Author: eamonn

Just over a week before a US Presidential Inauguration, world headlines are dominated by a former spy named Christopher Steele, a dossier alleging the newly-elected President Trump might have compromised himself with prostitutes in 2013 to the extent Russia’s leader Putin can blackmail him and the breaking news that former MI6 man Steele is now ‘terrified’ for his life and is in hiding.

I contacted an informed MI6 source who knows Mr Steele to ask about the position the former British secret agent and noted Russia-expert now finds himself in.

This is what old spies refer to as the ‘Wilderness of Mirrors’. It’s a place of rumour, innuendo, manipulation and where nothing is what it seems. Or, to put it another way, all too aptly, it’s the place where only ‘Moscow Rules‘ apply.

Of course, the uproar following the press-conference held by PEOTUS Donald J. Trump yesterday was inevitable.

He did, after all, spend more time discussing his business arrangements which would apparently divest him of any active role in his ’empire’ when he assumes office soon, than explaining any detailed policy and governance issues. The theatricality of his pile of envelopes which allegedly held the actual paperwork involved in this highly questionable arrangement (widely criticised by academics and government officials in the USA) only served to underline the muddled indignity of his presentation.

His attack on the CNN reporter Jim Acosta who covers the White House for the channel was vindictive and ridiculous. It came on the heels of a typical Trump passive/aggressive praise the ‘good’ media move moments before. He even seemed a tad confused about who Acosta was, but it might be safe to assume his vicious reaction – including a follow-up confrontation via his subordinates later – was revenge for the network running a report on the fact the President and Mr Trump had been told of the existence of the dossier by top Intel chiefs. CNN pointedly did not link to the Buzzfeed report or indeed say it was anything other than unverified. Indeed, one of its top star anchors, Anderson Cooper, characterised the Buzzfeed report as being nothing more than a ‘dump’ of documents that was anything but good journalism. Other respected outlets disagree.

The central issue though were the allegations emanating from the explosive 35 page dossier which Buzzfeed had put onto the internet the day before. Trump denied the allegations and described the reporting of it as ‘fake news’ and a ‘witch hunt’.

A day later we learn that the alleged author of the report, former MI6 man Christopher Steele, is now ‘in hiding’ with his family. Apparently he is terrified for his life. He was allegedly able to use his extensive contacts within Russia to compile his report – which is a series of memos – despite not being able to travel to the country himself. The US Intelligence Community apparently believe his report is ‘credible’ and the most common description of him is someone who is ‘reliable.’.

He is part of a thriving intelligence-based industry within the UK which sees former MI5/6 officers set themselves up for hire to the private sector in all its forms. The former bring knowledge, insight and contacts. The latter brings the cash.

It can prove to be a very lucrative business for top players. Like Steele’s Orbis Business Intelligence HQ in Belgravia, most of these players I have met tend to run outfits with vague names, be located in the most expensive quarters of London where property prices are at their most ridiculous (and, somewhat ironically, often rich pickings for Russians hoping to snap up property) and avoid media attention with a professional passion instilled in them from having worked ‘across the river’. Most of the people I met who work in this sector also know when to get out. And most do it very quietly. The last thing they want is a high public profile and the company’s website is, like all the others in this sector, rather opaque.

Having interviewed and met both MI5 and MI6 operatives down the decades, I decided to reach out to my contacts in an effort to understand what is going on. One in particular knew the man in question and agreed to answer my questions:

“I have met him [Christopher Steele]. He seems liked a nice guy, reliable, middle-ranking SIS [MI6] officer…” I was told.

I wanted to know why he was on the run? My source’s answer surprised me.

“I think he is hiding from journalists not the Russians. Spies don’t whack other nation’s spies – even retired ones. This story has been going around for a few months. I think this is an Intel rumour which has escaped into the public.”

I asked this source whether, with long experience as an MI6 operative, he believed the contents of the dossier were probably real?

“[I] believe the dossier is reliable…” came the reply

This source spent many years in the field and knows only too well what the realities of the spying game are. The source is well respected by colleagues at home and abroad. So when there’s a caveat it’s not simply a footnote:

“But if real evidence is around, SIS [MI6] or CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] would have taken firmer action.”

So, as of tonight a president-elect is under intense scrutiny and pressure in a way that none of his predecessors ever experienced. Meanwhile a bruised media searches for answers.

And a former British spy has gone into the cold.

