Showbiz Newswrap
Showbiz 5: Byline Times’ top Dan Wootton stories
The top five things we’ve learned from Byline Times on the ‘Dan Wootton’ allegations…
It starts on July 17th when Byline Times revealed: ‘GB News presenter and MailOnline columnist Dan Wootton allegedly hid behind fake online identities to trick and bribe scores of men into revealing compromising sexual material, Byline Times can reveal in the first part of a three-year special investigation.’
The publication adds, ‘Byline Times has extensive evidence to show that, between June 2008 and 2018, Wootton – who is gay – posed as a fictitious showbusiness agent called “Martin Branning” to offer sums of up to £30,000 “tax free” to his targets, many of whom were heterosexual men.’
On July 24th Byline Times revealed that ‘Martin Branning’ allegedly blackmailed the partner of a Murdoch journalist into making a covert sex video later found hidden behind the washing machine of GB News star Dan Wootton’. The paper noted, ‘in the third part of a three-year special investigation into Wootton’s private and professional conduct, the victim forced to make the video reveals how ‘Branning’ drove him to the brink of suicide with a 10-year campaign of anonymous coercion.’
Further information was published July 26th ‘Wootton paid adult film stars to meet gay men he had catfished in order to secretly record them having sex’ the Byline Times alleged. They went on to state, ‘Wootton ‘rented’ the Facebook profiles of at least three different male porn performers for up to £500 a time, before posing as them and tricking his targets into meetings to be covertly filmed with cameras he supplied.’
August 1st saw Byline Times run with ‘How Murdoch Made Dan Wootton into a Monster’ in reference to media mogul Rupert Murdoch. ‘Alex Truby is the former partner of… Dan Wootton… the New Zealand journalist who has made a career out of invading private lives and passing public judgement for big bucks.’ Byline Times stated, adding, ‘From Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Johnny Depp and Amber Heard; from Philip Schofield to pop star Duncan James and the late, tragic Caroline Flack, Wootton was Rupert Murdoch’s celebrity attack dog for more than a decade.’
Byline Times in this article note that their reports have ‘exposed Wootton as a serial sexual catfisher, blackmailer and prolific workplace bully – all of which the presenter denies.’
The most recent look into the seemingly seedy world of Wootton was published by Byline Times on August 3rd.
The seventh article by the publication was titled ‘Dan Wootton and Martin Branning – The Proof’ and told readers ‘Wootton twice used an identical password as the catfishing pseudonyms ‘Martin Branning’ and ‘Maria Joseph’ to subscribe to a movie-sharing website… The presenter used the password along with the email addresses for his private web domain danwootton.com and also his official News of the World account. They were leaked and published on a publicly-available data breach directory in October 2018.’
Byline Times added, ‘Seven days ago, Byline Times presented the raw data in this article to the Metropolitan Police as part of an update to a 28-page dossier on our investigation, which we first made available to detectives on 20 June 2023, before publishing the first article in this series… Byline Times has asked the new legal representatives for Dan Wootton detailed questions about the password breaches. In response, they did not deny the connection between the four accounts and appeared to confirm that Wootton used the password for the accounts mentioned…’
Wootton who was at the forefront of leading the campaign to have Phillip Schofield dropped by ITV and similar for Huw Edwards at the BBC, denies any wrong doing. Although did admit errors of judgement. Byline Times has had no response from Wootton to the allegations. The Daily Mail has suspended Wootton from writing for their publications, while they undertake an investigation. His former employer News UK is also conducting an internal inquiry, while GB News continues to air his show as if nothing has happened – although viewers seem to be less than impressed – with ratings for Dan Wootton Tonight having significantly dropped since the claims were published.
