

Three Metropolitan Police officers are still the subjects of a three-year probe by the Independent Office of Police Conduct over the quality of their work.

The officers are believed to have applied for search warrants falsely claiming that testimony from alleged victim 'Nick' had been consistent throughout his police interviews, when they knew it had not been.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer was accused of changing CPS guidelines to avoid grilling people who claim they were abused because 'many victims didn't have the confidence to come forward'.

The Met has refused to reveal their names, to say when they retired, or to confirm whether they will keep their taxpayer-funded pensions.

The IPCC was accused of a whitewash when it absolved Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steve Rodhouse and Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald of any wrongdoing, in March 2017.

Det Supt McDonald was the first officer to be in charge of Operation Midland, and it was he who announced Beech's extraordinary claims were 'credible and true' in December 2014.

He was replaced the following summer amid growing criticism, and retired on the eve of Beech's trial.

However the IOPC investigation into three more junior officers - the DCI, DI and DS - rumbled on and all three officers remain under investigation.

MailOnline understands the IOPC has concluded its report and sent it to the Met for comment and reply, and will publish its recommendations once it has received and amalgamated the Met's feedback.

It will then be for the Met and the CPS to decide whether to investigate and prosecute the officers, based on the IOPC's findings.

They are accused of lying to a judge in order to obtain search warrants in the case, telling the judge that Beech's testimony had been consistent when they knew it had not.

The Met Police said today that Eric Sword retired before the IOPC began their investigation, while Diane Tudway retired two years after the matter was downgraded to misconduct.

They said the Met Police had no powers to stop officers retiring and has no power in law to prevent ex-officers claiming their pensions or reducing their pensions, except for in cases of serious criminality.

A spokesman said: 'All officers involved in the IPCC / IOPC investigation fully cooperated and the IPCC stated in March 2017 that it had found no evidence to indicate bad faith, malice or dishonesty on the part of our officers as they investigated the allegations made by Carl Beech.

'The IPCC also stated that the information available to them indicated the investigation was extensive and carried out diligently.'

A spokesman for police watchdog the IOPC said: '(We) investigated the allegations and found no evidence that any of the officers deliberately withheld evidence from the applications with the intention of misleading the district judge and would have no case to answer for misconduct.'

Met Police defends officers on the case and says it will carry out 'internal debrief' following trial Following Beech's convictions today, Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House (pictured, below) said: 'Following the conclusion of the Operation Midland investigation, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe commissioned a thorough review by Sir Richard Henriques. Key points from Sir Richard's highly critical review were published in November 2016. 'Sir Bernard also apologised in person to those most affected by the case. Sir Richard's review also allowed us to learn so that we could improve our handling of similar allegations in the future. 'Many of his recommendations have already been embedded and we keep our working practices under review at all times. 'Potential conduct matters relating to five of our officers, were voluntarily referred to the then Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) after we had read the full detail of Sir Richard's review, so that an independent assessment could be made. 'Whilst the Met is clear that our organisation did not get everything right, the IPCC stated in March 2017 that it had found no evidence to indicate bad faith, malice or dishonesty on the part of our officers as they investigated the allegations made by Carl Beech. The IPCC also stated that the information available to them indicated the investigation was extensive and carried out diligently. 'The IPCC continued to investigate three officers for matters relating to the applications for search warrants. Today, the Independent Office for Police Conduct announced that none of these officers had a case to answer in relation to any allegations. 'I believe that all these officers worked in good faith. They cooperated fully with both the Henriques' Review and the Independent Office for Police Conduct investigations. 'In summary, none of the five officers involved in the original referral or the three officers subject to investigation were found to have cases to answer in relation to any of the allegations.' He added: 'It must be remembered also that the work of Operation Midland was carried out against a backdrop of intense scrutiny and allegations that in the past the Met had covered up sensitive allegations about prominent people. 'There will nonetheless be an internal debrief following Carl Beech's trial to identify any additional lessons.' Advertisement

'Tom Watson MUST quit': Victim's son blasts Labour's deputy leader over his role in VIP paedophile scandal 'witch hunt' as MP refuses to apologise for championing 'Nick'

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson should quit for hounding innocent men after appointing himself 'Britain's chief paedo-finder general', one of his victim's sons has said.

