Thread 21 : To feel disappointed - and now disgusted too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

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The Observer's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

First thread: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Links to threads 2-16, the other 20 Observer articles and videos to date, Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement, our timeline and sources can all be accessed in the OP and first few posts of Thread 17: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5403285-thread-17-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 18: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5422393-thread-18-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 19: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5437058-thread-19-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 20: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5454438-thread-20-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from at least some of the Observer exposé items before posting.
To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea. Please do not engage with drive-by scolders and ploppers who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. Over 5 months we have done amazingly well together for 20 very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

Keep to the path. No saltiness. Our Cardboard Mascot Our Simon has had his head stuck back on and is wearing a very fetching tinsel boa. The charabanc is bedecked with fairy lights and very well stocked up. May the seasonal fudge and mulled cider be with you one and all. 🎅🌲🎁❄️🎄

These threads are the gifts that keep on giving:
New:

• Salt Path: A Very British Scandal, available from Monday 15th December Sky Documentaries and NOW TV
• ‘Don’t look for the money. I’ve taken it all’: Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s ‘confession’ that she stole from her family | The Observer

Up and coming:

• Observer Newsroom: The Real Salt Path Story, Thursday 8th January 2026 6.30-7.30pm. More information and to book via this link observer.co.uk/our-events/the-real-salt-path-story
• Podcast series from The Observer's award-winning Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou
• BBC Documentary (NB Not involving Our Chloe)

*MNHQ correcting above 'Documentary' to 'Podcast' at request of author

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Sally is no victim, far from it. It's her name on the books, so quite rightly the investigation has been into Sally and her past actions.

However, she and Tim have been married for nearly 40 years and the stories are about their life, not just Sally, so it's natural for people to speculate on the nature of their relationship. I don't think anyone has suggested she's a victim, but these two apparently live and breathe together so what's his role in all this? The nephew's remark in July certainly implies that they are as bad as each other.

Honestly, I think he's getting off lightly only because of the uncertainty about his diagnosis.
.

@FloreatAmbridge As to whether Tim is/was the controlling figure, it was he who lied & told Cider farm Bill (?) he was terminal & demise imminent? This is a really low move & there are many in this whole sorry saga. Not in doc (??) or I missed it.

A bit earlier @IvyGoldenM posted a very good point, why has Tim's consultant not spoken for him and cleared everything up, it could be that the consultant obviously knows that Salray has lied in the book. We are pretty sure it is Tim's consultant who reviewed the book (a feel good read for clinicians) can someone square that circle for me please. There was no medical appointment in 2013 @PinkPanther57 Salray has lied, the evidence is on her website.

Doesn’t that destroy whole premise for book? clap-back in first statement seemed to convince many medical diagnosis genuine - no one should be compelled to produce medical letters (!) Etc.

Yes @PinkPanther57 it does, I don't know why people are not getting it, the letters are dated, she has mixed them up a bit, second page of one letter, not following in sequence. It feels like the elephant in the room, Salray has no proof that Tim was a terminally ill man in 2013. I don't know why people want to continue to believe.

In her interviews, like the one with Fearne Cotton and the One Show, Sally is quite clear that Tim was diagnosed in 2013 during the same week they were evicted. She doesn’t say he ‘possibly was diagnosed’ or it ‘could’ve been CBD’ . She says it happens at the same time as the eviction . He IS diagnosed with CBD. It all happens at the same time and it’s one of the terrible injustices of this story. How can life be so cruel?

I just can’t get away from feeling perplexed. as to why you wouldn’t simply clear this up by getting your consultant to go on the record. It would go a big way to closing down a lot of of the discussion. If I was Sally and I had a diagnosis for my husband, I don’t think I would hesitate to make it public and I am sure Tim would agree as he was busy being the face of CBD with walks and being on the website in that film CH showed the neurologist . Theywould feel and be vindicated. As I said in my earlier post - she has already written about him falling over and wetting himself. Why would you shy away from telling people ‘here is the official diagnosis.’ ( and there! Told you so!)
Obviously, it would have to have been given in 2013 otherwise the whole thing is a nonsense…

Exactly @IvyGoldenM, Tim could wave his patient confidentiality, the reason this has not happened is because Salray has lied, we established earlier that a patient doesn't need a consultants permission to share their diagnosis letters.

He goes around to the Hemmings because he does not know where she is at this point, he also says that about the cards. He thinks she may have gone to Skye instead of London.

We should all just be doubling down on this particular lie, it is central to all the books, yes Tim got a diagnosis in 2015 of possible CBD, maybe some people think that justified the lies, because then he was dying, no, the diagnosis said indolent, it wasn't even certain. Yes neurological, but not certain what exactly and Tim was in pretty good shape, said he was embarking on a degree, no mention of having walked the SWCP, or mentioning next walk, come on pull the other one it's got bells on it :) well it is nearly Christmas 🎄

Absolutely not! They have always got away with it, and this is no different.

Well, Tim would say that.
Poor Moth was also a victim of SalRay, yet all he wanted to do was keep her out of prison. Such a good guy! So forgiving!

Talking of the medical letters, let's also not forget the fact the 2015 letter stated TW's mother died in her 50s. This info could only have come from Tim (or Sally) and it is a verifiable lie. We know she died in 2018. It is a stretch to believe a professional consultant misheard and misrecorded the info, and how is it even possible to make that mistake?