Okay, so I projected there would have been a new President Clinton in the Oval Office by now.

Oops.

However, I was right when I said in my last post about the US election that I might be ‘totally, utterly and completely wrong….’ when I predicted Hillary would win the US Presidential race.

Alas it was about the only prediction I got right (okay, apart from saying Trump’s support would be wider than expected…)

Myself and lots of others were well off the mark.

Why?

Well in my case I admit I wanted to marginalise the worst aspects of the US I have seen close down the decades I’ve visited, reported and lived there. Also admittedly I’d estimated the progressive politics of Obama had inched a victory. That said I tend to live in liberal bubble when I visit the US regularly for vacation. But I always sensed the existence of nasty underbelly, even in the NE states usually solidly Democrat. I am talking about the bigotry against a black president in the White House and indeed directed against other minorities; Also the need for some poor-whites to blame someone for their predicament; Finally, the rise of single-issue politics amongst, for example, the Christian Right who jumped on the abortion cause to claim Clinton would allow late-term abortions etc using grim and graphic language to support their cause.

As a journalist I shouldn’t ignore or block out anything but as a human being – with a horse in the race in the form of a wife, sons and in-laws who are all US citizens – I concede I’d hoped for a President other than Trump.

That said, I know the two sides of the US well and I I have spent time trying to understand both. At times, I have also sympathised and certainly understood both. I know fine citizens and nice people who voted both ways.

So I wasn’t that surprised Trump had support in large numbers in some blue-collar states since, after all, the polls always said one in two voters were with him. So when some reporters said they were shocked at meeting actual Trump supporters in the flesh and from different walks of life, I was bewildered since there was always the chance they’d find themselves with two Trump supporters on either side on any sidewalk. The same could have been said in the Gore-Bush race of 2000 when the rational arguments were with the former but genuine anger existed supporting the latter. And in 1992, when I first witnessed an election up-close, there were many supporters for Bush Sr. to be found in any given state I visited. Remember that Clinton was the long-shot of long-shots back then and yet he won. Many journalists were wise after that event too.

Nor was I taken aback by the vicious nature of the support for Trump and it would be naive to think otherwise… I have stood on street corners watching those right wingers voting against gay marriage over a decade ago and witnessed their raw anger. Both sides are capable of brittle, angry and downright scary displays of support for their side in large and deep numbers. It’s always the ones that don’t campaign or comment that intrigue men. Hence my Tweet on Nov 3rd:

I simply misjudged Trump’s numbers and strategic location, as did the majority of pollsters working for the media and, I might add, Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Trump won in relatively small numbers in places in States where Hillary had abandoned them and thus won the Electoral College race. That was clever and audacious of his campaign. Maybe Bill Clinton should have been deployed in the places he used to win handily amongst the same people. I read that there is now a heated post-election-defeat debate going on in Camp Hillary along those lines. Who knows… But I do hope the Clinton Circus has finally left town. And yet, as I write this, rumours abound of Chelsea running for office one day. The mind boggles.

It reminds me of the anecdote I read somewhere about Bill being told back in the early-mid 1990s by staffers and pollsters that voters simply didn’t take to his wife. He looked at the charts, data and polls and sighed, ‘I get it… I get it…. They don’t like her hair.’

‘There is none so blind than those who don’t want to see’… etc etc…

Anyway, Trump’s the new President-Elect and now, like every other person in that position, he has to deliver on his campaign promises and be subject to the terms and conditions of his post.

This is going to be a bumpy ride. And, for us in the press, an interesting one.

As the late-great Mario Cuomo – formerly a mystical Democratic Party hope and creator of the famed ‘Mario Scenario’  – once uttered in a moment of dark brilliance: ‘You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose….’

Then again Cuomo was always the ‘nearly’ candidate: Something of a hopeful but ultimately frustrating albatross around the Democratic Party’s collective neck – for a period the obvious candidate but never the declared one for the Oval Office. He led with his heart but finally decided not to run with his head.

Maybe Clinton should have done the same?

Forgive me for comparing candidates down the decades and also for mixing my ornithological terminology, but this may in time be seen as the Presidential era when the wisdom of a forgotten Democratic albatross proved terminally prophetic for the GOP President-Elect duck.

 

Then again, I could be totally, utterly and completely wrong…

 

 

The recent temporary closure of some 17 schools in Edinburgh which were all built under the controversial PPP/PFI arrangement struck a chord with me.