Daniel Janner QC, the son of the late peer Greville Janner, accused him a hypocrisy over 'moral stance' he is taking on his party's anti-Semitism crisis after creating a 'moral panic' himself about the Westminster VIP paedophile ring invented by Beech.

Ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor meanwhile said Watson had been a 'vehicle for conspiracy theorists' and a 'patsy for fake news' after the politician insisted Beech's evidence left 'no doubt in my mind that sexual abuse by powerful figures took place.'

Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Tom Watson, left, is in the firing line after vouching for fantasist Carl Beech who lied about a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster

Mr Janner, whose father Lord Janner was falsely accused of child abuse by Nick, told MailOnline today: 'Tom Watson should resign. He appointed himself Britain's chief paedo-finder general and created a moral panic.

'The moral stance he is taking on anti-Semitism is completely hypocritical. Watson had politicised a police inquiry. He showed no regard for the presumption of innocence. He hounded Lord Brittan, a dying man, to his grave.

'His motive was personal political advancement riding on a bandwagon of public frenzy which he had whipped up. And now Watson claims the moral high ground in the fight against the appalling anti-semitism in the Labour Party.

'Instead he should hang his head in shame. Apologise. And resign'.

Daniel Janner QC says Watson used 'Nick', who falsely accused his father Lord Janner (pictured together) of abuse to get to the top of the Labour party

Harvey Procter said: 'Its time for the torchlight to take a closer look at Mr Watson.

'It is now beyond doubt that all of these allegations could never have been true and only someone with spectacular bad judgement could think that they might be. Mr Watson likes a stage to call upon others to apologise, or to put right past wrongs.'

As he came under fire from Beech's wrongly-accused victims today, Watson insisted he was only doing what the police told him do.

Watson said he met Beech in July 2014 after he raised a question on the issue in Parliament.

He said: 'I reassured Nick that the police had made clear that all allegations of historic sex abuse would be taken seriously and treated sensitively.

'That is what the police had asked me to do, and it was the process I followed with all those who claimed to be survivors of historic child sex abuse. It was not my role to judge whether victims' stories were true.'

Beech , 51, was able to brag to police that Mr Watson was his confidante, protector and a key part of a 'little group supporting me' as he made baseless claims of sexual abuse and murder in Westminster.

Today these claims were destroyed after Beech was convicted of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud - and it can also be revealed that Beech is a paedophile himself.

Watson's decision to vouch for Carl Beech puts him in the spotlight today as he was accused of sparking a 'moral panic' and playing politics by helping spread the paedophile's lies.

The convicted liar also dragged the names of former Prime Minister Ted Heath, MPs Harvey Proctor and Leon Brittan and D-Day veteran Lord Bramall through the mud.

In 2012 Mr Watson called for the Prime Minister to investigate 'clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10.'

On the back of this campaigning Watson and Beech first met in 2014 after the MP for West Bromwich invited him to his office in Parliament.

He described Beech's claims 'very traumatic' - but appeared so convinced by his lies about child abuse and murder he admitted afterwards: 'I didn't need to hear any more.'

Margaret Thatcher's Home Secretary Leon Brittan died after battling cancer while police repeatedly raided his London house for evidence that never existed - and he passed away before detectives cleared his name and Watson finally apologised to his widow for his smears.

Tom Watson wrote on at least five occasions to two directors of public prosecutions - Sir Keir Starmer and then his successor, Alison Saunders, about alleged sexual abuse cases.

On one occasion, Watson demanded a prosecuting lawyer who decided not to pursue an abuse claim be pulled from the case and his past work reviewed.

And in another letter to Starmer in 2013, Watson demanded CPS restart a historical sexual abuse case against a suspect who was later put on trial and cleared.

In October 2012 Tom Watson used the protection of Parliamentary privilege to repeat Beech's false claims of a 'powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10', which police later found no evidence of

Daniel Janner said today Watson used his power to give credence to a 'lying fantasist' and also sparked the Met's catastrophic Operation Midland investigation.

Detectives spent two years and £2million only to find no evidence corroborate Beech's claims he had been abused by MPs, Army chiefs and VIPs inside the luxury Dolphin Square apartment block in Pimlico where he also said three children were murdered.

