James O’Brien and the other VIP child sex abuse lies

Last week I wrote here about James O’Brien of LBC. In particular, I highlighted the platform he gave to the convicted liar and paedophile Carl Beech (aka ‘Nick’). In July Beech was sent to prison for 18 years for fraud and perverting the course of justice. Over the course of some years, he had made outrageous and untrue claims about a number of public figures, including two D-Day veterans.

And while most of the British media was incredibly wary of giving a megaphone to Beech’s lies, James O’Brien consistently used his LBC show to give publicity to Beech and his main promoter, Mark Watts of the now-defunct media organisation Exaro. The transcripts show that over the course of many months O’Brien used his LBC show to share allegations that:

• High-profile public figures, including former MPs and a former Prime Minister, had repeatedly engaged in the rape and/or murder of children;
• That the British judiciary, police and other parts of the ‘establishment’ in some way helped to cover up for these crimes;
• That the entire British media (except for Exaro, James O’Brien of LBC and a small handful of others) were – wittingly or otherwise – also involved in this cover-up.

After Beech was sentenced to prison, the only response that O’Brien gave was a distinct non-apology. One that was not remotely commensurate with the damage he had done in promoting conspiracy theories that damaged the lives of many people.

Yet this was not a one-off. O’Brien’s desire to believe the lurid and false stories told by Carl Beech was just one example of him using his platform to promote what turned out to be lies.

Last week I focused only on the case of Carl Beech and the megaphone that O’Brien gave to his lies. But this time I should like to focus on another case.