Thread 7: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

Second article in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

Third item in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

Fourth item in The Observer
‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...

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Thread 6
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Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting.

To all - Please be careful when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with possible visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail.
Keep on the path as we have done together amazingly well for six threads so far. No saltiness. Thank you.

The Kickstarter is with the band, and I think it's quite normal for this kind of enterprise.

Agree with this line of thinking. They had previously stayed at the French property in a caravan.

Many British expats (pre Brexit) decamped to land they'd bought in France and stayed in caravans on that land without proper facilities with hopes of renovating ruins..it was a well trodden path..quite often culminating in running out of money and the ruin becoming even more dilapidated...credit to those who managed better. Ideal no (no way would I do it again...having to shower only weekly at a friend's place and unmentioned toilet routines) but surely a more stable 'home' than a tent pitched on site and having to do a runner to avoid paying for the pitch.
Living so basically in France was for me, a uncomfortable experience but it did come with a sense of freedom and being close to nature. Surely Ray could have strimmed a few brambles and in a week or so made the land more hospitable

CH established the loan relative "James" husband of "Rebecca" was a distant relative of TW's, a later article (unsure which/where) claimed he was his uncle.

"Rebecca asked me not to use her and her husband’s real names. James, who died in 2016 , was a distant relative of Tim Walker’s. “He said : ‘No relative of mine is going to prison.’”

If it were an uncle of his, no reason it couldn't be the French chateau uncle.

Re the credit cards, they may have initially tried to hide the embezzlement from family but then it all came out, that's [even more] pure conjecture though!

I see your point, but it could be that having got away with it for several years SW thought she could go on embezzling without being caught. The MN hive mind has it that she was probably taking £10k a year – so possibly almost viewing it as an additional income by then!

It just seems out of character. The thread that runs through all their actions is impulsivity and unwillingness to look ahead.

I think the DM named the relative of the person who made the £100K loan and it was TW's uncle on his mother's side of the family not his father's. The chateau owner is TW's brother, not his uncle.

This was mildly interesting.

The most interesting bit for me was that the vast majority of comments they've received about this have been negative. Much incredulity about the Walkers walking the SWCP if Tim was ill.

One man said he had been a healthy 58 year old and he'd struggled on it. Another said they'd done six miles of it and were knackered.

Also it was pointed out that the SWCP isn't so much a path as a cliff walk with pretty punishing ascents and descents.

Martin Frizell, whose wife Fiona Phillips has Alzheimers, says she gets exhausted walking to the corner shop, and that suggesting they head out to the SWCP for a walk to improve her symptoms is an outlandish idea.

Also what was interesting in that podcast was that when the DM got the rights to serialise Fiona Phillips' book about her illness, they did ask for proof of it.

@Catwith69lives true but the brother is an actual builder and would have been able to put in a new roof on building at the very least to save the interior which could be done at a later date.

Our chateau had its roof repaired by French artisan builders at the same time as a couple of large barns that we own. These barns are yet to be renovated but the roof is good so we can renovate when ready and the buildings are water tight.

It just seems a shame that these buildings could have been partially saved if they had just sold them on.

Agree. Brambles are hardly a massive blocker. Just cut them down with a good strimmer or shears. Presuming there were other bushes nearby it'd be a good source of free blackberries too!

What seems out of character? SW took the £64000 over a period of several years – but yes we don't know if that was saved or spent on the spot. Some of it was forged cheques to pay for shopping.

Saving seems out of character.

I think it seems more likely that she just took money and spent it.

Ah OK! It gets confusing. At the beginning, the word was that TW's parents owned the adjoining land!

Re: the London relative who loaned RayMoth the £100,000 at 18% against their house.

Here's what I've found, but I'm mindful of not over-sharing personal info even though the DM named him so here I refer to him as "Cooper".

