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Brian Cathcart

11 May, 10 tweets, 3 min read

@AlastairMorgan

Were you frustrated by the ending of #LineOfDuty? Imagine what it's like to fight police corruption in real life for 34 years – and still not have seen your brother's murderers brought to book? Maybe, just maybe, things are going to change for @AlastairMorgan next week. 1/9

After 5 failed investigations, an 'independent panel' has been reviewing the Daniel Morgan case *for 8 years*. It reports on Monday. Has it got to the truth? Or did corruption (which the police have admitted in the past) block the panel's way too? We're about to find out. 2/9

You have almost certainly heard of the case. Daniel Morgan was a private investigator killed with an axe in a pub car park in south London in 1987, possibly on the brink of exposing police wrongdoing. Among the many remarkable things about the case is this. . . 3/9

One of the lead detectives in the first investigation subsequently became a suspect, and the same man, who soon afterwards left the Met, promptly replaced Morgan as partner in his investigations agency. (That man denies involvement in the murder.) 4/9

@AlastairMorgan

Daniel's brother, @AlastairMorgan, knew in weeks that something was dodgy about the police response, but again and again down the years key documents have been lost or altered, witnesses have been threatened or bribed and justice has been perverted. 5/9

@jed_mercurio

So think of DS Hastings in @jed_mercurio's #LineOfDuty, weeping in the lift in his frustration at those endless years of battling bent policing. And then think about Daniel Morgan's family, and particularly about his mother, who died before she could even see this report. 6/9

A whitewash now is impossible. The Met is far too tainted for that. But will Monday's report merely repeat the obfuscations and excuses of the past, or will it shine a light on the truth? Will this be a damp-squib, unsatisfying #LineOfDuty ending, or something more? 7/9

While we wait for Monday you can learn a lot more about the UK's most investigated unsolved murder from this hugely successful podcast. 8/9 untoldmurder.com

Or you can watch this Channel 4 documentary series. (Ends thread) channel4.com/programmes/mur…

The case infamously implicates the UK press – chiefly but not exclusively the Murdoch press. I'll be writing about that in a day or so.

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More from @BrianCathcart

Brian Cathcart

@BrianCathcart

31 Mar

Leaked to friendly hacks. No prior peer review. It doesn't look as though even the government had much faith its big race report will stand up to scrutiny. 1/4 bylinetimes.com/2021/03/31/rac…

In truth this is no 'commission', just a panel handpicked by the Conservatives to provide a veneer of respectability for their awful slogans of prejudice. No institutional racism? Please. 2/4

This kind of thing is going on across Whitehall – a stampede of inquiries and panels without the slightest whiff of independence to them. And where they don't come up with the 'right' answers ministers just start the process again. 3/4

Read 4 tweets

Brian Cathcart

@BrianCathcart

9 Mar

There is nothing new in what the press is doing to #MeghanAndHarry, though the scale and venom are amazing. They did the same to Caroline Flack – also in the full knowledge that she had mental health problems. There are countless victims. They – and we – deserve better. 1/5

Journalism is supposed to be a force for good, and if we are seeing anything that gives ground for hope today it is those few journalists who are stepping back and saying 'Not in my name'. 2/5

For far too long the 'thugs with press cards' have been indulged by journalists with better instincts. For too long cruelty, bigotry and misogyny have been tolerated, defended and treated as if they were equals to honesty and fairness in the world of journalism. 3/5

Read 5 tweets

Brian Cathcart

@BrianCathcart

10 Feb

Judgment in the latest stage of the breach of privacy and copyright case brought by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex against Associated Newspapers will be handed down tomorrow, Thursday, at 4pm. A short thread on what can happen. #MeghanAndHarry 1/5

It's an application by the Duchess for 'summary judgment', seeking to cut short proceedings on the grounds that, her lawyers claim, Associated's case is so weak there's no need for a trial. 2/5

The judge can find for or against her on both claims (privacy & copyright) or give a partial judgment, 1 in her favour and 1 against. If she wins both it's over. If she wins neither, that is not an overall defeat for her; it means the whole case will proceed to trial. 3/5

Read 7 tweets

Brian Cathcart

@BrianCathcart

1 Feb

If Paul Dacre is made chair of Ofcom he will be responsible for standards in UK broadcasting. So how is he doing in his current job as Editor-in-Chief of Associated Newspapers? Well, Associated is currently losing legal actions over bad journalism at an extraordinary rate. 1/8

Today it settled a case brought by Prince Harry in which the Mail on Sunday falsely accused him of turning his back on responsibilities to the Marines. This could have been avoided if they had simply put the allegations to the Prince, but they didn't. 2/8
bylineinvestigates.com/mail/2021/2/1/…

Newspapers in the group, and MailOnline have also settled or lost a string of other cases in recent weeks, including:

Paying significant damages to a former Labour candidate for falsely suggesting she assisted Holocaust seniors. 3/8
skwawkbox.org/2021/01/10/exc…

Read 8 tweets

Brian Cathcart

@BrianCathcart

17 Dec 20

@thetimes

A Home Office report into 'grooming gangs' says 'it is likely that no one community or culture is uniquely predisposed to offending'. So where does that leave @thetimes and its rogue reporter Andrew Norfolk? 1/6 bylinetimes.com/2020/12/17/hom…

The Times insisted there was 'overwhelming evidence' of 'a deeply rooted pattern of criminal behaviour with a clear ethnic component'. But 2 years of effort by Home Office officials (plainly under pressure to prove the paper right) produced no credible evidence at all. 2/6

So there is no 'clear ethnic component'. No one can claim it is disproportionately 'a Muslim thing'. Reporter Andrew Norfolk's creation, beloved of the extreme right, turns out to be just as flawed as his discredited 'Christian girl forced into Muslim foster care' story. 3/6

Read 6 tweets

Brian Cathcart

@BrianCathcart

19 Jun 20

@DavidLammy

Thread.
You often see references on Twitter to 'the inevitable inquiry into Covid-19'. Why does anyone think that under this government a meaningful public inquiry into the pandemic is inevitable? @DavidLammy @JolyonMaugham @mikegalsworthy @EdwardJDavey @joannaccherry 1/

Johnson, Gove, Hancock, Raab etc have never shown any wish to be accountable for anything. (Re Cummings, for example.) In the case of Covid they will surely move heaven and earth to avoid effective, independent scrutiny. 2/

And since it is governments that set up inquiries they have the power simply to block an inquiry into the Covid response. You might say the demand from the public will be too strong. Well maybe, but they have already shown significant willingness to defy the public will. 3/

Read 13 tweets

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