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

Time for Truth: Calls Grow for Police Probe into Piers Morgan and Mirror Editors

I wasn’t sure if this deserves a new thread or not. (there are other posters that are more qualified than I in this subject). The Byline Times article is not just about Piers Morgan. I’m looking forward to the opinions and imput from other posters.

Also, Murdoch media interference really has been a blight on the UK (and the US, and certainly Australia as well).

https://bylinetimes.com/2024/01/30/time-for-truth-calls-grow-for-police-probe-into-piers-morgan-and-mirror-editors/

the authors of the article being:

^Dan Evans is a phone-hacking whistleblower and was a witness for the claimants in Sussex and Ors vs MGN Ltd and Gulati and Ors vs MGN Ltd. Tom Latchem was a trainee reporter with MGN and worked for the company between 2006 and 2009^

Dan Evans has a personal grudge against Piers Morgan just tries to dress it up in this article.
My thoughts after reading that (although I'm certainly no expert) is that he is sailing close to the wind with that article, his personal feelings and desire to take Piers Morgan down could land him in legal hot water.

I'd also be very interested to hear what others think.

Thank you @ALittleTeawithmilk that's a detailed article that I need to read more than once to take it in.
Murdoch's news group is indeed a stain on the country

I’ve read it twice now, Rousette. I’m going to have to read it a third time at least. There’s a lot there.

its not just about Piers Morgan.

No, not just about PM, there's a lot to get my head round...

Dan Wooton cleared, wonder if he will take sue the Byline Times now.

https://order-order.com/2024/02/21/exclusive-metropolitan-police-investigation-of-dan-wootton-finds-no-evidence-met-decides-no-further-action/

Byline Times not quite the supersleuths some thought they were.

There will be some very disappointed people tonight !

The Guardian article. (The article makes the point at the end that DW was in a separate furore over the interview with Laurence Fox.)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/feb/21/dan-wootton-cleared-of-alleged-criminal-behaviour-after-six-month-investigation

Was watching Andrew Gold last night, who had interviewed BT about this. He basically apologised to DW, has withdrawn that interview and said the papers that gave BT coverage have also withdrawn their articles (iirc, it was only the Mirror and Guardian that gave the dossier an airing), plus lots of tweets being deleted . I wonder if DW will now go on the offensive and sue them for defamation. I cannot stand DW, he was the person who first propagated the William affair rumour so beloved of certain posters on this board (now there’s irony). But his reputation (such that it is) has been seriously damaged by this, and I don’t think GB news will want him back, so maybe court is his only option at this point. I suppose BT will have a number of fair comment defences, but I guess it depends how far they went in what they said about DW. Am guessing this affair is far from over.

Well if the Met say there's nothing to see here then it must be all right.

I can’t imagine DW will take this lying down.

He needs to be careful. There may not have been enough there for a criminal prosecution, but that doesn’t mean BT’s dossier is untrue and they don’t have a fair comment defence to a libel claim. Having said that, I think the BT reports were relying on a lot of un-specified sources (another irony), so those people would get drawn into it too if it went to court.

https://archive.is/gNFbf link to the article above

The first article linked isn’t very specific about what he was cleared of doing. The cash for leaks or the blackmail?

The times article is slightly less vague and mentions sexual offenses.

From what I have seen from others reporting the BT articles, there’s a lot of it is creepy and sleazy behaviour and attempts to film/photograph people (or pay others to film people), plus potential catfishing, but nothing actually happening in the end that passes a criminal liability threshold. Horrible for the people involved without a doubt, though. I hope he just does the decent thing and goes away if it’s true (and he has admitted he’s made mistakes, whatever that means), but if it’s not, then he’ll have to go after BT and their sources to rescue his reputation.

He does seem awful. Can’t respect someone that makes a living this way.

i thought it was Giles Coren who first suggested the affair ? He later withdrew it .

There were suspicions about the origin of the rumour . It was alleged that Meghan was not happy that Harry accompanied and sat beside Rose at a State dinner in ( I think) 2017 . As a girlfriend she wasn’t included .

As I understand it, Wootten first alluded to it in a March 2019 article in the Sun about "rural rivals" and a falling out between Catherine and RH. Not overtly saying there was an affair, but hinting something was amiss in their circle. This was picked up by a lot of the press both sides of the Atlantic. The following month - in reply to the Guardian's Hadley Freeman asking on Twitter what it was all about - Giles Coren tweeted that it was an affair and that everybody knew about it. He was later called out by someone on Instagram, and he admitted he made it up and didn't know anyone involved. But too late, because once he had tweeted, it was picked up by his followers and was everywhere. He confirmed this in a 2021 Telegraph article - that he was drunk after a boozy lunch with other hacks when he tweeted in reply to Hadley Freeman and just blurted it out that the affair was real - but he had no knowledge and didn't know any of the royal family to be in the know. So the seeds were planted by Wootten, and Coren made up a drunken lie, and the whole thing turned into a viral story.

Ah thanks @Mymilkshakebringsallthepapstomycar . I wonder who fed DW that information?

Who indeed. There have been a number of royal biographies since the Wootten/Coren debacle, and none of them has been able to substantiate the rumour. Harry's Spare included.

I am pretty sure if it was true that Harry would have blabbed .,

Scobie had a half hearted attempt in Endgame to bring it up, but even he couldn’t revive it.