Thread by @JEMilneSky

Back at Newcastle Crown Court today for the trial of Carl Beech as he continues his evidence in chief. Yesterday Beech detailed the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands Jimmy Savile, Harvey Proctor and Lord Brittan - among others -reiterating that he stands by his claims.

Mr Beech takes to the witness box wearing a dark blue jumper, beige trousers and black trainers.

Collingwood Thompson QC turns to the ABE interviews with the Met Police 2014, but first - blogging. Beech says he used the name “Carl Survivor” while blogging and “Chasserow” (excuse any spelling mistake in this).

Beech says be blogged about the IICSA because he wanted to use his blog as a forum to detail his abuse and encourage others to come forward - he says he had no intention of going back to the police.

Now turning to the Oct 2014 interviews with the Met Police.

Turning to the Met interview about Harvey Proctor. Beech is asked who do you remember stopping Proctor cutting him, in the interview he said he didn’t remember but we have heard in the past few days it was Edward Heath. Beech explains that’s because there were 2 incidents.

To clarify, Beech says he doesn’t recall who stopped Proctor cutting him. Questioned, so it wasn’t Edward Heath. He says no, it was another member of the group - there was another incident where Edward Heath comforted him.

Beech is now saying there were two incidents with a knife. The first, someone (not Edward Heath) stopped Proctor. The second time, Edward Heath stopped Proctor, says Beech.

In the interview with Met Police 2014, Beech was asked about his notebook drawings. Beech was asked if he did any internet research while doing the drawings? He admitted he had done some research in connection to some of the people he said he would not speak about.

Beech confirms he did carry out searches of the locations where he says the abuse happened. Beech says this wasn’t research it was “confirming something I already knew”.

He says when he was talking to Mark Conrad he was confident that his memories were “accurate and true”. That is why he carried out those searches. He says he did not anticipate going to the police while talking to Mark Conrad.

Beech says he does not believe these searches are research - hence why he said no when asked if he had researched these places.

Collingwood Thompson QC says the prosecution allegation, that Beech added the writing later to the drawing - Beech says “that’s not how it happened I know when I did the writing and when I did the drawing. I can only reiterate that it is from my memory”.

Beech helped the police by working on an e-fit of 2 of the alleged abusers. He says this happened after the interviews with the Met police in 2014.

Jury now turning to the 2 e-fits Beech made. 1) boy said to be involved in the second of the three incidents he describes yesterday, Beech says he has no idea of the identity of this person.

After those interviews in Nov 2014 Beech says he met with Tom Symonds, Tom Bateman and Peter McKelvie. Beech doesn’t recall the reason for the meeting. He says they wanted to show him some photographs. He says they showed him 2 photographs of two boys.

Beech says the first photograph had been in the press a few days beforehand but other than that he did not recognise the first boy.

Beech says he remembers the first name being “Vishal”. Beech says his father had been in the press saying his murder was connected. The second photograph upset Beech, he says.

Beech says the second photograph was the boy from incident 2. He says no name was mentioned by the journalists at that meeting.

After viewing the photograph Beech says he couldn’t carry on with the meeting and called it a day, he was too upset. After the meeting a name was put to that face.

Beech says it wasn’t long after the meeting, it was suggested it was a boy called Martin Allen.

The jury are now looking at an article from The Times in Nov 2014 about Martin Allen. Beech says it was an article that was shown to him in one of his counselling session by Vicky Paterson. This was when he was able to put a name to the face shown to him by the journalists.

Between Jan and June 2015 Beech expressed a wish to meet members of Martin Allen’s family. The police cautioned him against doing that. He was told it could effect any possible case in the future. Beech says the Allen family has been in contact with him.

Beech says after all these years of not knowing, he now knew a name. Beech says Martin Allen’s brother got in contact with him.

Kevin Allen reached out the Beech, he says. Beech says he contacted Kevin on Twitter by replying to him. Beech says he was very certain that “boy 2” was Martin Allen.

