Beech’s sentence is an overreaction – the real blame lies elsewhere

I don’t blame Harvey Proctor for having scant sympathy for his ludicrous accuser, Carl Beech. I think it’s entirely right that Beech be sent to prison – or some other secure institution – for a while. But eighteen years? It’s more than most murderers get. Isn’t it the case that while Beech without doubt deserves punishment, the real blame for Operation Midland lies elsewhere? Specifically, with the politicisation of our police force and with those who, for similarly political reasons, were gullible or malevolent enough to support Beech in his litany of utter absurdities. Beech is a deranged fantasist. He certainly needs some sort of treatment. But that sentence seems to me a reflex of anger on the part of a transgressed establishment and palpably out of proportion.