Tom Watson 'should hang his head in shame. Apologise. And resign', says victim's son By Daniel Janner QC for MailOnline In 2012 Tom Watson used the protection of parliamentary privilege to make reckless and false serious sexual allegations. He said there was 'clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10'. It created moral panic and was the catalyst for the beleaguered wasteful uncontrolled inquiry into child sexual abuse. My own late father, Lord Janner, was falsely accused of appalling crimes he never committed. Carl Beech claimed during his trial that he has been raped by him (a Labour MP) in the Conservative Carlton Club. A lie he maintained when cross-examined by the prosecution. The jury didn't fall for it. Watson had politicised a police inquiry. He showed no regard for the presumption of innocence. He hounded Lord Brittan, a dying man, to his grave. His motive was personal political advancement riding on a bandwagon of public frenzy which he had whipped up. And now Watson claims the moral high ground in the fight against the appalling Anti-semitism in the Labour Party. Instead he should hang his head in shame. Apologise. And resign. Advertisement

Watson and Beech met for the first time seven years ago when the fantasist - a paedophile himself - launched his campaign of lies in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.

'Nick', as he was better known, claimed to police he had only spoken out about allegations of sexual abuse dating back to his childhood because he was angry about claims that the Top of the Pops star only abused little girls.

Beech told his Newcastle Crown Court trial that he met with Watson in his Westminster officer before talking to the police.

In his first formal interview with the Met, Beech told them Watson and retired social worker Peter McKelvie had backed him.

Beech told Detective Sergeant James Townly: 'Peter McKelvie and Tom Watson formed part of the little group supporting me and putting my information out there to encourage other people to come forward - hence the piece they did on Dolphin Square.'

He went on: 'I went to meet Tom Watson in his office and talked to him at some length when they put that bit out there.'

In 2014 Watson described the meeting as 'a very, very traumatic and difficult conversation, as you would imagine. He only told me about one murder. He spoke very slowly, very intermittently, and I didn't need to hear any more.'

Mr Watson added: 'What I'm certain of is that he's not delusional. He is either telling the truth, or he's made up a meticulous and elaborate story. It's not for me to judge.

'What I was hoping to do was build a relationship with him and get him back into the system, so he could make his allegations to the police. And to make sure that he had a degree of protection. With all the things that come from making these sort of allegations.'

Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor (left outside Beech's trial) and D-day hero Lord Bramall (right) had their reputations destroyed by Beech's lies

When asked whether the abusers included politicians, he replied: 'There is no doubt in my mind that at least one politician abused kids.'

Tom Watson spent three years fanning the flames before humbling apology to Lord Brittan's widow October 24, 2012 Mr Watson called for the Prime Minister to investigate 'clear intelligence suggesting a powerful paedophile network linked to Parliament and No 10.' November 3, 2012 On his blog, he wrote: 'More ordinary people have contacted me… they have named powerful people who abused children with impunity.' November 5, 2012 Letter to the Prime Minister 'Since sharing my concerns with you at PMQs, a number of people have come forward to say that they raised their suspicions with the police, but investigations were not carried out. One allegation involves … a former cabinet minister.' May 20, 2014 Letter to Alison Saunders, the then DPP 'I have found myself appalled at the conduct of this investigation… everyone is complicit in the failures of the past.' July 8, 2014 Mr Watson asked the Attorney General for 'a copy of each item of correspondence between his department and the Home Office and Lord Brittan of Spennithorne in relation to child abuse in 1984 and 1985. January 24, 2015 He said in the Daily Mirror newspaper: 'I've spoken to a woman who said he raped her in 1967. And I've spoken to a man who was a child when he says Brittan raped him. Today, one survivor said to me ... that Brittan was 'as close to evil as a human being could get'. 'All the glowing tributes [after Lord Brittan's death] reminded me of the media coverage immediately after Jimmy Savile's death. 'Leon Brittan stands accused of multiple child rape. Many others knew of these allegations and chose to remain silent. I will not.' March 21, 2015 A blog post said: 'Sources close to the police have told me that Leon Brittan was named by a child linked to the raid [on Elm Guest House in South-West London in 1982]. 'The sources allege that the police were instructed by senior officials to ensure that no record was made of the child naming Brittan.' November 2015 He forced to write a humbling letter of apology to the widow of Leon Brittan for saying her husband was 'as close to evil as any human could get'. The Labour Deputy Leader agreed to a new humiliating apology to Lady Brittan after MPs said a previous attempt to say sorry was 'too qualified'. Mr Watson appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee last month and said he was 'sincerely sorry' for calling Lord Brittan 'evil' but in a rare intervention MPs demanded he should now write a formal letter. Advertisement

As to whether there was a cover-up, he added: 'Well, something went on.'