Some 13+ years ago, when these schemes were still in their infancy, I investigated the ‘new’ Hairmyers hospital in East Kilbride. It was built under one of these deeply complex arrangements.

With the help of whistleblowers who had contacted me, I took a couple of months to look at the scandal of what was occurring. This involved hours of interviews with staff who were appalled at what they were seeing, industry experts in Scotland and London, and a couple of trips to the site undercover. My HAIRMYERS INVESTIGATION caused some serious ripples and some senior careers were affected.

Some of the issues I discovered resonate still and, in light of the current schools’ closure, seem worryingly current. Here is a summary of some findings which are worth pondering when anyone asks ‘Why are these buildings constructed under PFI worth looking at closer than other projects completed under ‘normal’ arrangements?’:

• This involved ‘secret deals’.
•  Poor quality buildings… even after just 12 months.
•  Criticism from experts at the time.
• Flooded sewage in courtyard.
• Bedpans flooded into the system.
• Kids’ toys covered in human waste.
• Human sewage breached 90lb manhole covers.
• £430m payback for builders leasing it back to Govt over 30 years.
• Arrangement allowed then-Chancellor Gordon Brown to announce huge ‘extra’ bounty of cash in pot – but it was a mix of publlic and private.
• The Accounting Standards Board noted such arrangements were like ‘an off-balance-sheet-fiddle’.
• BMJ said PFI stood for ‘Perfidious Financial Idiocy’.
•  Hospital it replaced had more beds and staff than the ‘new’ version.
• Cuts and inexperienced, bought-in ‘bank’ staff had put lives at risk.
• Private contractors allegedly asked their own staff to fraudulently fill in forms retrospectively.
• State-of-the-art water filtration system broke down 13 times in first year: I was shown how it was bypassed by an ancient fire hydrant rigged up after it was retried from a skip. This water went to patients after major operations and was meant to be medically hygienic.
• ‘Everything is about money. Profit for shareholders…’ I was told.

Final note: Yes, I acknowledge it’s just one example; Also that it’s a hospital, not a school. But still, I remain concerned that the framework and template of these financial constructs might have impacted the quality and safety of other similar projects. The financial arrangement was rotten for the public purse and the mentality of the building goals were based with political expediency and profit as the principal goal above all else. Corners were allegedly cut left, right and centre at the time to hit the target of the dreadful ‘Win, win…’ model prevalent at the time..

That’s a worrying legacy.

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has visited this site recently and who have taken the time to contact me regarding various stories, projects and other more private matters. I will do my utmost to respond as fast as I can and assist where possible.

I initially started this site a long time ago, as a professional calling card of sorts and as an archive of some articles that casual visitors and students I teach, both might find engaging. It was one of the first freelance journalist’s websites in the UK at the time but now it’s one of only many.

Times have changed and the nature of blogging and managing sites have changed too… We all now use the myriad other social platforms to park our thoughts and pass on links every day. But, in the background, the slog of work on private projects – whether for journalism or journalism-academic spheres – continue. So the usefulness of a website changes too.

Consequently, I have been reviewing how best to shape the site as time goes by and I will be managing it in a slightly more efficient and regular way in future. So, hopefully, there will be more Blog posts and more articles and links too. I plan to aim these at people interested in investigative based projects and the wider media in general. I won’t be a daily Blogger, since there are already plenty of those, so instead I’ll be shaping my comments and work for this site around projects I am working on and examining the work of others I find stimulating too.

So, there will be a new design coming soon, with some new content and fresh links to the kind of journalism across the media world that I like and recommend. So watch this space…

Thanks for visiting.

I did a little interview for the superb website allmediascotland about My Biggest Break.

It’s really a summary of my career and how I got here and so on. I have to admit, as someone who rarely looks back, that I was surprised at how haphazard it looks in the rear-view mirror of life. I also found out I had a lot of people to thank for helping me achieve whatever success I have today. I used to say ‘They know who they are…’ but for once I got the chance to name names.

Anyway, Thanks again to all of them.

I was asked to write a review of the Channel 4 Dispatches recently which focused on Sir Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw being filmed on camera apparently offering cash-for-access to a fake Chinese company.

Given security tensions over anything Chinese these days, you might have thought this pair would have been loathe to even take meetings. Alas, that was far from the case.

