A short investigation into Adrian Gatton, TV producer and investigator

by **Jill Havern** 27.04.19 16:35

UPDATE BY MMRG, 7 AUGUST 2019

Tomorrow it will be 19 months since Kevin Halligen a.k.a. Richard Powell was found dead in mysterious circumstances at his home in Surrey. NO DATE has yet been set for his Inquest - MMRG

A short investigation into Adrian Gatton, TV producer and investigator (and an invitation)

by MMRG, 27 January 2018

with thanks to CMOMM members who assisted with the report

The man who has been most vocal for the past fortnight, i.e.since Kevin Halligen’s death was reported on 13 January, has been journalist-turned-TV-producer Adrian Gatton.

We now know that Adrian Gatton is significantly connected to the Madeleine McCann case and the continuing cover-up of the truth.

He has told us these things:

1 He is a ‘friend’ of Kevin Halligen
2 He was the producer of that thoroughly misleading documentary ‘The McCanns and the Con-Man’
3 He seems to know more about Kevin Halligen’s death than anyone else
4 Just over a year ago shared on social media a photo of Kevin Halligen taken ‘last year’ looking ‘the worse for wear’. That alone suggests quite a close friendship:
5 He has pronounced – in advance of any post-mortem being published or any announcement by the Coroner – that his friend Kevin Halligen’s death was due to alcoholism and was ‘definitely not foul play’.

On that last point, he may turn out to be correct. But what else do we know about Adrian Gatton?

He has both written articles for the print media, and has produced dozens of TV documentaries.

Dealing first with his print journalism, here are some of his articles:

Crime boss crony arrested over Hatton Garden raid The Times, Sun 7 August 2016

British hostage held by al-Qaeda in Algeria was shot by troops in failed rescue bid The Sunday Telegraph, Sun 14 September 2014

Exclusive: Death in the desert - did a security man see it coming?
The Independent, Thu 12 September 2013

The mystery of Lord Mandelson's finances
The Daily Telegraph, Sun 11 July 2010 (2 blog links)

Mandelson named in spy files on oligarch
London Evening Standard, Fri 24 October 2008

« All previous articles

See LINK: http://journalisted.com/adrian-gatton

This is what Adrian Gatton says about himself

“I am a freelance television producer and director who has made programmes for the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the UK, and for PBS in the United States. I have worked for series such as Dispatches, Cutting Edge, True Stories, The Money Programme, Panorama (developments), Sleepers (undercover), Mark Thomas, other investigative, crime and contemporary history programmes. I have produced a series of original Channel 4 News investigations, worked as an occasional reporter (Channel 4 News) and also as a documentary director (First Cut, C4; Cutting Edge, C4 and for Channel 5). I have written for national newspapers including The Independent, The Independent on Sunday, The Evening Standard, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Mail, The Times and The Sunday Times. I was a staff features writer at The Big Issue and have also written for Time Out, as well as specialist magazines such as Druglink, Metal Bulletin and Inside Housing”.

There is more about him here:

https://adriangatton.net/

and here:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1472868/

Gatton, Halligen, and ‘The McCanns and the Con-Man’

In a series of tweets reproduced on the CMOMM forum by Get’emGonçalo, Gatton has revealed more about his knowledge of Halligen, and in turn about his role in the McCann case.

Here is what he said in his six tweets published on CMOMM:

‘Standard practice in corporate/intel/security/private investigations for intel work to be sub-contracted to specialists. Halligen attended some meetings, negotiated contract and fees (v. important), housed the operation at the Jermyn Street office’

‘Halligen was not in charge of the investigation into Madeleine McCann. Henri Exton was in charge, and his own team did collection (gathering intel), witness and source interviews, analysis, tasking, surveillance, cover, efits report-writing etc.’

Meanwhile Halligen undermined the real op by spending the money to find Madeleine on his ‘high roller’ lifestyle e.g. he didn’t pay the team doing the real on-the-ground-ops to find Madeleine, the ex-MI5 A4 surveillance team...)(emphasis: ex-MI5)’

‘Hope that provides a bit of clarity. Halligen did the deal through his company, but others did the serious work . In short, Halligen was a con-man who took that money but the work WAS done (eg see the Smith efits, adopted by Op Grange)’

‘Watch my ‘McCanns and the Con-Man’ for more context , though it only relates a fraction of the story’

‘Detectives from Operation Grange have the ‘Final Report’ Some say it served as a roadmap for the investigation . One question though: which edition of the report did Op Grange receive and did they receive the draft editions also?’