The name “Nick” by which Beech went by, came from Mark Conrad, he says the Met then used it. Beech referred to “Fred” in interviews with the Met who is in fact “John”.

Beech says he kept on contact with John after the abuse ended when he was 15. Beech says they spoke 2/3 times throughout the year.

Beech says John moves around within the UK, into London and also abroad, both Germany and the US. Beech “had an inkling” about what John did but in the last years it wasn’t something they talked about.

Contact was both at a distance and face to face. Beech met John at different places both in the UK and abroad. John had been to Beech’s house on a few occasions.

They contacted by letter, telephone messaging and emails. By 2015 Beech says John was living in the US, in California. He lived in LA. Beech says he got the impression of what his job and career had been - he was a travel consultant, says Beech.

Over the years Beech said they didn’t discuss what had happened when they were younger that often. He says it became more often when he started counselling.

The Met wanted to speak to “Fred” (who is John) to corroborate what Beech had told them. Beech says he made contact with John in relation to the Met request. He did this via email.

Jury are now looking at email extracts from the Met police. From DS Townly to Beech - explaining Fred isn’t sure about it and that he’d seen him today. Beech doesn’t recall where he saw “Fred” that day. He confirms he saw him, but not where.

Beech says “Fred” wasn’t keen and that he was upset that Beech had gone to the police. “Fred” wanted to do what he could to support Beech but he had to look after himself as well. Beech says it’s not something “Fred” rejected out of hand but needed time.

Beech says Mark Conrad introduced him to Proton Mail, and suggested he set up because it was a secure email service. And the use of TOR the onion router as well, says Beech.

Beech says he applied for a ProtonMail email address for himself. He says he had to wait for a confirmation email saying it was activated.

The designation of that email address represented “nothing, a jumbled series of numbers that was picked out of thin air”. Beech says it stands for the helicopter emergency medical service. He came across this because of his work with HEMS.

That’s the account he used for ProtonMail. Beech explains he helped “John” set up this account, he put in the email address and John put in the password and then they both used Beech’s email address to confirm when it was set up.

Beech says he doesn’t know what the passwords were. That they set it up together in his home in the UK.

Beech says John was reluctant to give the police a statement but Beech wanted him to come forward quite desperately.

Justice Goss QC clarified - Beech put the HEMS number in as a username and John completed the application by putting in the password he wanted. He says John did this across the table from him and that the only other role he played was getting the confirmation email.

After being with John in April 2015 Beech says he was in contact with him throughout that year but couldn’t give dates.

Beech says he met up with John in Paris, he was on holiday at the time with his child and child’s friend. They were staying in Disneyland Paris. He says they were there for a week. He met with John in the restaurant of the hotel where they were staying.

They discussed John coming forward and meeting with the police. In an email sent in Aug “John” discusses receiving a threat. At the meeting in Paris Beech says John was still reluctant to come forward. He wanted to come forward for Beech but didn’t feel he could.

Throughout 2015 Beech was asked by the police to give John’s surname. He did not. The police had direct contact with him, says Beech, so if he wanted to he could have done that himself.

The meeting in Paris was in 2015. Beech says he was in contact with him that year but can’t remember if he saw him face to face again that year. Beech says John didn’t come forward to the police and have no reason as to why not. Contact ceased with him.

September 2015 was the last time Beech heard from John, he says. Beech says he knows what his surname is but is not prepared to tell the court “because I don’t have his permission to do so”.

Throughout 2015 Beech retold the police what happened to him and that this had a significant impact on him.

Beech says going to the police had caused him a number of problems “being able to deal with the memories of what happened, trying to get on with my day job, looking after my child. I’ve tried to come to terms with what happened to me. But some I haven’t come to terms with.”

His counsellor increased the counselling sessions after Beech went to the police. Beech says he was struggling to deal with his emotions at the time.

In an email to DS Tannly of the Met he said he was ready to “pull out and get on with my life.” Beech says before he reported to the police he was in a good place. But now he has to go to counselling twice a week.

