David Connett

Background

Stephen Brook, writing in The Guardian, describes David Connett's background as follows:

Connett first worked at the Sunday Times in 1985, but left in 1989 after a dispute about the editing of an investigative story involving the deaths of IRA operatives in Gibraltar.

Biographical Information

History

Stephen Brook writes:

A senior Sunday Times investigative reporter remained a casual employee so that if the paper was caught out it could deny its Insight team was dealing in "black arts" and stolen property, an employment tribunal has heard.

David Connett, a former member of the Sunday Times Insight team who has taken the paper to the employment tribunal for unfair dismissal, said he was deliberately "kept off the books" by the paper in case any investigations turned sour.

Connett told the tribunal in Stratford yesterday that he was a senior member of staff but did not have a contract and was paid as a casual. He did not have a staff email, nor was his name on the Sunday Times staff directory, so that if anyone called for him his listing would not appear on the switchboard.

He said the agreement to be a casual employee was made with Dean Nelson, the then editor of Insight, when he joined the paper in July 2003 to work on the investigative team.

He admitted to criticising Sunday Times reporter David Leppard when Caseby had used him as an example of a successful investigative reporter attached to the newsroom.

"I made no secret of the fact that I didn't agree with David's methods. I said that the difference between us was that my stories are true," Connett said.

He denied Caseby's evidence that he had criticised two other journalists, the news editor, Charles Hymas and Jonathan Calvert, the deputy news editor, who took over responsibility for Insight investigations in July last year.

"Charles Hymas is a very good news editor, I have great admiration for him. Jonathan Calvert is a close friend of mine, I have been friends for years there no way I would suggest that he was anything other than a top-class reporter," Connett said.

Connett, 44, first worked for the paper as a freelancer in 1984, became a staff writer and later joined the Insight team.

He left the paper and went to Hong Kong in 1989 after a dispute over the editing of an Insight investigation into the killing of three IRA operatives in Gibraltar.

Connett joined the Scottish edition of the Sunday Times in September 2001. Nelson was at the time editor of the Scottish edition, before he was appointed Insight editor.

Under Nelson's editorship, the investigative unit ran stories about Manchester United's transfer dealings, Mark Thatcher's involvement in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea, and revelations about the workplace arrangements of Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith.

After leaving the Sunday Times Connett said he had worked casually, applied for several jobs without success and had discussed investigative projects with the BBC.

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