‘Martin Branning’ – His First Victim

Editor’s Note: Readers may find some of the graphic content of this article distressing

‘Martin Branning’ 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, Byline Times can reveal.

Branning – unmasked last week by this newspaper as an online alias used by Wootton – threatened to send sexual material compromising the partner to their family, employers and Facebook friends if they did not cooperate.

The resulting film was later discovered on a black hard-drive in a padlocked holdall in Wootton’s east London home by his former boyfriend Alex Truby – whose tweets on 12 July about the discovery have now been viewed around 17 million times.

Wootton has since used his prime-time nightly GB News show to attack Mr Truby’s account as an “untrue story”, claiming to be a “target of a smear campaign by nefarious players” and denying “criminal” behaviour – but not to being, or being connected to, ‘Branning’.

Today, however, 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.

The partner, a man whose identity Byline Times is protecting – but who says that he will give evidence to the Metropolitan Police – said: “The fall-out from this went on for years. I literally quit my London life; I lost everything. I went into the depths of depression.

“I definitely considered suicide. I didn’t want to be around any more. I blamed myself for the whole situation. I am only coming to terms with it now. Now I want to get it sorted out.”

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‘The Courier Would Come with a Video Camera’

The victim revealed how Branning started sending him emails – some of which this newspaper is publishing for the first time today – shortly after the man, through his partner, met Wootton at a London members’ club in 2008 and continued until 2018.

The Branning emails claimed to be from a go-between on behalf of an unnamed but interested third party offering the man, whom Wootton knew at the time was in financial trouble, up to £5,000 a week for “modeling and other work”.

In an email on 26 June 2008, Branning wrote: “I had your email and a couple of pics of you passed along to me because I heard you might be interested in making some extra cash through the sort of modeling and other work I’ve got on offer. Don’t know if the person mentioned it to you but I’d be really keen to chat with you further. All completely confidential of course.”

Quizzed by the man, who asked Branning who had shared his details, Branning followed on 27 June by writing: “Well look it’s someone who knows you through [the members’ club] but I always promise never to pass on those details because this person has worked for me in the past.

“Basically, he said you were an open-minded guy who is always looking for ways to make more £, which sounded perfect to me! I do a whole range of modelling and that sort of work which I’d like to see if you might be up for.”

The “work” turned out to be the creation of adult films made consensually between the man and a stream of individuals whose physical ‘type’ Branning would dictate – with the man then locating corresponding candidates on the same-sex dating apps Gaydar and Grindr.

Once located, Branning sent handheld digital cameras to the man by motorbike courier, which were then collected in the same way once the films were made, and followed, often some weeks later, by a delivery of cash. Wootton was then TV editor at the now-defunct News of the World.

“At that time, I needed money,” the victim said. “It was an attractive offer.

“The courier would come with a video camera he would supply. I would make footage with it and send it back with a courier [arranged by Branning]. There’d never be money until weeks later. I would be thinking he had stitched me up.

“Ultimately, money would be delivered by courier – sweaty wads of twenties, basically.”

Before setting the target to work, Branning gave him a list of highly personal questions – making invasive enquiries about his sexuality and finances along with a menu of photographic requirements.

“I know it sounds full-on but, as I say, it’s completely standard,” wrote Branning on 7 July 2008, before making directions for a series of graphic poses, along with the question: “Have you ever slept with a celebrity?” – to which the victim said no.

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‘There Are Consequences’

In his journalistic career, Dan Wootton has revealed a number of men as gay or bisexual – including Duncan James from the band Blue and a star of the BBC reality show The Apprentice.

In November 2014, The Sun’s ‘Bizarre’ column – which Wootton edited at the time – even launched a so-called ‘Bi Bus’ testing his “theory” that “most of us are at least a little bit bisexual [particularly] in the world of celebrity”.

In a further email on 29 July 2008, Branning gave the man instructions on how to persuade targets to agree to be filmed. Branning wrote: “You make it a really horny idea with whoever you’re seeing. All you need to say is ‘I’d love you to film me as you f**k me’. It works with all guys. trust me! Anyway, just keep me informed with your progress.”

Giving his account of events to Byline Times, the man said: “I wish I had never responded to the [first] email, but I did. Nowadays, people do OnlyFans [a ‘direct-access’ subscription pornography site] and I think it was the same kind of thing back in those days.

“It all seemed quite innocent and I thought ‘I’m not hurting anybody’. Then it escalated. It got heavier once I did give some content over. The guys I was meeting were up for being filmed on camera. It was consenting.”

Branning’s pretext for applying pressure to the victim was to say that he was working on behalf of a demanding third party who seemingly had intimate knowledge of the victim’s partner and their movements as a couple.

In fact, the victim had been introduced to Wootton by the victim’s partner in the early stages of their relationship, and the partner also worked for News UK.