James O’Brien and the Carl Beech witch-hunt

There is an awful lot going on at present. But there is something that happened recently that I should like to return to. Not least because I get the sense that so many people involved would like everyone else to forget about it.

I refer to the appalling case of Carl Beech – the convicted liar, fraudster and paedophile who made unfounded claims against numerous public figures and was sentenced in July to 18 years in prison. Beech’s crimes were not harmless. They included the most disgusting lies made against two D-Day veterans. Heroes of this country. The wife of one of those men – Lord Bramall – went to her grave without knowing that her husband would be fully vindicated and his accuser imprisoned. Another of Beech’s victims was the former MP Harvey Proctor who was fired from his work and made homeless on the basis of Beech’s allegations. At one point Proctor – now in his seventies – was reduced to living in a shed.

At the time the Beech allegations came out there was a real witch-hunt in Westminster. The atmosphere was unmistakable. Those pushing the lies were praised for their bravery, while those even raising an eyebrow were treated as though they perhaps had some particular reason for wanting to protect powerful paedophiles.

As I wrote at the time, Tom Watson MP attempted to make himself the witch-finder general and used Parliamentary privilege to spread the most despicable lies. In a febrile atmosphere The Spectator was the first publication to call ‘bullshit’ on the whole thing, with Rod Liddle, myself and others taking the view that however low our opinion of our politicians might be, we did not think it likely that they occasionally gathered in private, with other public figures, to rape and murder children. Everything about the claims made by the man then known as ‘Nick’ (who we now know to be Carl Beech) failed the most basic sniff-test.