The Failed Martyrdom Of John Kay

How our free and fearless press sees its own, as opposed to how they see those they regard as mere collateral damage in their pursuit of More And Bigger Paycheques For The Benefit Of Themselves Personally Now, was demonstrated superbly at the weekend after Press Gazette announced that one of the Murdoch mafiosi’s servants had passed on.

“Former Sun chief reporter John Kay has died. Kay was acquitted in 2015 after a three-year ordeal under Met Police Operation Elveden which took a heavy toll … Kay died in a nursing home aged 77 having never returned to work after his Elveden acquittal. Huge reputation as a scoop getter and as a mentor of young journalists” they told. The Sun duly splashed a double page hagiography, authored by Mike Ridley.

Deeply unpleasant former Sun editor Kelvin McFilth was soon on hand with his king size onion. “For 4 decades he broke big story after big story until Murdoch, to save his own skin, gave police details of payments to public officials. He was one of 22 Sun journos cleared by juries”. McFilth was then followed by Neil Wallis, aka The Rasping Fuckwit.

“So so sad - he was a truly wonderful man and a truly truly terrific journalist and story-getter. His life and career were wrecked by Scotland Yard & CPS vindictiveness, and though jurors at the Old Bailey declared him utterly innocent he never recovered from his ordeal”. And Tom Harper proceeded to marvel at The Great Man’a achievements.

“Beautiful anecdote about the late, great Sun reporter John Kay from his former editor [Kelvin McFilth], describing fallout from one of John’s many scoops” he simpered. Kay had, it seems, dropped McFilth in it on one occasion, but the official investigation into the story concerned would not go anywhere. Why so? “The man running the investigation is the chap who gave me the story in the first place”. And then it all began to fall apart.

James Doleman pointed out “The ‘chap’ was a woman called Bettina Jordan-Barker, who ended up serving 12 months in prison for taking over £100,000 in cash payments from The Sun”. Moreover, the singularly unsavoury Trevor Kavanagh, who had contributed to the Sun splash, had lied when he said “John Kay stood trial at the Old Bailey, giving evidence which drew near-audible admiration from the judge”. He wasn’t in a position to know how the Judge responded. Because the same Judge had earlier thrown him out of the court.

As for Kay’s claim that he had no idea paying public servants for information was illegal, Carl Eve had difficulty buying that one: “I learned it was illegal during my NCTJ training in 1996 and I've never paid for a story since”. And as to the tear-jerking image of Kay dying in a care home, Louis Barfe reminded McFilth “His wife died in a bath. He killed her”.

The Sun’s grovelfest had missed the psychotic episode that culminated in Kay killing his first wife by drowning her in the bath, before botching his own suicide. Women’s Aid has since been on that case, telling yesterday “Following media industry tributes to a deceased journalist, today we will remember Harue Kay, the woman he killed in 1977. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility. Women killed by men's fatal violence must never be forgotten”. And the Sun took Kay back after that.

If that had been one of the Sun’s targets, they’d never have let their readers forget it. But for one of their own, it is conveniently airbrushed away. Along with the other crimes.

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