I thought the documentary itself was good, revealing a great deal not only about the culture of Westminster political access, but also the two men themselves. These were two very senior politicians who were long-in-the-tooth and presumably knew every old trick in the book when it came to journalism stings. Yet, there they were, for all the world to see, hustling like beginners and making themselves available like two young pols at the start of their careers instead of nearer the end. It wasn’t the deepest of documentaries and I would have liked more context and analysis. That said, the raw undercover camera footage really caught the pair in the apparent act of laying out their daily rates and so on. There wasn’t much dignity in the whole sorry exchange and both men came of looking pretty greedy and out of touch with reality.

Both careers have been irrevocably damaged. It was old fashioned sting journalism at its best – and most lethal.

The article can be found here.

My new BBC Radio Scotland documentary ‘Spying in the 21st Century: How Safe Are You?’ was broadcast recently. You can catch up with it here. It got really good reviews and was even a Radio 4 ‘Pick of the Week’ referred to as ‘sit up and listen’ broadcasting!

It was a fascinating and sometimes tricky project. I worked on it, off and on, for weeks and months. All credit to Jeff Zycinski and his team at BBC Radio Scotland for backing me.

It’s a topic I have had a long-standing journalistic and academic interest in. I have had contact with modern spies going back many years, both in Europe and the USA, so I know something of their world and culture. Being afforded the opportunity to look at the current state of play in the UK and Scotland was a real gift for me. Moreover, the recent political climate has allowed me an unusual glimpse into this normally secret world.

The Scottish Government’s White Paper on Independence, for example, had very little in the way of detail and substance on the topic of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence. A paltry budget of £260m had been allocated in the event of Scotland having voted for independence. This would, according to most experts, have been barely enough to purchase the computer software for the new country’s intelligence PCs. The view from Holyrood and the view from the Thames, were at odds with each other. Within that murky gap lay material that normal never saw the light of day. That rather foggy and contentious territory was where I called home during this project.

Of course, a newly independent Scotland could have gone its own way and decided to follow foreign (mostly Scandinavian) models and simply allowed its cops to run the intelligence show domestically and quietly dropped any foreign intelligence gathering ambitions. Whether that would have happened or indeed still might happen is anyone’s guess.

Getting spies to talk is never easy. By their nature they are loyal and the Official Secrets Act is a formidable document. I was therefore grateful to those who did speak both on the record and off the record. I, more than most, appreciate the risks they took.

One point I didn’t really have the chance to develop was the fact that the world of spying has become so technology-driven, that the really cutting edge practices in 2015 now involve…. humans. Decades ago spies dealt with each other and gathered intelligence secrets on a human scale. By that I mean they met in bars, safe houses, and swapped secrets in ‘dead drop’ locations like parks and railway stations. It was all very Le Carre. Then, as technology developed it became more and more complex. Suddenly everyone had to be a technology expert. The geeks invaded the operation and pretty much ran the show. Files were shared, laptops were hacked and material was encrypted. Now, in a post-Edward Snowden era, where everyone assumes the NSA has hacked everyone else to hell and back, the trend – I was reliably informed – has tilted back to human level intelligence gathering again. So the old tradecraft tricks are being dusted off and employed. Therefore, I was told, there’s a fair chance tonight on some remote Scottish beach, a spy is making his/her way to shore on a small vessel after being dispatched by a larger ship offshore. Once on the windswept beach they’ll meet their handler and make their way inland. Neither will have a mobile phone nor Garmin or other GPS in their second-hand car which they drive inland. Nothing will be written down. They will be 100% off-grid. Old-fashioned is the new hi-tech.

Welcome to a Brave New World.

I hope you enjoy the programme and get something from it. Most people think they know about spies but in reality they know very little beyond the usual stuff in popular culture. Our spies are far from perfect. But they are (mostly) accountable and often very brave and honourable too.

That’s more than can be said for most countries.

 

 

 

 

The big story this autumn and early winter has been the success of the US National Public Radio (NPR) series, ‘The Serial.

I don’t want to give any spoilers away, so suffice to say the 12-part series of Podcasts simply tells the story of one journalist’s investigation into an alleged miscarriage of justice case.

Anyone who knows my work will know that this is something I have carried out myself. I have also lectured about it in different countries, given presentations at conferences, chaired conferences on miscarriages of justice-related themes and written academic research papers on the issue too. I know the territory fairly well.