From these six tweets, it is plain that Gatton is repeating the rubbish we were expected to believe in ‘The McCanns and the Con-Man’.

In short, for those who have not yet seen the film, the narrative of the film was this:

1 The McCanns were serious - and desperate - about ‘finding Madeleine’

2 Having first hired the disreputable and corrupt Barcelona-based detective agency Metodo 3, the McCanns were now seeking to hire a more effective detective agency (as Metodo 3 had found nothing)

3 Despite the Find Madeleine Fund Trust having a full set of experienced and responsible directors; despite the McCanns’ private investigation being led by the vastly successful Cheshire-based businessman, Brian Kennedy; despite the experienced team they had all around them (former Head of Media Monitoring, Clarence Mitchell, top lawyer Edward Smethurst, and top libel lawyers Carter-Ruck, to name but three); despite doing the due diligence you would expect from such a high-powered team, and, lastly, despite the fact they must have known of Halligen’s dark dealings when working for disgraced firm Trafigura and their lawyers Carter-Ruck…they decided to appoint a con-man Kevin Halligen. We were expected ,by watching Gatton’s, film to believe that this experienced team of advisers were all duped by the seductive charms weaved by Halligen???

4 We were supposed to believe that Halligen’s side-kick Henri Exton was the genuine article; a true professional, honestly and fearlessly searching for the truth about what really happened to Madeleine

5 We were supposed to believe that the carefully-filmed car chase, shown in the film, was a genuine hunt for a genuine suspect - when it must have been obvious to most that this piece of footage had merely been pre-arranged to provide some ‘evidence’ of a supposedly genuine search for a supposedly real suspect, capable (as they hoped) of deceiving viewers

6 We were supposed to believe that Henri Exton was the ‘mastermind’ behind what was represented as a very sincere investigation, resulting in what appeared to be an impressive piece of work: ‘The Report of Operation Omega’

7 We were supposed to believe that Exton’s report was now the basis for future work by Operation Grange (“a roadmap for their investigation”) and that this hero (Exton) had uncovered new truths about the Madeleine McCann case that had not already been found by the Portuguese Police, Leicestershire Police, Scotland Yard and Metodo 3 combined, and

8 Finally, we were supposed to believe that Exton’s two efits of two very different-looking men were supposed to be e-fits of Operation Grange’s new ‘top suspect’ – despite the fact that the man who was supposed to have helped to draw up these two e-fits, Martin Smith, had gaily told the Irish police in September 2007 that he was 60%-80% sure that the man he’d seen four months earlier was Gerry McCann. This despite the fact that he admitted he had (a) only seen the man for a few seconds at most (b) in the dark (c) in a weakly-lit street (d) he had been unable to see all the man’s face because the child was in front of it, (e) he had not seen the man for at least a year and, last but not least (f) he had categorically told the Portuguese Police that he would never be able to recognise the man if he saw him again.

The claims of Gatton as set out in his six tweets

If we are to believe all or any of the claims made in Gatton’s six tweets, he tells us:

A He knows all about how genuine intelligence operations are run

B He knows (did Halligen tell him?) that Halligen ‘attended meetings’ (he doesn’t specify what meetings and who they were with)

C Halligen housed the operation at ‘Jermyn Street’ – suggesting that this was a genuine base for a genuine operation

D Then he tells us that Halligen wasn’t in charge of the operation at all; it was really Henri Exton who was in charge

E Exton did piles of real, genuine, intelligence work: “collection (gathering intel), witness and source interviews, analysis, tasking, surveillance, cover, efits report-writing etc.”

F Halligen spent most of the money he received on his ‘high-roller’ lifestyle

G Gatton’s film ‘The McCanns and the Con-Man’ is supposed to provide ‘context’ i.e. provide a useful factual background

H There could be different versions of Exton’s report, including one or two drafts, and this may be significant in some way.

Evaluation

Clearly Gatton has in his own mind obviously swept aside all the evidence that Madeleine may have died in her parents’ apartment and that her body may have been hidden and that a huge cover-up of the truth may have taken place.

We may assume that he has been friends with Halligen for some time and therefore also friends with the other two members of the team who worked alongside Halligen: Henri Exton and Tim Craig-Harvey, who both appeared in the ‘McCanns and the Con-Man’ film.

All three – Halligen, Exton and Craig-Harvey – had, between them, extensive involvement with the state security services and the British defence industry. Exton was formerly the Head of Covert Intelligence at MI5, in which role he would have access to the highest levels of intelligence, whether this was used for legitimate or illegitimate purposes.