This lie is at the start of his detailed case history as outlined in the letter. Because he lied about this, what else did he falsely tell the Dr, particularly about his symptoms? The weird mum lie effectively puts all of what he tells the Dr in this letter into question. It's yet another matter to begin to understand why he lied about his mother - it seems very strange.

Or so he says- but if they routinely pull the ‘ill’ card to avoid facing consequences, maybe this is laying groundwork for Sal pleading mental illness (as she apparently does to Tim’s mum when challenged about that money) or even suicidality at the prospect of going to prison.

@FloreatAmbridge yes, fair points. Mistakes may well have been made. Even if my theory is correct, nobody has to do what she’s done- she’s definitely not a victim there.

This demonstrable lie & the diagnosis timeline needed to be in doc - front & centre.

Completely agree, I've read nothing on here that suggests Sally is a victim, and I certainly wasn't implying it in my post about suspecting Tim has NPD. At the risk of repeating myself, having been married to one I know the signs, as do others on here who've also had first-hand experience of them; but (@FloreatAmbridge) if you haven't then I understand that you might think it's straying into woo-woo territory for someone to say 'I think XYZ is a narcissist' about a total stranger. For the record, I don't think Sally is a victim in any meaningful sense of the word. The only person who does think she is, is Sally herself. I think they're both as bad as each other, quite frankly.

And to respond to earlier posts saying things along the lines of 'How do they sleep at night? My conscience wouldn't leave me in peace if it were me' - quite simply, these characters don't have a conscience, because they truly don't believe they've done anything wrong. Their brains work differently. It's plain for all to see in Sally's constant blaming others for things, nothing is ever her fault. 'Look what you made me do'. She's not just saying it, she believes it.

I think that’s what’s most galling for the Hemmings etc. There’s no apology or culpability admitted. At all. Most would hang heads in shame at some of the more minor transgressions, but not this pair.

Tim’s niece - in doc, I think the niece (?) - was left aghast by Jason Issacs saying these are such saintly, good people. No, she said, they are ‘not nice’ not by any measure…

We've all said before, if Timoth had got the diagnosis they (and it is very much they IMO) say he did at the time they say he did, they should be beating down the doors of the NHS to provide evidence. It will be there if requested, even if they have lost the relevant documents. Consultants write letters all the time to eg support housing applications, get help from social services and they write them to the GP when a diagnosis is made. I've seen hundreds in my working life if not thousands. The fact nothing was shown with a relevant date stamp speaks volumes.

I firmly believe that if Timoth was any sort of clueless party in any of this, the 25K stolen from his parents and lodged in his bank account would have been sent straight back and it wasn't. They may seem very different people but they're both criminally dishonest and in it together. I don't think that his tearful appeal to James that credit cards he didn't know about had been taken out by Salray in his name was true at all.

@Uricon2 the plea of being in final days too to ‘Bill’ also is IMO one of the most reprehensible & worst aspects of whole sorry saga. Do we know why he did this — to get them out of grafting at farm? Was it circa 2015?

I agree @Uricon2, copies of consultants letters can be obtained if needed, but that letter in 2015 is his first with a consultant neurologist, Salray cannot obtain earlier evidence, there is none.
@SimoArmo , I have a lot of medical letters, for my DD, they are variable in the accuracy of everything discussed within the consultation, I have only once telephoned a consultants secretary after receiving a post consultation letter, I told them that something important was missing and it was corrected. Small errors are a problem because you feel like you can't waste their time, so they remain.

They usually take all the relevant information correctly, family history, family medical history particularly. We can't be certain if the consultant just made an error and Tim didn't correct it (or lied) I think your realisation that they had mentioned the degree, but not the future walk is far more important, that was information very relevant to Tim's diagnosis, all information about his ability to walk would have been essential for the consultant to make a diagnosis, he would have taken great care in recording that information.

And of course the past, walking the SWCP in 2013, that would have been very important, if it was true :)

Completely agree - they're both in it together somehow. I'd like to know how funds were diverted from, presumably, a local garage (known to the Hemmings' accountant) to S or TWs account (or had they set up a separate false account so they could launder the money).
When poor Martin Hemmings was wondering why the business was not returning a profit, surely he queried this with his accountant . And when the accountant said - presumably - it's because of all the business expenses you are incurring - he would have said "what expenses?"
It's one thing to forge signatures on cheques, but to create fake invoices (and settle them by diverting funds into a private account) requires a degree of sophistication on a much higher level i.m.h.o. And I have also wondered whether any of the NHS medical reports were forged? Sorry if this sounds far-fetched!

but that letter in 2015 is his first with a consultant neurologist, Salray cannot obtain earlier evidence, there is none.

Exactly @Freshsocks . It doesn't exist. It never did.

I think if Salray had forged them @UpfromSomerset, she would have created one for a diagnosis in 2013 when she says Tim was diagnosed :)

Yes anyone with a serious illness will have sheafs of consultants’ letters - you get one after every appointment, also sent to GP. I have a pile of them in a drawer, and I can see the latest one sticking out of my handbag. Each one details the date of diagnosis, date of letter, the nature and progress of the illness etc.

SalRay in fact took off to London, but abandoned their car by the sea as if she might have taken her own life. Neither of them are strangers to letting people think they might soon shuffle off this mortal coil.

Also, seems funny that SalRay took off into the night to London, where TimMoth’s rich uncle, hotshot lawyer etc all reside. Co-incidence?