The series is the audio-equivalent of a police procedural thriller or a ‘process’ story. I lecture in these on an almost weekly basis (using case -studies – 50% of them my own) and am constantly reminded that things I take for granted (e.g. Basic forensics; Tracing documents; Tracking down people who want to stay off-grid; Using Freedom of Information laws; Visiting crime scenes where murders have occurred; Doorstepping witnesses who the police have overlooked etc) are second nature to journalists doing investigations. I recently spent time at a family wedding abroad, for example, chatting to a murder-case witness who helped me fill in blanks on a case I was thinking of investigating. A few days later I was walking through the pitch-dark to remote scene where an alleged murder victim’s body had been found in a different case nearer home, when I received a text from my wife with a shopping list for Costco. This clash of the dark and the domestic is normal.

I know other colleagues who lead similar lives, particularly those who do investigations. But for us, it’s the eventual story that obsesses us. The actual process is just the journalism equivalent of what Sir Ranulph Fiennes the Arctic explorer once called ‘The Arctic Plod’. It’s the daily grind. One foot in front of the other. To outsiders even that can look interesting given the context. But we forget that from time to time. Years of training and experience are absorbed and carried out without too much introspection. So when a series like this hits the headlines, you are reminded that what you do is, by and large, familiar to us but fascinating to others. Step back a bit and you have to agree I suppose. I was one of the lead educators in the University of Strathclyde’s recent groundbreaking Massive Open Online Course Introduction to Journalism this Fall and presented two week-long online courses in Feature Writing and Investigative Journalism. The overwhelmingly positive feedback and sheer enthusiasm from the 12.5k registered students globally was a reminder of how lucky I am to do – and teach – such a fascinating job. This series takes listeners into that world. It allows us to watch a professional try to piece together a highly complex story, sometimes tripping and stalling, but always moving forward.

The Serial works really well also because medium of radio is also very intimate and if you have a manifestly fine reporter like Sarah Koenig, the Host and Exec Producer, who also has a great, expressive voice, then that creates a vital, intimate link with listeners. She makes you feel like you are in on a big secret from start to finish. She takes you on a journey and weaves the facts into a powerful whole that’s greater than the sum of its impressive parts. She uses detail brilliantly and leads you from episode to episode with power and style.

The story itself is also fascinating. Again, forgive me for not going into any detail here, because I know I will spoil it if I start blogging about its content. Best to visit the site of the series and have a listen for yourself. There are also a lot of engaging websites out there that link to the programme and contain some fascinating blog comments and conversations. The internal tale in thematic terms is very familiar. Time after time, I have arrived at a story that has already engendered headlines leading to a settled and accepted  ‘Version A’ which, after a few weeks’ work falls apart, and soon leads me to construct a whole new ‘Version B’.

The form of the story is not really anything new as far as I can see. As far back as W.T. Stead, Upton Sinclair, Truman Capote, Joe McGuiness and all the rest… process stories have been used as a way to tell the larger story: The reporter acts as the vehicle that takes you into the action. Or as I say in classes: ‘The particular takes us into the general’. A story told well, with a human at the centre of it, always connects easier than a thousand bland powerpoints. People connect to people. But again, full credit to the producers for knowing how to use the full toolkit of digital technology to unpack this story in a fresh, vibrant and utterly compelling way.

As you’d expect I have no issue with a ‘real-life’ story like this being examined from every angle. Nor so I think calling it a ‘story’ demeans its serious underpinning. I am far more offended by ‘reality’ shows with celebs hawking the last remnants of their being for publicity. The kind of cases this story represents needs public scrutiny and debate – it’s been that way from the earliest alleged miscarriage of justice cases on the public record. Journalists are often the last court of appeal.

Using classic non-fiction long-form narrative techniques to tell us a complex story in an understandable way takes time and skill. This series represents a fresh way in the digital era and the team behind The Serial, do a world-class job in structuring their podcasts and breaking the story down into manageable sizes and varied content. A lot of hard work has gone into this series and much of it is hidden from plain sight by the sheer quality of the slick presentation and deceptively complex script. The team knows their stuff.

