A former NSPCC volunteer who lied about being abused by a murderous VIP Westminster paedophile ring is facing a lengthy jail sentence after he was convicted of perverting the course of justice and fraud.

Carl Beech’s malicious, repeated and determined deceit ruined the reputations of those he accused and led the Metropolitan Police to raid the homes of 91-year-old Normandy veteran Field Marshall Lord Bramall, the late Lord Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

Mr Proctor blasted the force, calling the episode “a truly disgraceful chapter in the history of British policing”.

Their £2 million Operation Midland into the lurid allegations by the man they named only as “Nick” ended without making a single arrest.

Carl Beech court case
Former Tory MP Harvey Proctor arrives at Newcastle Crown Court to give evidence (Owen Humphreys/PA)

Beech told detectives over hours of tearful interviews that his late stepfather, an Army major, raped him, then passed him on to generals to be tortured at military bases and sadistically sexually abused by other Establishment figures in the 1970s and 1980s.

He named former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, his sworn enemy Mr Proctor, disgraced TV star Jimmy Savile and security chiefs Sir Michael Hanley, the head of MI5, and MI6 boss Sir Maurice Oldfield among the gang after meeting a journalist from the defunct news agency Exaro.

He claimed a schoolboy named Scott was deliberately knocked down and killed, that another boy who might have been the missing teenager Martin Allen was raped and strangled in front of him, and said another youth was battered to death by the ring.

A senior detective wrongly called the allegations “credible and true” before the force had completed their inquiries.

A jury at Newcastle Crown Court rejected Beech’s unfounded allegations and on Monday convicted him of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud, relating to a £22,000 criminal injuries payout he falsely claimed for being raped by Savile.

The jurors were unconvinced by his claims that Army generals, at the height of the IRA terror threat, could sneak off unguarded to join horrific child abuse sessions.

They saw a videoed police interview with Lord Bramall where the war hero, now too ill to give evidence, thumped the table in front of him and denied having any sexual interest in children.

Lord Bramall historic child sex abuse investigation
Lord Bramall in 2000 (Tony Harris/PA)

Another falsely accused general, 96-year-old Sir Hugh Beach, told the jury via video-link that the allegations against him were “beyond grotesque”.

Beech had also said the head of MI5 – presumably also busy dealing with terrorists – arrived at his school to tell him his dog had been kidnapped as a warning.

He claimed that he was there when the ring shot his horse Sam, although he had no idea what happened to the body, or what his mother thought, who was paying for its stabling.

With what Tony Badenoch QC, prosecuting, described as “breathtaking hypocrisy”, Beech himself was a paedophile with an interest in pre-teen boys.

The school governor and NSPCC volunteer was due to be tried on indecent images and voyeurism charges last summer but went on the run to Sweden, where he bought two remote properties and tried to evade justice using false identities.

The sentencing of Beech on these matters, as well as indecent images offences and breach of bail, has provisionally been set for Friday.

The jury deliberated for around four-and-a-half hours.

Beech did not visibly react when the 13 guilty verdicts were returned.

After the trial, Mr Proctor said he was still to settle a claim against the Metropolitan Police, saying their raid cost his home and the job he loved, working for the Duke and Duchess of Rutland.