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- High Court Judge refuses to overturn anonymity order in new case brought by former colleague
- Wootton allegedly posed as ‘Maria Joseph’ in order to obtain sexual images and video by deception
- It is the first case to stem from a Byline Times investigation into Wootton’s alleged use of fake avatars to trick men into compromising themselves online
The 42-year-old former GB News star was not present at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday as Judge Roger Eastman ruled there was “clear evidence of potential adverse and serious adverse effect” if the identity of the man – a former colleague known as YXN – was made public.
It came as first details emerged of a personal injury case Wootton’s former colleague is bringing against him for allegedly using the fake online identity ‘Maria Joseph’ to unlawfully obtain intimate photos and an explicit video of him.
Mr Justice Eastman heard that Wootton sent partially and naked photographs of a woman, as well as a video of a couple having sex, while pretending to be Joseph in Facebook and WhatsApp messages in 2010 in order to deceive the man into sending private material of his own.
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Barrister Justin Levinson said that Wootton, by hiding behind the fake profile, had “tricked” his client into believing he was exchanging messages with the woman in the images, allegedly causing “injury (including psychiatric injury)”, adding that Wootton had not denied being Joseph.
In written legal submissions, Mr Levinson said: “The Claimant now brings this claim for damages for personal injuries and losses consequent on the Defendant’s intentional infliction of harm, misuse of confidential information, infringement of privacy and deceit.”
He added that by the “very nature of the unusual facts on which the claim is based, the Claimant’s anonymity is necessary to prevent compounding and aggravating the very matters which give rise to the claim”.
Wootton’s barrister Samuel Rowe argued that when the anonymity order was made in January this year, Mr Wootton had insufficient notice to challenge it in court. This was rejected by the judge.
Mr Rowe also claimed the court would not have been justified in granting the order had it been aware of relevant information at the time, including that Wootton had been investigated by the Metropolitan Police and Police Scotland and faced no charges and that the order offended the principle of open justice.
But Levinson told the court that the police investigations did not relate to the claimant’s complaint, but to similar ones, and the judge refused to lift the anonymity order, instead awarding costs against Wootton, with future hearings in the case to be held publicly.
It follows the publication by Byline Times in 2023 of a three-year investigation into the pseudonymous activities of former News of the World, Sun, and MailOnline journalist Wootton, posing as Joseph and another avatar – a fake showbusiness agent called ‘Martin Branning’.
The Truth About Megxit: How Dan Wootton and a ‘Cash-For-Leaks’ Scandal Split the Royal Family
As Scotland Yard probes the journalist Dan Wootton over allegations of blackmail and serial sexual catfishing after a three-year special investigation by Byline Times, this newspaper can now reveal how his payments to the partner of a top royal aide forced the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to run from the UK
This newspaper told how Wootton targeted scores of journalistic colleagues, friends and members of the public – many of whom were heterosexual men – for at least 10 years between June 2008 and 2018, offering some targets “tax free” sums of up to £30,000 for digital images, which in one case – not that of YXN – were later used for sexual blackmail.
YXN’s case was among the first Byline Times reported on in July 2023, before going on to publish password evidence that demonstrated that there were “vanishingly small” odds of “many millions to one” that it was anyone else other than Wootton who was the controller of the email accounts used in his activities as Joseph and Branning.
Our investigation featured the first testimony of YXN alongside that of a number of other men.
YXN told Byline Times: “I received a friend request from a girl called ‘Maria Joseph’. Immediately she was very flirty and, having just come out of a messy break-up, I didn’t have my wits about me as much as I should.
“‘She’ soon started to send me semi-nude pics and swapped to email and phone. Her number was a New Zealand number as she said she’d just come back from a year over there. As more pics came through, she started to request them from me, which I duly obliged (fortunately I kept my face out of).
“Then she started to send ones she’d already sent, which she brushed off with ‘obviously I’m talking to a few guys at the same time’. At this point, I’m being super careful and start to snoop further into her profile. Catfishing wasn’t really a known thing back then, but I knew something was up.
“We had five friends in common on Facebook – Dan plus four others. When I clicked the others, the only common link was Dan.
“Then a video came through of her having sex with a man. However, I recognised him as someone from a reality TV show as he’s a friend of a friend. This made me realise I knew the identity of the girl [and that it could not be legitimate].
“So with this, the NZ number, the sole common denominator, I was sure it was him. So, I messaged ‘Maria’ to say ‘Hi Dan, interesting way to get dick pics’. The next day, the profile was gone.
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“I was embarrassed that I had not been vigilant. It makes my blood run cold as to how vulnerable I had made myself. I felt stupid.”
Wootton, who has yet to file his defence to the allegations and was given 12 days to pay YXN’s costs, was not present on a day in which – by coincidence – Prince Harry was also at the Royal Courts of Justice to appeal against a Home Office reduction of his protective security status in the UK.
Instead, Wootton was making a ‘star’ appearance at a seven-day cruise organised by the former GB News presenter Mark Steyn around Spain and Portugal, which included a panel-discussions with survivors of grooming gangs.
Also giving talks were right-wing Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, anti-vaxxer former Page 3 model Leilani Dowling, activist and former actor Laurence Fox and former GB News host Calvin Robinson.
We will continue to report on the ongoing case of YXN vs Dan Wootton