A year later he was forced to make a hollow apology for his rape allegations against Lord Brittan.

Two days after it emerged that police had found no evidence to charge the late Tory politician, Labour's deputy leader broke cover to issue a statement.

But this only sparked more controversy because he insisted he had felt testimony from one of Lord Brittan's accusers was 'compelling'.

He conceded using the word 'evil' to describe the peer was wrong and apologised for the distress the family suffered.

Mr Watson said he was sorry for the 'distress Leon Brittan's family experienced as they grieved for him. I still am'.

Tom Watson used Parliament, the press and his blog to bring extraordinary accusations into the public domain in 2012 as he said with certainty that 'sexual abuse by powerful figures took place' in years that followed.

He has repeatedly been accused of starting a 'moral panic' about an alleged Westminster VIP paedophile ring.

£2million of public money was squandered by the Metropolitan Police on an 18-month investigation, Operation Midland, which dragged the names of blameless and distinguished men through the mud.

In March of this year at that Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse - still rumbling on five years and £100m later - Mr Watson was labelled a 'vehicle for conspiracy theorists' and a 'patsy for fake news'.

On the first day of the Westminster strand of IICSA, counsel to the inquiry Brian Altman QC said Mr Watson's allegation about a VIP child sex ring on October 24, 2012, was a 'key point'.

He said the allegation 'fed into the growing public concern that a network of paedophiles may have operated with a degree of impunity in public life.'

But Mr Altman said MI5, MI6 and GCHQ had each found 'no material to show the existence of a so-called Westminster VIP paedophile ring or any attempts to suppress the existence of such a paedophile ring.'

Addressing the inquiry later, Mr Robertson said a Scotland Yard commander would tell the inquiry 'there's not a scintilla of evidence of a network of a Westminster child abuse network'.

And in a closing statement to the Westminster strand of the investigation this March, a lawyer for falsely accused former Tory MP Harvey Proctor said it was now clear 'there is no evidence of a Westminster paedophile network'

Adam Wagner told the inquiry: 'We opened by saying that sometimes there is smoke without fire. In the case of the hideous allegations against Harvey Proctor, there never was a fire. There was, instead, a belching smoke machine.'

He told the panel: 'Regrettably, in the moral panic which ensued after Jimmy Savile's crimes came to light, malicious conspiracy theories against Harvey Proctor and others were given far more credence than they deserve.'

Mr Wagner went on: 'The allegations were so incredible that any reasonable person would at the least have treated them with extreme caution.

'Instead, a small group of self- promoting politicians ... led by Tom Watson, amplified the allegations and used their considerable political clout to give them status and believability.

'Mr Watson became a vehicle for conspiracy theorists, and a patsy for fake news'.

Watson today insisted he had done a lot to promote investigations into child sex abuse.

He said: 'I hope this trial, and the case of one person, does not prevent survivors of child sexual abuse coming forward and reporting their experiences to the police.

'As a public figure of responsibility I felt it was my duty to respond to the claims that had been made to me. To stand aside when there was a possibility that children were at risk of sexual abuse was not an option.'

Responding to Harvey Proctor's criticism, Watson said he understood that the former MP 'is hurt and angry', but accused him of disingenuously using a selective quotation' from an interview he did.

Calls for Exaro chiefs to be prosecuted after staff prompted Carl Beech's false abuse claims against VIPs by showing him photographs of them

The men behind a website which published Carl Beech's 'VIP sex ring' lies and 'facilitated his fantasies' should be prosecuted too, one of his wrongly accused victims said today.

Beech's wild allegations against a string of respected politicians and top figures were published on a little-known website Exaro in 2014, when he was known only as 'Nick'.

But Exaro's editor-in-chief Mark Watts has since admitted he did not have supporting evidence for the claims.

Worse still, it has emerged that the website's reporter Mark Conrad had showed Beech photos of men he would later make false claims against before he went to police.

After Beech was convicted of perverting the course of justice today, Harvey Proctor, an MP who was falsely accused by Beech, said the conduct of Exaro should also be probed by the police.

