A FORMER Swindon hospital manager accused of lying to detectives about the existence of a murderous VIP paedophile ring has admitted that he withheld some information about his allegations during an initial police interview.

Carl Beech told jurors that he "wasn't ready" to provide a Wiltshire Police officer with the full details of his claims - including allegations that he was raped and sexually abused by a "gang" of high-profile figures, known as "The Group". In the interview at Gablecross police station, Swindon, in 2012, he told a detective he was raped by Jimmy Saville.

The 51-year-old alleged fantasist, who denies 12 counts of perverting the course of justice and one of fraud, claims that the supposed abuse happened during the 1970s and 1980s when he was a boy.

Newcastle Crown Court has previously heard that, around two years after meeting with that officer, Beech claimed to the Metropolitan Police that he was abused by the likes of former prime minister Edward Heath, former home secretary Lord Brittan, Field Marshal Lord Bramall and ex-Conservative MP Harvey Proctor.

The court had previously heard how a £2 million investigation into his claims, named Operation Midland, ended without a single arrest, with the father of one, from Gloucester, eventually being investigated by Northumbria Police and arrested.

But during his first interview with Wiltshire Police back in December 2012 he told a detective he did not know the names of many of his supposed tormentors, naming only his stepfather Major Ray Beech and TV presenter Jimmy Savile, who he said had raped him.

Jurors were told how, on December 6, 2012, Beech was interviewed by Det Const Mark Lewis, from the police force, at Swindon police station regarding "allegations of sexual abuse".

When asked by prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC what his thoughts were going into that interview, Beech said: "I think my mindset at the time was that - because I did not want to give more information - that if I told them about my stepfather they could find out the rest (of the allegations).

"There was some information that I just could not release to them."

When asked why he had told officers that he did not know the names of many of his supposed abusers, Beech said: "It was information that I did not feel I could share at that time given my own mind."

In response to a question on whether this was "intentionally misleading" the detective, the defendant admitted that it was.

He said: "I couldn't bring myself - I couldn't share all that information, I wasn't in the right frame of mind to do it. I couldn't comprehend it myself, let alone tell the police about it."

Jurors had previously heard how Beech later told Metropolitan Police officers that he had a childhood friend called "John" who could act as a collaborative witness to his account of the "abuse" he said he had suffered.

But the defendant said that, during the 2012 interview, he did not feel he could give "John's" name and instead referred to him by another name, "Aubrey", which he did not tell the Wiltshire Police officer was in fact a pseudonym.

Beech told jurors: "It was difficult because I was put under a great deal of pressure at the time to give names that I did not want to give.

"The struggle was being put in an awkward position where I did not want to use John's name."

Mr Badenoch explained to jurors how, prior to that interview, Beech had written on his computer a manuscript named "Too Many Secrets", a seemingly first-person account of the supposed attacks by the "paedophile ring".

Jurors were shown a two-page extract of the document in which Beech referred to being in hospital following a near-death experience prompted by his alleged abusers.

But he told jurors that this extract, like several other accounts in the document, in fact referred to "John", despite being written in the first person, saying that writing in this way helped Beech to "detach myself" from what was he was writing.

Beech said he had written the manuscript "to help me understand what happened to me and what happened to John", and that it was purely for personal use.

When asked whether the passage had been designed to "leave a trail of falsehoods", Beech responded "no" and giving the same answer when Mr Badenoch asked: "The reality is that you're making it up as you go along, isn't it?".

The court also heard how Beech falsely referred to Lord Bramall as a "lieutenant colonel" during the interview, with the father-of-one telling the court he did this: "Because I think, again, they were pressing me on the ranks and it wasn't something that I was prepared to give."

Jurors heard how Beech also told Det Con Lewis that he was raped by TV presenter Savile, but had not seen the celebrity's face during the abuse.

When asked why he felt comfortable giving Savile's name during the interview but not those of other alleged abusers, he said: "Because I had already mentioned that to the NSPCC and Operation Yewtree."

The trial continues.