Fleet Street Fox Foxed Again

Susie Boniface, who goes under the alias Fleet Street Fox, yesterday denied that her story about former footballer Ally McCoist and his alleged “Txt Sex” were the product of hacking. She was adamant: “I’ve been very clear that it’s not a tactic I witnessed, knew of or indulged in at any paper”. Those are most reassuring words. Perhaps she would care to restate them after considering the name of Natasha Kaplinsky.

Butter wouldn't melt in her North and South

Why so? As Press Gazette has told, “Trinity Mirror is facing a fresh wave of phone-hacking compensation claims after the current group are settled in the High Court. Cricketer Phil Tufnell and his wife Dawn, actor Neil Morrissey and newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky are among those to have filed claim forms against Mirror Group Newspapers”. Ms Kaplinsky was good copy for the tabs because she has also been on Strictly.

Now, one hates to add two and two and come up with a number that is not four, but one particular item from the Sunday Mirror back catalogue on Ms Kaplinsky, titled “TV NATASHA AND HER SECRET LOVER; Live-in boyfriend left ‘devastated’”, does beg a number of questions as to how some of its material was obtained. And one of the two names on the by-line is, guess who, Susie Boniface.

Starting at the very beginning, as it’s a very good place to start, we learn “BBC Breakfast's Natasha Kaplinsky has been cheating on her long-term partner with her former boss” before being informed that “They were also spotted together in a cafe in South London. The couple looked relaxed in each other's company, Natasha playfully toying with a lip gloss which she applied [to] her lips after the couple shared a kiss”.

There were photos of this encounter to accompany the story. Now, the snapper could have just been passing, but the likelihood of that happening is remote. How did that snapper know that Ms Kaplinsky and her pal would be there, and at that time? It’s always possible, though not plausible, that one of them told someone of the clandestine meeting. It’s more likely that one left a message on the other’s phone.

That’s after the snippet telling that Ms Kaplinsky “has tearfully confessed to spending nights in hotels with 46-year-old TV executive Lloyd Bracey - the latest in Brighton”. That information came from where? And there’s more: “In a phone conversation Natasha apologised to Barnard and begged him to give her another chance”. That’s a rather one-sided “conversation”. It sounds more like the contents of a voice message.

Oh, and while we’re on those inconvenient details, there’s also “Barnard, who was in France when he received the call”. How do the authors know he was in France? All that the article uses for cover is “a pal said”. These “pals” do tend to be very conveniently informed. In any case, we may find out rather more about this case soon. It would be most unfortunate for Ms Boniface if one of those 45 offending by-lines turned out to be hers.

She did say she’d hack phones for “a minor shagging story”. What a coincidence.