The royals and Dan Wootton: Byline Times part 1 of 3-year investigation into how Wootton got information about the royal family

[queentim]

Following their series about the Crisis in British Journalism and MediaToo movement, Byline Times reporters have recently released the first report of the 3 year investigation into the link between the royals and (disgraced) TV presenter Dan Wootton.

The first report reveals how Charles and William were angered that Harry refused to remove the name of an aide (William's aide in Kensington) who was paid cash to leak stories about his wife Meghan, and son Archie. This included investigations by the Met.

As a result, Charles removed the $700,000 granted to support them, which would have seen Harry and Meghan living in Canada and representing the Queen, in an effort to bring them back to the UK by exposing their location in Canada and removing their security. This was the collapse of the 'Sandringham Agreement', which resulted in the signing of the Sussexes media deals.

Some highlights, but can be bought for £3.6:

▪ It followed news that a partner of a key aide to Prince William received £4,000 from The Sun allegedly for stories about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when Wootton was executive editor.

▪ The Metropolitan Police looked into the alleged leaking but could not go to a judge for a warrant to search royal staff property without knowing the identity of the whistle-blowers.

▪ Two internal royal investigations followed – one involving Simon Case, who is today the embattled head of the civil service facing questions over the Government’s response to the pandemic.

▪ Byline Times has uncovered new photographic evidence of Wootton, the aide and the aide’s partner at a lavish private birthday party Wootton threw for his close friends in a £1,675-a-night hotel suite.

▪ Prince Harry sent formal ‘letters before action’ detailing the claims about Wootton and the palace to News UK.

▪ When the aide’s name was not removed from the legal letters, the Sussexes were cut adrift financially and left unable to protect themselves despite having a security threat level equal to the monarch.

▪ The royal household had thought the threat of exposure would force Harry and Meghan to return to the UK, where their profile could be controlled preventing them from eclipsing the future King

Exploding ‘Megxit’: How Dan Wootton and a Cash-for-Leaks Scandal Split the Monarchy

Disappointed to see a thread on Dan Wooton, his contacts within the RF, the insider information he was quite clearly being fed, his about turn from William to Harry etc, being derailed and diverted.
The discussion taking place has no relevance to thread title. Given MN removal of the previous thread due to not staying on topic it's interesting this one remains. 🤔
Over 20+ pages in the Byline Times articles by many different contributors not just the ones that some have tried to discredit. Interesting indeed.

@unbelieveable22 this always happens. Anything slightly negative about PW is derailed

@unbelieveable22 I fully agree, this thread has been completely and utterly derailed into arguing arcane and frankly incredibly tedious details about the financial arrangements of the Royal Family.

The thread is about Byline Times' expose of a shameful actions by KC and the royal family to punish H&M for deciding to leave, and the nexus of persecutory briefings against them orchestrated by the royal palaces via the likes of Dan Wotton, Simon Case etc.

Like most of the British media, some posters here appear intent on discrediting any source which shows up the darker side of the conduct of members of the monarchy, whether that source is Byline Times or M&H themselves or any poster who dares to offer a supportive view.

This thread has degenerated into "when you don't like the message, shoot the messenger" on an industrial scale. And when you're done with that, obfuscate, obfuscate, obfuscate and derail.

Interestingly, the Byline Times article is making its way into a wider set of media outlets, including recently some of the usual M&H hating press. It's a drop in the daily tsunami of rabid M&H hating articles, but clearly a sign that someone is interested in what Byline Times has to say.

I fully agree, this thread has been completely and utterly derailed into arguing arcane and frankly incredibly tedious details about the financial arrangements of the Royal Family

Yes @TallerSally and I regret engaging

I have definitely contributed to the derailing of this thread . I got sucked in to responding to obviouly misleading posts

I agree with your post @unbelieveable22 , we should be focusing on the links between Dan Wooton and the ‘royals’

When is part 2 coming out?

I’m not sure .
I think this 3 report is separate ( but related ) to the DW investigation.
AFAIK this 3 year investigation focuses on the ‘royals’ and their ties to tabloid media

‘The thread is about Byline Times' expose of a shameful actions by KC and the royal family to punish H&M for deciding to leave’

I still don’t fully understand this. Can someone explain in words of one syllable exactly how we know any action was intended to be a punishment and what the punishment consisted of?

In an earlier post I asked why KC would want H&M back in the country because he was afraid of being overshadowed if they were in Canada (I think). I still don’t understand how this can be. I think we all gather that KC is thin-skinned about his image/popularity/perception so I can easily believe that he worries about these things, but not why a) H&M would overshadow him any less in this country and b) why H&M would overshadow him any more than the Waleses (Cambridges at the time)

thanks in advance

Personally I think the thread derailed and trailed off because the Byline article really isn't the big 'gotcha' they think it is. It's just more one-sided and scurrilous gossip and speculation to add to the great big pile of gossip and speculation to have come before.

