In the summer of 2023, the knives were finally out for Dan Wootton. Wootton was, at the time, working as an unhinged columnist for the Daily Mail and working as some kind of anchor/host of a GB News show. Byline ran a series of investigative reports on Wootton’s activities back when he worked for The Sun. Basically, he spent the better part of a decade harassing, blackmailing and abusing coworkers, acquaintances and at least one boyfriend. One of his favorite techniques was catfishing coworkers and using the information he gathered to blackmail, harass and bully them. By the fall of 2023, Wootton was fired by the Mail. By March 2024, he was fired by GB News (which had suspended him months beforehand). There were reportedly in-house investigations at The Sun and the Mail, but nothing ever came of it other than Wootton getting fired from multiple jobs. Except now one of Wootton’s victims is suing him in civil court:
A former colleague of Dan Wootton has accused the ex-GB News presenter of pretending to be a woman in flirty messages, and tricking him into sending explicit images in a “catfishing” case, the High Court has heard. It is alleged that in 2010 Wootton exchanged sexual messages with the claimant – who cannot be identified for legal reasons – while pretending to be “Maria Joseph”, and encouraged him to send explicit photographs and a video.
Wootton is accused of obtaining sexual images by deceit and the claimant, known as YXN, has lodged civil proceedings against him “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”.
At a hearing on Tuesday, Judge Roger Eastman said: “The claim relates to what is colloquially referred to as a catfishing exercise whereby a person alleged to be the defendant (Mr Wootton) impersonated a fictitious person and induced the claimant into engaging in exchanges with that person of a sexualised nature. It transpired that the person was, as I say, completely fictitious and the claimant alleges that as a result of that activity he has suffered psychiatric damage.”
Tuesday’s hearing concerned an application by Wootton’s lawyers to set aside the anonymity order granted earlier this year to protect the identity of the claimant. But the judge ruled that the order will remain in place, saying there is “clear evidence of potential adverse and serious adverse effect” on YXN if his identity published.
Samuel Rowe, for Wootton, said in written submissions that the Metropolitan Police and Police Scotland investigated Wootton over the allegation that he used fake online identities to obtain explicit images without consent and decided to take no further action. But on Tuesday Mr Levinson said that, as far as he was aware, those investigations did not relate to the claimant’s complaint but to other similar allegations.
You can go to the ES story if you want a more detailed description of what Wootton allegedly did to this person. My question is… how did Wootton get those photos and videos of a “Maria Joseph” and who is that woman? Did he pay some woman to pose for the photos, or was “Maria Joseph” another blackmail victim, someone Wootton lured/catfished? I don’t know. But this whole Wootton mess has been sickening, and I fear that we’ve only come across the tip of the iceberg of Wootton’s depravity. Anyway, I’m glad someone is suing him. It was disturbing to watch everything get covered up in real time. It was like the powers that be decided that Wootton would have to leave his high-paying jobs, but nothing else would happen to him.
Photos and screengrabs courtesy of GB News & Avalon Red.
