Met police paid another force nearly £1m to investigate fantasist Carl Beech who invented claims that he was victim of a VIP paedophile ring

• Carl Beech was sentenced to 18 years in jail for making up wild 'VIP sex ring' lies
• His bogus claims led to huge police investigation which ruined people's lives 
• Victims of Beech accusations are now calling for an independent investigation

The Metropolitan Police paid another force nearly £1million to help investigate fanatasist Carl Beech who invented claims the he was a victim of a VIP paedophile ring. 

The Metropolitan Police claims to have spent £2.5 million looking into Carl Beech's allegations that he had been sadistically raped and abused by famous Westminster figures in the 1970s and 1980s, before the case collapsed in 2016.

But there are concerns some of the full costs are being hidden, as reported by The Times.

Operation Midland was set up in 2014 to to look into the divorced father-of-one's allegations.

With nothing to go on, Operation Midland was dropped after 16 months without anyone being charged.

It was then that Northumbria Police were called in to investigate Beech and unpicked his web of deceit, with their subsequent investigation costing £1,109,068. 

The Met reimbursed £951,982 of the total.

Victims of Beech's accusations are now calling for an independent investigation to expose scale of the failure, and the costs. 

The 51-year-old repeatedly told officers he had been abused in the 1970s and 1980s by a string of high-profile figures from the worlds of politics, the military and security services.

The Metropolitan Police claims to have spent £2.5 million looking into Carl Beech's allegations that he had been sadistically raped and abused by famous Westminster figures in the 1970s and 1980s

The force is still fighting a damages claim from MP Harvey Proctor. Beech claimed Mr Proctor tried to castrate him with a penknife. The claims were totally invented

Among those the former nurse falsely accused were 91-year-old Normandy veteran Field Marshal Lord Bramall, the late Lord Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, all of whom had their homes raided in the Metropolitan Police's Operation Midland investigation.

The Met is now running up additional legal costs in dealing with compensation claims from Lord Bramall and the widow of Lord Brittan of Spennithorne. 

The force is still fighting a damages claim from MP Harvey Proctor.

Beech claimed that Mr Proctor tried to castrate him with a penknife and murdered another boy called 'Scott' in front of him by stabbing him for 40 minutes with a kitchen knife. 

The claims were totally invented and Mr Proctor had never even met Beech. 

Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said: 'The impact of Carl Beech's false allegations and the Operation Midland investigation on many people has been truly dreadful and damaging to them and their families. The then Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, apologised in person to those most affected by the case. We remain deeply sorry.

'The MPS commissioned Sir Richard Henriques to undertake a review of Operation Midland because we were determined to learn lessons about our handling of the investigation. 

The MPS has already embedded the majority of Sir Richard's recommendations in our working practices.

'As a result of Sir Richard's report, we voluntarily referred ourselves to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. 

This referral included the applications for search warrants. We fully cooperated with the IPCC (and the now IOPC) independent investigation which lasted more than two years and, having examined all the evidence, did not identify any criminal offences or misconduct. 

The IPCC / IOPC was the appropriate body to conduct this investigation.

'The MPS has already published a redacted version of Sir Richard's report pending the investigation and subsequent trial of Carl Beech. 

We will publish as full a version of the report as possible, as soon as we can, now proceedings are complete.'