Mr Proctor said: 'In the light of evidence revealed in this trial, including the showing of locations and photographs of alleged suspects to Carl Beech to facilitate his fantasies during a live investigation, or an investigation they knew would become live, consideration should be given by the Police and the CPS to investigate Mark Watts and Mark Conrad, masquerading as journalists, from the disgraced and now defunct, odd Exaro News Agency, for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.'

Exaro editor-in-chief Mark Watts, left, and reporter Mark Conrad, right, published Carl Beech's fabricated tales through 2014 and 2015 without any supporting evidence

The now-defunct website published a series of exclusives based on lies told by Carl Beech

Exaro came under fire over its role in supported Beech before he went to police in a way in which critics say bolstered his invented stories.

Conrad showed the convicted paedophile how to use an anonymised web browser, which is untraceable by the authorities, and an encrypted email service with which Beech would later correspond with police, pretending to be a corroborative witness.

Former finance reporter Conrad, whom Beech described as 'part of a little group that was supporting me and put my information out there', also took Beech to the home of Sir Edward Heath.

Beech later told detectives he was abused there as a small boy.

Exaro editor Watts, whom former colleagues said harboured the ambition of becoming 'the face of celebrity child abuse', later admitted to the BBC he had published Nick's tale of seeing a boy run over and murdered in the street in Kingston upon Thames without checking whether there was any evidence it happened.

Beech's trial heard police got in touch with Conrad after reading one of his reports online.

Beech later spent 20 hours telling police a web of lies about child abuse and murder committed by famous political figures, and now faces years in prison having been found guilty of perverting the course of justice and fraud.

It emerged at the trial that Conrad had helped Beech compile his claims before he went to police.

But Beech's lies were eventually undone when it emerged that he had never mentioned many of the men he accused of abuse when he first went to police two years before he met the Exaro reporter.

Carl Beech spoke to the Met Police for more than 20 hours after detectives reached out to him after reading his false claims on Exaro News, his trial heard

Who is Exaro editor-in-chief Mark Watts? Mark Watts Mark Watts began his career at the Hull Daily Mail in 1988 before moving into television to produce investigative pieces for The Big Story and World In Action. He was head of investigations at the now-defunct Sunday Business from 1997 to 2001. He founded Exaro - Latin for 'I dig up' - in 2011. One former colleague described Watts as 'a very serious-minded, slightly awkward character, verging on the obsessional, who is totally convinced of the importance of what he does'. Another told Private Eye he was a 'Walter Mitty character' who aspired to make himself famous as 'the face of celebrity child abuse'. He was nominated for the European Press Prize Editor of the Year for 2012, but fired by Exaro in the summer of 2016, following the collapse of Operation Midland. He sued successfully for unfair dismissal. Advertisement

In 2012 Beech had accused his step-father and Jimmy Savile of abuse in interviews with Wiltshire Police.

But with both the accused dead, the force closed the case as 'undetected'.

At that point, Beech never mentioned Edward Heath, Harvey Proctor, Lord Brammal or spy chiefs Maurice Oldfield or Michael Hanley, all of whom he would go on to name to the Met.

But from April 2014 he expanded his tales into stories of a shadowy 'Group' of conspiratorial child abusers on blogging site The Tangled Web.

Mark Conrad then made contact with him.

Conrad then produced a dossier of 42 faces which Beech told detectives he had him look through 'to see if there was anyone that I recognised'.

They included pictures of the high-profile military and political figures he accused, as well as others he did not such as Liberal Democrat MP Cyril Smith.

Beech told police: 'I was just asked to mark on them if I recognised them, and if I did recognise them and they took part in the abuse. Then he had a whole bunch of photos that I just looked through.

'I picked them out, I didn't know either their first name or their surname, some of them I knew what they did. That made a difference.'

When Beech later met with Scotland Yard detectives, in October 2014, he asked whether Conrad could be present.

And at that point he provided detectives with a list of typed names, some of which were underlined.