Beech says this was not the only occasion he discussed withdrawing contact with the police.

Court breaks for 10 minutes.

Collingwood Thompson QC returns to “John” and Beech’s attempts to get him to work with the police.

6 March 2013 - Email about Exaro, Beech says it was Mark Conrad’s idea to publish a piece that would make other victims of abuse come forward.

Beech now discusses a “Savile documentary” early 2013 Beech was requested to take part in a documentary via an organisation set up to help survivors of abuse. They were looking for male survivors. Apart from the documentary Beech also did interviews with the BBC.

Beech appeared in the Channel 5 documentary as “Stephen”. Beech says he did not receive any payment for television interviews.

Beech says he did not receive payment for interviews with journalists.

Some extracts were copied from Beech’s notebooks by the Met. Come 2015 Beech was okay with the Met having access to the diaries in his presence only.

Turning to Harvey Proctor, in Aug 2015, Proctor gave a press conference. Beech was concerned because Proctor then put all the “details out in public, including names” says Beech.

Referencing an email Beech sent to Paterson about Proctor, Beech describes what Proctor said in his press conference was devastating. He says he’s concerned that it was only a matter of time before Beech was identified as a result.

Beech says he was devastated that all the details were now in the public domain. Beech says he was then identified as a result of the conference. He says it was in a newspaper article, a journalist said they had given his name to Proctor, says Beech.

He says he received a letter directly from a reporter at The Independent and that a Daily Mail reporter turned up at his mother’s house. As well as someone turning up at his house late one night over the weekend. He says has been followed and photographed.

In another email to Paterson Beech says the Daily Mail identified him in public. In this email he said he decided to withdraw. He says he doesn’t know who he can trust and that he has lost trust in the police.

Beech says it was his intention to withdraw at that stage but he was asked to remain.

Sep 2015 Beech says there is a blurred picture of him in the Daily Mail describing him as a nurse. He says the police were talking to the Daily Mail.

Beech says he lost his confidence in the police because he thought information had been getting out from the police because some of the articles “mentioned contacts within the police force”.

Beech says Panorama wanted to do their bit too - he says they were one of the people who approached him late after dark, turning up unannounced.

Beech says he withdrew from the investigation because of the “harassment” he was receiving from the press. However he continued to help with the investigation but says he was struggling to cope with everything else at the time.

Jan 2016 interview with Met Police. This was to clarify as much as possible details from previous interviews. Asked about Wiltshire police interviews, sketches and whether they were based on research rather than memory.

Beech terminated the interviews because he had been upset earlier about the retelling of the deaths and because they raised “areas that I was adamant I wasn’t going to talk about, one of the diplomats”. He says he was surprised and that it caught him unawares, he wouldn’t answer

Beech says it got to the point where his head was pounding and he couldn’t concentrate on what he was being asked. He says he stayed as long as he could. Beech says they wanted to arrange another date to carry on but it was never arranged. He says I might have been pencilled in

Beech says he was willing to do another interview and that there was another identification set up. Beech says he was engaging with the police at a distance. He says he didn’t have much contact after this because they didn’t arrange another interview.

He was then informed no action would be taken against Lord Bramal and before then he had given a statement about the Daily Mail identifying him - Beech was told that matter was going to be taken to court.

Beech was then told Operation Midland had ceased because of a lack of evidence.

Sep 2016 summary of “things omitted” Beech compiled this document because he had been able to reflect on what had happened and the things they asked him to do that he hadn’t done.

He was never asked to identify where Scott was killed, never asked to do an e-fit. Beech says the police only asked in general terms to identify location. He says he was never asked to identify rooms in Carlton Club. Says he was asked to do an ID for the doctor but never did.

Beech says he was only asked last minute to undergo medical and CT scan. Never asked detailed questions about EH home, the layout for the yacht... Beech says these were he questions in his own mind at the time.