First, a background summary:

• RayMoth insist that this person who loaned them money had been a close childhood friend of Tim's, dubbed "Cooper"..."They'd grown up together...riding their trikes, playing football, sharing teenagers years....As they grew into adults, their lives took them in different directions, Cooper moved into financial circles that few of us understood." (TSP, 2018). RayMoth claim they invested money in one of Cooper's companies. The company failed and as a result they were somehow liable for the company's debts. Raymoth stalled and stalled court action to buy time but they were "outmanoeuvred and a charge was registered against the farm as security for payment of Cooper's claim." (TSP)

• RW's public statement says: "In The Salt Path I describe a financial dispute with a lifetime friend, who I call Cooper to protect his family. In the early 1990s, Moth made an investment in Cooper’s property portfolio. When the investment was due to mature, Cooper claimed it had failed due to low occupancy....In 2008, we asked for the money back. He said he didn’t have it but offered us a loan through his company. We agreed. Because the loan was coming from his company, he said it had to follow the company’s standard loan terms: 18% interest, which he would cover, and a charge on our home in his name. He assured us this was standard practice and only temporary as he would soon repay the loan to his company." [Note how this differs from above - it's no longer mentioning any liability for Cooper's debts and the charge on their home seems to happen much earlier before any legal action]

• The Observer first reported that this person "Cooper" was in fact a distant relative of Tim's who died in 2016. A subsequent Daily Mail article disclosed Cooper's real name and stated he was Tim's uncle. This has niggled me. Was Cooper a childhood friend, or a distant relative or an uncle?

• It turns out both Observer and DM are correct..."Cooper" was both Tim's distant relative and his uncle. How? Because I've worked out, using public Birth, Marriage and Death records, that "Cooper" was the half brother of Tim's mother (her mother remarried and give birth to "Cooper").

• "Cooper" was therefore half uncle to Tim and Martyn (of the French chateau). Martyn's son who made the LinkedIn allegations against Raymoth is therefore "Cooper's" half great nephew.

• "Cooper" did indeed have a property portfolio and was director of a particular business that went into liquidation in the 2010s, according to companies house.

• Incidentally, the name "Cooper" appears to derive from another of Tim's relatives on his father's side, namely the husband of his aunt (i.e his father's sister's husband).

I hope that offers some clarity.

Was it? I don't remember that.

Tim Walker's parents lived in another Welsh village about a 15 minute drive from them.

Excellent research. Well done.

Do the company documents reveal how much the Walkers originally invested in the property company?

Yes. Proximity of parents re the French property was discussed early on, not the Welsh. I know they lived nearby in Wales too.

That struck me too, not exactly modest ,is she? She doesn't look like her at all apart from long hair,that really is where the resemblance ends.

@AldoGordoI bow down to your research! Chloe and the DM need your assistance!!!

@AldoGordo Top sleuthing! You could share that with CH. I expect the LinkedIn post nephew has absorbed a lot of family experiences re the pair's unique approach to finances and is thoroughly fed up with them. I hope he will be interviewed at some point!

TBF they almost certainly have all of this and more. I've done a lot of family research over the years so know where and how to look. I like playing detective.

I think the fact such a large sum was taken over a long period is damning. Say a few £100 for an emergency which you thought you'd be able to repay is one thing, still wrong but within the bounds of understandable for most. Tens of 1000's while you're living a "powder blue Rayburn and buying a property in France" lifestyle isn't.

What did Salray think the end game would be? That she could replace all that money (if she even kept track of how much she'd stolen, which I think debatable) and the Hemmings wouldn't notice? Or was it to sell the house and disappear before she was caught?

ETA, I put it on another thread but allowing for inflation, the value of £64K in 2008 is over £109K today. Which is in self frightening of course!

From the times article three days ago - I will never find the archived version to read the whole thing but Google says ‘ Among the residents is Sean Morley, 40, who is originally from Brighton and bought the property next door to the Walkers seven years ago ...’

so perhaps Tim’s parents sold the house next door to the ruin 7 years ago?

The relative knew that the purpose of the loan was to repay the Hemmings and he informed the court of that before the order was made to repossess the house.