The greasy Pole: How False Accusations Wreck Lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3uMgcRUYBs

Ex-Conservative MP Harvey Proctor says he's glad Labour's Tom Watson can no longer use public office to promote the lies and fantasies of false accusers like Carl Beech, the vile fantasist.

Mr Watson eventually succumbed to recent pressure for his resignation for his activities surrounding Mr. Beech, promoting false claims about a Westminster paedophile ring, resulting in the arrest of many entirely innocent public figures. As well as Harvey Proctor, these included the former Head of the Armed Forces Lord Bramall and former Home secretary Lord Brittan.

He was condemned by the media for portraying himself as a victim after urging Beech to divulge his fantasies to the police, and forwarding hundreds of letters and bits of 'evidence' to the metropolitan Police, having launched 'Operation Midland'. A report by former High Court Judge Sir Richard Henriques found the Labour MP had used his influence to keep the pressure on detectives investigating Beech's false claims. In the end, the operation wasted two-and-a-half million pounds investigating the allegations.Watson's behaviour showed an extraordinary enthusiasm for the pursuit of people who were eventually found to have been innocent victims of a clever liar, and an unquestioning belief in his credibility

Asked for a response to the resignation, Harvey Proctor, who for a period had been driven into such financial poverty by the allegations that he had to live in a shed, simply said, "By standing down Tom Watson has done his constituents a great favour. The next Parliament will be a healthier place without him. He will be unable to use public office in future to promote false accusers for his own personal and political ends."

In the end, the convicted paedophile was jailed for perverting the course of justice and promoting the existence of a paedophile ring that simply did not exist. In the course of Beech's meteoric rise into international fame (and eventually infamy), he managed to ruin the reputations and tarnish the honourable histories of his innocent victims. Showing no remorse at his trial, he demonstrated no concern or regret for the lives he had wrecked, including those of a number of MPs and Harvey Proctor and not least those of the widow of Lord Brittan and other victims' families.

Beech was jailed for 18 years for perverting the course of justice among other offences and Tom Watson was forced to apologise for his involvement in the case. He said he was genuinely sorry to the families of those who had become victims of Beech's claims, apologising also to their families. Reflecting on these events in retrospect, saying that he didn't want anyone to feel sorry for him(!), he said, " Back then, when I was more intense, I understood I couldn't get too close to the people making the allegations. I hate to see people in pain and I genuinely feel sorry for the people that have had injustices done to them as a result of the failed police inquiries. I really do...and I understand why they're angry and I understand why some of their anger is targeted at me."

Harvey Proctor however was not convinced by these protestations. Falsely accused of being a serial child killer by Beech, supported by Watson, he declared that "Watson's words are enormously hurtful. I can see through him. I hope others will. He is utterly insensitive to the damage he has caused. Even now he just thinks about himself." A similar sentiment was expressed by a friend of the widow of the falsely accused Lord Brittan, saying that the extent of Tom Watson's involvement in the witch-hunt of innocent people had been laid bare for all to see, and that his subsequent attempts to distance himself showed a complete lack of integrity.

Daniel Janner, the son of Lord Janner, another of Beech's targets accused Tom Watson of being at least 'partially responsible' by having 'applied pressure on the police.' He felt that Watson's appropriate response should have been to hang his head in shame and resign.

"I did my best", he said, "and that's all you can do in life. So I'm genuinely very, very sorry and I just say I genuinely was trying to do the right thing."

Daniel Janner QC commented wryly, "Tom Watson's synthetic attempt to portray himself as the victim when he trashed good men's reputations for his blatant political advantage will cut no ice. If he had genuine decency he would resign for the suffering he has caused."

Well, Tom Watson did resign. But it was with the proviso that, at least in his own eyes, he was also a victim of the serial liar and fantasist Carl Beech, whose testimony Mr. Watson, Labour's second in command, had publicly and insistently declared to be 'Credible and true'.