Dec 2015 email chain around the time people were trying to organise the email - Email to Paterson - about an exhibition he had started about raisin awareness for victims and survivors of child abuse - a photographic exhibition inspired by the poppy display at the Tower of London

Beech says it started and Bristol and was to travel around the country. There was money raised for the exhibition and it went to the Southmeade Project in Bristol.

2016 - The Big Yellow Self Storage unit - Beech confirms he opened an account to store some boxes from his home to free up space for CQC paperwork. He says he stored 2 or 3 boxes to start with. In those boxes, he can’t remember, just “household paperwork or things like that”

He says a lot of it was his son’s school work too. When asked why he visited the storage unit - he hadn’t left anything there at that stage, only to show him the locker.

A further occasion in Jan - Beech says he was leaving the boxes. He says he can’t remember exactly, 2, 3 maybe 4.

Sep 2016 - back at the unit - Beech says he wanted to find out if any CQC info was in the boxes because after the search on his home he was suspended from his job. Beech said he couldn’t work, he was on full pay.

Suggestion that Beech was going there to get rid of criminal evidence - Beech says no.

Beech says he found no info and so the boxes were left there.

“Too Many Secrets” by Charles Chassereau - Beech says he had this to try and help him make sense of the things that happened to him. He said he wrote this to help his recovery. He says this was never meant for publication, it was a private document.

Jury now looking at the covers of two books about surviving child abuse. Beech says they helped him come to terms with what happened to him.

Suggestion that Beech copies stories from these books and told the police - he says not true. They did have similar experiences but it helped him.

Jury now see a picture of Syril Smith and a twitter feed about this. Moves on to contact with Tom Watson. Beech can’t remember how that came about, but he met him in 2014 or 15.

Tom Watson, Mark Conrad said at the time, was interested in Beech and wanted to talk to him about the experiences he had been through. He met with Tom Watson. Mark Conrad as present for this.

Operation Diamond - led to Beech’s appearance at Worcester Crown Court - indecent images of children found on the devices seized from Beech’s home. 2 Dec 2016 defendant arrested on suspicion of offences related to indecent images of children. Beech confirms this is correct.

Beech at the time said he didn’t know anything about this. Subsequent Beech pleads guilry to 5 offences of making indecent images and 1 of voyeurism. He now accepts those charges because he says at the time he was totally ashamed of what he had done and was in denial.

Beech says the first time he thought about living in Sweden was just when his child started secondary school.

Beech discusses taking his mother to Sweden to look at a house he was going to buy there.

There came a stage when Beech began to use different identities - Beech says this was because when he moved to Sweden he wanted to change his surname. The house was purchased in his name and the utilities, others were under proposed new surname.

Beech says he wanted to change his surname because of the press intrusion, he wanted to get away from “Beech” instead opting for a family name from his grandparents.

Beech purchased another property in the name of “Samuel Williams” he says he doesn’t know what possessed him to buy it in another name. He said he wanted to make it a guest house.

Beech did not attend the Worcester hearing - it was a “stupid mistake” on his part. He panicked. He doesn’t know what he hoped to achieve, he says he doesn’t know how to evade capture, he knew he was going to come back in the end, there was no reason.

He says he knows he should have turned up at court, but he didn’t and he realised that was a huge mistake. Again, he was ashamed and not able to face up to it. He also had concerns about implications it would have on this case, and he says he was alone.

He says when his mother left, he was alone and made some stupid errors. In Oct 2017 he was arrested on the European arrest warrant.

Suggestion is you fled to Sweden to avoid the consequences of this case - Beech says its not true, he was already living in Sweden, you can’t abscond when you’re already living there and that he should have returned in July, that was a mistake on his part.

Allegation that you invented your abuse - Beech says it isn’t true, it’s something he lived through and it happened. It’s something he lives with now.

Court concludes for the day though Mr Beech’s evidence in chief may still continue next week - Collingwood Thompson QC to deliberate over the weekend if there are any other questions he needs to ask. Cross examination due to begin Monday. Court sits Monday at 1000.