The news website, which also sold its copy to national newspapers, became synonymous with stories of historic child abuse allegedly carried out by high profile people and politicians

Who is Exaro reporter, Carl Beech confidante, Mark Conrad? Mark Conrad Mark Conrad started in local newspapers in 1997 in north London. After writing for a consumer magazine he spent most of the 2000s writing and editing the publication Public Finance, dubbed 'The Economist for the public sector'. On his LinkedIn profile he describes his time at Exaro as: 'Former Head of News and Reporter at an investigations unit, where [I] jointly-managed a team of award-winning researchers and writers breaking national and international news'. This year Conrad co-founded Byline, a new investigative journalism website. Advertisement

Detective constable Young asked him: 'Did anyone else help you create that list?'

Beech replied: 'I think I asked Mark beforehand whether I should write down the names and places before I gave it to [the police]. He just said whatever I felt comfortable with.'

The trial also heard how Conrad introduced 51-year-old Beech, an NHS middle manager, to encrypted web systems which Beech would go on to use to mislead detectives.

Mark Conrad told police this March that he had discussed using TOR with Beech.

TOR, or The Onion Browser, uses a vast network of hidden servers to relay users' data requests, meaning the IP address, location, and identity of the user is untraceable.

TOR has been used by paedophiles and drug traffickers to access the so-called 'dark web'.

Conrad said in a statement: 'I also noted at this point a secure way of communicating with Carl to reassure him that we would do everything we can to protect his identity.

'I mentioned using TOR in order to mask online identity and scramble IP addresses.'

He added: 'Along the same lines, but possibly on another date, I told Carl about ProtonMail, a secure email service.

'Carl set up a Proton email account and we used it for a short period of time, however, we reverted back to normal emails.'

During the course of his interviews, Beech would use a ProtonMail email account to communicate with detectives under the assumed name of Fred, claiming to be a contemporary who could provide a corroborating account of the abuse of groups of young boys by powerful men.

But once Northumbria Police started investigating Beech for possible perversion of the course of justice, they tracked 'Fred's' email account.

They found the ProtonMail account, based in Switzerland, was in fact registered to the email address beechfamily1@gmail.com.

Mark Watts was challenged on Newsnight over his methods and told Evan Davies he had not confirmed Beech's claim to have seen a young boy run over on order of 'the Group'

How Exaro first became entangled with Carl Beech after he started blogging about his experiences October 2012: Beech told Wiltshire Police he was abused by his step-father and Jimmy Savile. They close the case as 'undetected'. April 2014: Beech wrote elaborate fictions about a shadowy 'Group' of abusers on blogging site The Tangled Web. Conrad reached out to Beech and became a confidant, later described by Beech as 'one of the little group supporting me' along with Labour MP Tom Watson and a retired social worker. Summer 2014: Conrad worked with Beech, providing photos for him to identify possible abusers, teaching him how to use encrypted web services, and walking him to Ted Heath's old house. Meanwhile Exaro published a string of articles based on Beech's lies, alleging child rape and murder at the heart of Westminster. October 2014: Beech spoke to the Met for the first time - with Conrad present. November 2014: The Met launched Operation Midland and a month later described Beech's claims as 'credible and true'. Exaro editor Mark Watts took credit for the launch of what became a fruitless £2.5m, 18-month witch hunt. He said of the investigation: 'It's very important to recognise only happened as a consequence of evidence that we found'. October 2015: A scathing Panorama revealed the flimsiness of the evidence behind the Met's operation and Exaro's stories. The following night Watts tells the BBC Exaro did not research Beech's claim that a boy was run over in front of him before publishing it, saying: 'I suppose the main focus went on other alleged murders because they involved prominent people'. March 2016: Operation Midland was wound up with no arrests. July 2016: Mark Watts was fired, and later sued successfully for unfair dismissal and Exaro News was wound up by investor Jerome Booth. July 2019: Beech is found guilty of perverting the course of justice and fraud. Advertisement

The trial also heard how Beech only told detectives he had been abused at the London home of former prime minister Ted Heath after Conrad took him to the address.

In July or August 2014 Conrad took Beech to the area of Wilton Street where Sir Ted had lived, and walked him around. He did not tell him who lived in the area.

Beech later told detectives he suddenly recognised Mr Heath's street.

'As we walked down my anxieties went sky high, it was very familiar to me,' he said.

'Mark said 'who do I associate with the place?' The only people I would associate with it was Harvey [Proctor] and Edward [Heath], he didn't tell me who lived there or anything.'

By 2015 other news outlets were already starting to question the claims in the stories Exaro had published.