The straightforward digital presentation is a revelation. Multi-platform publishing needs a less-is-more approach these days. Too many similar projects have fallen short and not delivered ratings, critical attention or broken through the noisy racket of the modern digital media storm, simply because everything including several kitchen sinks it seems, have been thrown at the sites. These can be overwhelming. They can be bland in their simplistic and desperate embrace of the ‘more is always more’ kind of aesthetic. Sometimes knowing what to ditch on a site devoted to this kind of journalism speaks volumes and helps visitors focus. The stripped-back and clean site design acts as a superb entry to the rich, dark and raw tale that lies beyond  – and that’s how it should be. It clears the way for the documents and so on, to be placed carefully and in design terms, cleanly, on the site in a way that compliments, not overwhelms, the central narrative spine. Looks easy enough – but it isn’t.

In the final analysis, journalists are humans too. Taking a look at a story in development or listening to how the investigation develops should be a transparent and open to scrutiny process where possible. Yes, there are exceptions: Some investigations are sensitive for any number of reasons and often reasons of sheer competition in the business means its unwise to publish too widely, too soon. But reflective stories like this, where blind alleys sometimes can’t be avoided, are to be welcomed.

I never cease to be amazed at how digital connectivity is allowing investigative tools in the modern era to be used on stories from an earlier era. I marvel at how this provides a fresh new window into a world that might have moved at a slower and less transparent pace but was no less violent and shadowed. I often wonder if the protagonist(s) who apparently ‘got away with it’ all those years ago ever wondered, even for a millisecond, if at some point point in the future someone was going to use new tools to turn the clock back and focus attention onto an old, apparently stone cold, case?

In the past few weeks for example, completely out of the blue, I was the recipient of a secret dossier from a stranger, which told the awful story of a man murdered years ago in a rather grand house under extremely dubious circumstances. The dossier’s documents told a nasty tale involving power, corruption, controversial forensics, allegations of government corruption at the national level, police malpractice and secret reports being buried for decades. The victim, incidentally was a Roman Catholic priest.

So what will happen to this story? Is it worth following up? Will I leave home and family for days and weeks over the next few months to investigate it? Who will I speak to? What might they say? What will the documents yield? Who knows the truth of what happened that night, in that room, with those people, and why it ended with that man of the cloth being brutally battered to death?

I am not sure… but time will tell.

As far as The Serial goes. Well NPR are already working on the new series. It’ll be fantastic I am sure.

I am also 100% sure what the next evolution for this kind of project will be: A filmed version, released on a digital platform, with real-time interaction and comments, following another investigation into a real-case recorded across several months.

Remember where you read it first.

I can’t wait.

 

 

The IRA tried and shot alleged sex-offenders in their communities it’s been claimed tonight by none other than Gerry Adams, who is out and about – and on his Blog – explaining Sinn Fein’s position on so-called punishment beatings and also allegations of sex offenders in the ranks. At one stage he states that both he and Martin McGuinness were on the record opposed to such beatings ‘since the 1980s…’

That’s interesting.

Here’s my investigation into the punishment beatings… including – awkwardly for Adams – one which was *directly* linked to him by a mother of the victim – Andy Kearny – who was also related to hunger striker Bobby Sands. He was shot in 1998… more than a decade after Adams claims he was vocally against the practice.

Over a decade and a bit ago I travelled to a heavily guarded area of West Belfast where the press are not usually welcome. I was warned my safety was in doubt by senior Republican figures who knew what I was examining – the continuation of so-called ‘punishment beatings’ in Northern Ireland (on both sides of the sectarian divide). It was a complex and messy issue. There was plenty of blame to throw around. I spoke to victims and those connected with the issue. The more you dug into it, the murkier it became. One story always stuck with me – the murder of Andrew ‘Andy’ Kearney in 1998. He was a Republican murdered by Republicans. The details remain shrouded in claim and counter-claim and it wasn’t easy for me to establish the facts.

When I finally met the mother of the victim, Maureen Kearney, she told me that she demanded and received a meeting with Gerry Adams. Later the IRA told her her son had been accidentally murdered and that ‘they only meant to cripple him…’

‘How dare they…’ she told me. ‘How dare they say they only meant to cripple him…’

She died not long after I met her.

Read the article here: PUNISHMENT BEATINGS

A quick post to welcome any visitors to my site who are participating in the Introduction to Journalism MOOC being run by the University of Strathclyde and hosted by FutureLearn. I hope you are enjoying the Weeks I am hosting, Weeks 3+6, and are finding the course rewarding and enjoyable.

I use a range of my own articles as case studies in the course, so I hope you find them interesting and thought-provoking.

Comments and feedback are welcome.