VIP paedophile ring faker Carl Beech exploited the “moral panic” that followed the Jimmy Savile scandal, a leading criminologist said today.
Beech, 51, was convicted today of falsely claiming he was abused by a group of powerful paedophiles in the 1970s and 1980s.
The ex-nurse, once only known in media reports as “Nick”, alleged that senior politicians, top army brass and security chiefs were involved in sadistic sexual abuse and that he witnessed them murder three boys.
Northumbria Police was later tasked with investigating his claims and the vicar's son, from Gloucester, was charged with 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud, which he denied.
He was found guilty of all charges today and will be sentenced at a later date.
Professor David Watson from Birmingham University said he is contacted daily by people falsely claiming, like the fantasist "Nick", to have been sexually abused by a celebrity or have information to solve a notorious crime.
The phenomenon appeared to be driven by a desire to regain some "agency", or choice, over a real abusive experience at the hands of someone not famous, the criminologist said.
Prof Watson said he believes Carl Beech exploited the "moral panic" that followed the Jimmy Savile scandal.
Beech, he said, used the "perfect storm" of the police and media's determination not to be caught out again following the disgraced TV star's death, and the timing of his allegations ensured his far-fetched story was given greater credence than it deserved.
Prof Wilson, who frequently appears on TV and in the media, said he is contacted almost daily by people claiming to have been a victim of a VIP paedophile ring.
He said: "These emails go on for page after page. Sometimes these emails will be true, but mostly I can work out if they are not."
Prof Wilson said: "There's just this dreadful desire for fantasists to connect themselves to broad cultural events and 'Nick' was able to do."
He expressed surprise that detectives did not spot inconsistencies in his story and did not go to his ex-wife to corroborate his claims.
A "tell" that he may have been lying was the way he slowed down when answering investigators' questions about his allegations - a phenomenon known as Cognitive Load, when he brain works harder to manufacture a fake memory.
Meanwhile Jenny Hopkins, head of special crime and counter-terrorism said Beech spun police a web of lies as he "revelled in the attention that his tales were attracting".
Ms Hopkins said the facts of Beech's prosecution were "unlike any other I have seen in my career".
"We've been able to prove that actually he was a very prolific and manipulative liar. He enjoyed the limelight, I would say that he thrived on being in the limelight," she said.
"He would quite happily have seen innocent men arrested and face the full weight of the law."
As a result, "innocent and often elderly and frail people" had their reputations damaged and had to suffer "unimaginable distress", she said.
Outlining some of the lies that the "malicious" paedophile accuser told, Ms Hopkins said a penknife he claimed had been brandished in front of him by Harvey Proctor as the former Conservative MP supposedly threatened to cut his genitals had in fact been a fruit knife, given to Beech by his grandmother and kept in a "happy memories" box.
She also said that, while Beech told detectives that he had been regularly taken out of lessons in order to be brutally abused, records showed that his attendance record was "exemplary".
"He said that his friend 'Scott' had been murdered, in fact we established that 'Scott' never even existed," Ms Hopkins added.
"He alleged that he was tortured, and in the most horrific way. Actually, his medical records certainly don't reveal any evidence of torture whatsoever, and he refused to undergo even the most basic, non-invasive medical examination.
"He said that he and his friend 'Fred' had been through hell together, and 'Fred' was now considering whether to pluck up the courage to come forward and speak to the police.
"In fact, we proved that 'Fred' doesn't exist, and that the email exchange that 'Fred' was having with police was actually Beech sending emails."
While Beech was manipulating officers with his lies, he pursued his own "sexual interest in children", which Ms Hopkins said "may be one of the reasons why he made such a compelling witness in the Operation Midland investigation".
Outlining the possible motivation behind the liar's crimes, she added: "In the wake of society changing its attitude to complaints of non-recent abuse, as a result of cases like (Jimmy) Savile, Beech took advantage of the situation - and we would say he did it for his own twisted gratification.
"It's also clear that he revelled in the attention that his tales were attracting."
Ms Hopkins added: "He's pleaded guilty to watching child abuse images involving boys, and in his memoirs he wrote about abused children in hundreds of pages, which we would say suggests that he wanted to be a part of the scene that he was describing."