A BBC Panorama investigation found no evidence of claims by 'Nick' that a young boy had been mown down by a car on instructions of 'the Group' - claims we now know were an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

The following day, Mark Watts appeared on Newsnight and was asked by Evan Davies how his team had fact-checked the claim.

He said: 'I suppose the main focus went on other alleged murders because they involved prominent people'.

Watts was made redundant at the end of June 2016 and then sacked three weeks later after being accused of breaching company confidentiality by speaking out about his case in the media and on Twitter.

He would later successfully sue the company, which was shut down by investor Jerome Booth the following month, for unfair dismissal.

Following the shuttering, BBC Panorama editor Ceri Thomas called Exaro an 'unpleasant and wrong-headed' organisation which had 'done damage' to public interest journalism. He accused the site of publishing without supporting evidence.

Mr Watts hit back that Panorama's piece was 'the most shameful piece of work in this area in recent times.'

In mid 2016, Mr Watts described Exaro's reporting of allegations of Westminster paedophilia as 'absolutely terrific' and said he expected it to be 'vindicated'.

'I have no doubt that as time goes on, if it's not clear enough for people already, it will become even clearer,' he said three years ago.

Now that Carl Beech awaits a jail sentence for perverting the course of justice and a court has heard how easy it was for police to disprove his claims, the truth behind 'Nick', Exaro News, and the Westminster paedophile conspiracy that never existed seems all too clear.

In a statement tonight, Watts refused to apologise, instead claiming Beech had not been given a fair trial.

What was Carl Beech convicted of? Beech denied 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one count of fraud, but was charges allege he: • Made a false allegation of witnessing the child homicide of an unnamed boy committed by Harvey Proctor • Made a false allegation of witnessing the homicide of a boy called Scott • Made a false allegation of witnessing the homicide of another boy • Falsely alleged that he had been sexually and physically abused by a paedophile ring, with senior military officers, military intelligence, a TV presenter and other unidentified men accused as members • Falsely alleged that he had been sexually and physically abused by a paedophile ring, with politicians accused as members • Provided a list of sexual abusers and locations falsely alleging he had been physically and sexually abused by said abusers at said locations • Provided sketches of locations at which he claimed he had been abused, falsely claiming he had produced them from memory • Provided the name Aubrey, falsely alleging Aubrey had been present and subjected to physical and sexual abuse when with him • Provided a pen knife and two military epaulettes falsely alleging he had retained them from when he was abused as a child • Falsely claimed that he had been seriously injured by sexual and physical abuse inflicted as a child • Falsified a 'Proton' email account, and provided false information purportedly sent from 'Fred', an individual he had claimed was present when he was abused • Went together with investigators on site visits and falsely alleged that it was at locations identified by him during those visits that he had been subjected to physical and sexual abuse by a paedophile ring • Falsely claimed £22,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority saying he was subjected to abuse by a paedophile ring, knowing this to be untrue and intending to make a gain for himself Advertisement

'Nick's' ten most transparent lies: The 'castration knife' that actually belonged to his grandmother, the 'paedophile pool' taken from a Culture Club video and his 'fear of water' that didn't stop him snorkeling

Carl Beech's unbelievable tale of a VIP paedophile ring in Westminster was made up of thousands of lies that took in Met Police detectives and convinced them to raid the homes of his victims.

But after Operation Midland ended in 2016 with no charges, Northumbria Police began investigating Beech himself - and the truth started to emerge.

His outlandish version of events began to be unpicked, some of his most obviously false claims were:

The 'castration' pen knife

The pen knife: was tested for DNA by police

THE LIE: He said former MP Harvey Proctor made him perform a sexual act while Ted Heath watched - and then produced a pen knife.

Beech said: 'He was sadistic. He had a little penknife and he wanted to cut my genitals.

'The next thing, he just started laying into me and hitting. Edward stopped him and he didn't like it.'

Then, claimed Beech, Proctor warned him that he 'would not be so lucky next time', and put pen-knife in his trousers, apparently as some sort of twisted memento.

HOW IT UNRAVELED:

After telling his improbable-sounding tale, Beech produced the pen knife and asked police to test it for prints and DNA.

Unsurprisingly, the tests came back negative.

When police asked Beech's ex-wife about the knife, she said he had shown