I don't think that at all, funnily enough

Sorry but the thread has been derailed because the subject matter is not any Harry.
as with any thread in this topic that is not started to bash H&M it has been targeted and derailed.

What is derailing though and what is discussion with some interesting tangents?

And threads that consist merely of posters agreeing and praising each other are rarely very interesting

Well I liked the interesting tangents (obvs.)

The original subject matter didn't really interest me. I can't seem to get to grips with the briefs, counter-briefs and rumours of briefs constantly briefed.

I do like the lot of 'em fighting like rats in a sack though...

FYI it’s being are reporting that the High Court will be issuing a judgement in Prince Harry’s case against the Mail newspapers tomorrow at 10am.

(He has so many court cases ongoing that it’s hard to keep track 😀 but I think this is the case where he and the other claimants were arguing against ANL’s attempt to strike out their claims of hacking on the basis that they were out of time - although I thought parts of that had already been determined? It could I guess be the one for defamation over an article about his legal battle with the U.K. government regarding his security arrangements. But I guess we’ll find out tomorrow)

Just adding that it’s clearly the hacking case not the defamation case - you can see from the Royal Courts of Justice Cause List for tomorrow that the judgement also involves claims by Elton John, David Furnish, Simon Hughes (and not shown in this screenshot but also Liz Hurley and Baroness Lawrence)

I hope they do well

Same. My well wishes are with the litigants.

Here's to hoping the nasty press are sued within the inch of their lives, and each litigant walks about with millions.

It would be a shame if this weren't allowed to go forward.

Great news the judge has decided that Harry, Doreen Lawrence, Elton John and the other claimants can proceed to a full trial with their case against ANL, as the claims have a real prospect of succeeding.

Fantastic!

What a great win for Harry, Sir Elton John, Sadie Frost, Baroness Doreen Lawrence and all the other claimants!

The judge said ANL “has not been able to deliver a ‘knockout blow’ to the claims of any of these claimants... Fair resolution of any limitation defence…must await trial.”

Very promising for the trial ahead. In a year or so a few people who have been gleefully bashing Harry et all will end up with egg on their faces (we hope).

Well done Harry for not giving in, in the face of his small but vociferous group of detractors in the UK and elsewhere, who would have him "put up and shut up" despite his life being made hell by the British tabloid/mainstream/Murdoch media from a young age, and despite said media continuing to harass and persecute him and Meghan with their daily barrage of 200+ mostly hateful 'articles' (aka made-up BS).

That's fantastic!!!

Key reason KC wanted Harry and Meghan back in the country was to use as scapegoats to protect the heirs.

Information is currency.

The tabloids would agree not to print a negative story about William or Kate, in exchange for private information about Meghan.

Right now, Meghan and Harry having escaped means the media will target the Middleton family more, or Princess Charlotte will start being labelled a "wild child" (to preserve the image of Prince George as a decent sober teenager).

Lillibet and Archie WOULD have been the easy targets but they're having a new life in the USA.

This is what happens when you don't stand up to or call out bullies and try to appease them by throwing someone else under a bus. They just turn on you eventually.

The royals have been cowards for too long.

Before you all get too excited, you might want to read the judgment summary and understand what has been decided.

ANL have failed to have the claim summarily dismissed before trial on the basis of limitation. This does not mean the limitation argument is dead. It will be decided at trial if ANL decide to pursue it - ANL have not yet filed a defence to the claim, let alone evidence, so it’s too early to say whether they can substantiate this defence at a full trial.

More importantly is the matter of the Claimants relying of evidence obtained from the Levinson Enquiry, which was subject to a Final Restriction Order. ANL argued that any parts of the claim relying on that evidence could not be used until and if the FRO is varied or removed. The court has upheld this part of ANL’s argument. The Claimants will need to make a separate application (separate to this case) to have the FRO released or varied. Will they be able to do that? I wouldn’t wager on it, if it would mean future participants in public enquiries having their evidence used against them in private court cases. But we will have to see. If they don’t do this, they will need to remove the parts of the particulars of claim relying on the Levison enquiry documents.

Before you all get too excited, you might want to read the judgment summary and understand what has been decided.

Save your insults. We understand perfectly well what has been decided, as per my post: the judge has decided that Harry, Doreen Lawrence, Elton John and the other claimants can proceed to a full trial with their case against ANL

Nobody said or thinks he has won or that all the claims will win. We wanted them all to be able to go to trial. Thats what this was about. We understand that perfectly well, you're the only one making comment about likelihood of winning.

It's one step at a time AFAiC

Nobody has insulted you. It does nobody any good to be labouring under the misapprehension that this summary judgment is a huge step forward for the Claimants. It’s actually going to delay matters significantly for them, and possibly completely, depending on how much of their claim relies only on Levison evidence obtained in the course of that enquiry and subject to the restriction order. If it’s the majority of their claims, it’s highly unlikely to end up at trial.