thorough investigation

Last weekend The Times and The Sunday Times – together with Channel 4's Dispatches – broke the news of allegations against Russell Brand including rape and sexual assault. Russell Brand strongly denies all the allegations.

So what happened next? Today we catch up with The Times’ head of investigations to answer listener questions and examine the fallout from the investigation.

This podcast was brought to you thanks to the support of readers of The Times and The Sunday Times. Subscribe today: thetimes.co.uk/storiesofourtimes.

Guest: Paul Morgan-Bentley, Head of Investigations, The Times.

Host: Manveen Rana.

Links: Decca Aitkenhead’s interview with Russell Brand, published in 2019:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-interview-russell-brand-on-his-hedonistic-past-marriages-and-becoming-a-father-wn6gjkwzd 

Get in touch: If you have any information you want to share with the team behind this investigation, email investigations@news.co.uk.

You can contact the Stories of Our Times team on storiesofourtimes@thetimes.co.uk.

Clips: Sky News, ABC News, ABC News Australia, Russell Brand on YouTube, GB News, Times Radio, BBC Radio 2, Radio X, Mindhouse Productions/BBC Two, Love Productions/Channel 4.

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Rob Moore had a successful career in television until one day he ran out of ideas. After a stint as a gardener, a more enticing door was opened for him. He was offered a job in the shadowy world of corporate intelligence - he became a spy.

Tasked with working undercover to extract information from an environmental campaign group, Rob Moore says he eventually became sympathetic to the campaigners’ aims. He decided to turn on his employers and support the group he was meant to be infiltrating. Only it wasn’t that straightforward. He never told the campaigners who he really was and he never told his spymasters what he was really doing. Neither side knew the whole truth. 

That was until 2016, when after years of being in control of these two disparate worlds he was unexpectedly outed. Now, the campaigners see him as a traitor who betrayed their trust. He sees himself as a misunderstood whistleblower.

From the team that brought you Sweet Bobby, and over three years in the making, Into The Dirt is a story about truth, spies and the stories we tell ourselves. Today we're publishing this new series so that listeners of the Slow Newscast can listen early but if you like what you hear and you want to listen to episode two straight away just search for Into The Dirt and head to the feed.

For the premium Tortoise listening experience, curated by our journalists, download the free Tortoise audio app.

For early and ad-free access, subscribe to Tortoise+ on Apple Podcasts.

If you’d like to further support slow journalism and help us build a different kind of newsroom, do consider donating to Tortoise at tortoisemedia.com/support-us. Your contributions allow us to investigate, campaign and explore, and to build a newsroom that is responsible and sustainable.

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