A FORMER Swindon hospital manager whose repeated lies tarnished the reputations of the high-profile men he falsely accused of being murderers and paedophiles has been jailed for 18 years.

The Metropolitan Police spent £2 million looking into Carl Beech's allegations - made over the course of hours' worth of tearful interviews - that he had been sadistically raped and abused by famous Westminster figures in the 1970s and 1980s.

The 51-year-old former Great Western Hospital worker made malicious and deceitful claims about men including 91-year-old Normandy veteran Field Marshal Lord Bramall, former prime minister Sir Edward Heath, the late Lord Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

Jurors at Newcastle Crown Court saw through the lies of the NSPCC volunteer, and found him guilty of 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud. He was jailed for 18 years on Friday when he was sentenced for those offences, plus charges of voyeurism and possession of indecent images which he had previously admitted.

Prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC had previously explained to the jury how Beech had showed "breathtaking hypocrisy" in accusing others of sex offences against children while he himself demonstrated an interest in pre-teen boys.

Over the course of the trial, which spanned more than two months, jurors heard how Beech spun officers lie after lie.

He claimed that the gang of men, who he referred to as "The Group", had run over and killed a boy named Scott in front of him - but prosecutors said that the child described had in fact never existed.

The fraudster gave false hope to the family of Martin Allen, who went missing in 1979 at the age of 15, by saying that he had seen a youngster matching his description raped and strangled in front of him.

After Operation Midland was closed, Beech fled to Sweden at a time when the Crown Prosecution Service were considering whether to bring charges against him, buying two properties there and trying to evade justice by using false identities.

He was extradited back to the UK to face charges in October last year.

His lies were at one stage wrongly described as "credible and true" by a senior detective.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said that officers in the case had worked in good faith, and that an "internal debrief" would take place following Beech's conviction to identify whether lessons could be learned.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson has been criticised for meeting with Beech in 2014, but the politician said he had simply told him the allegations would be taken seriously, saying in a statement: "It was not my role to judge whether victims' stories were true."