We are expected also to believe that Exton, with his previous high level MI5 connections (and leaving aside the matter of his two highly controversial efits) had produced a report - on the grandly-styled ‘Operation Omega’ - which contained valuable information about what had really happened to Madeleine McCann. We are sure that it did not.

Gatton has made a film for Channel 5 which purports to propound as true the eight points we listed above, namely that:

1 The McCanns appointed Halligen & co as part of a genuine search for Madeleine

2 The McCanns sincerely believed that Halligen & co were going to run a genuine investigation

3 The McCanns (and their advisers) were ‘duped’ by Halligen

4 Henri Exton was a true professional trying hard to establish the truth

5 The car chase shown in the film was genuine

6 Exton’s ‘Operation Omega’ report was a genuine assessment of what really happened to Madeleine

7 Exton’s report was an immensely valuable tool for Operation Grange, giving them new leads, and

8 The two e-fits of two different-looking men are genuinely supposed to be the face(s) of a man, carrying a child clad only in pyjamas, allegedly seen by Martin Smith and members of his family at about 10pm on Thursday 3 May.

We respectfully suggest that none of these eight points is true.

What Gatton failed to include in his film

The idea that Gatton’s film provides any true context is ludicrous. Here’s what Gatton did not tell his viewers:

1 He didn’t tell them that there was any evidence, let alone a great deal of evidence, that Madeleine had died in her parents’ apartment

2 He didn’t tell them about how the McCanns first hired Metodo 3, whose boss lied and claimed they had found Madeleine alive and were ‘closing in’ on the kidnappers

3 He didn’t tell them about how Brian Kennedy then appointed Gary Hagland to look for Madeleine, despite his only professional qualification being in money-laundering regulations

4 He didn’t tell them that Halligen only formed his U.S.-based company in June 2007 after Madeleine was reported missing

5 He didn’t tell them that the McCanns’ PT chief, Clarence Mitchell, had falsely boasted to the media that Halligen’s company were ‘the big boys of international private investigation’

6 He didn’t tell them that Halligen was paid all or most of his £500,000 fee upfront

7 He didn’t tell them that Halligen was sacked after no more than 4 months’ work, following widespread reportes in the media that there had been a blazing row amongst the Directors of the Find Madeleine Fund about Halligen’s performance

8 He didn’t tell them that Henri Exton had once been employed as the Head of Covert Intelligence for MI5

9 He didn’t tell them that Halligen, Exton and Craig-Harvey all had, between them, extensive links to the British government’s security services and the Ministry of Defence and the defence industry

10 He didn’t tell them about the true circumstances under which the Smiths allegedly claimed to have seen a man carrying a child in pyjamas

11 He didn’t tell them that Martin Smith had identified Gerry McCann as the man allegedly seen by the Smiths.

Conclusions

Gatton has done a great deal of investigative journalism and made TV documentaries on many controversial and important issues, including cases where there have been cover-ups.

For all we know, these may have all been excellent films including many worthwhile revelations.

Gatton will have many high-level contacts. On the evidence he himself provides and from the evidence of his film ‘The McCanns and the Con-Man’, these contacts are likely to include high-ranking police officers, prominent people in the media, and members of British government security services e.g. MI5 and Special Branch.

Gatton’s film ‘The McCanns and the Con-Man’ was shown five months after the Met Police-BBC Crimewatch McCann Special was transmitted on 14 October 2013 and seems designed to completely reinforce the conclusions of that programme, with which we profoundly disagree.

It is very likely that Gatton would have had a number of conversations with Operation Grange before his film was transmitted.

Gatton may well be capable of being trusted completely when he makes films of other issues. But as we have seen, based on the evidence of his film and what he has told us in recent days, he cannot be relied on when it comes to the issues of what happened to Madeleine McCann, and on what is the real truth behind the now-notorious Halligen-Exton private investigation.

Adrian Gatton has taken to Twitter to give us little snippets about Halligen’s death. He was clearly much involved in Halligen’s life. He made a misleading film about Halligen and Exton which backed up the McCanns’ version of events. He claimed that Exton’s ‘Smithman efits’ were the main clue being followed up by Operation Grange, which most on CMOMM know is unadulterated rubbish.

Sign up for CMOMM, Adrian, and tell us all you really know about your friend Halligen/Powell and about what really happened to Madeleine McCann. You’ll be made welcome if you tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

MMRG

----------------

Comments can be left on this thread: https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t14891-a-short-investigation-into-adrian-gatton-tv-producer-and-investigator-and-an-invitation

A short investigation into Adrian Gatton, TV producer and investigator

A short investigation into Adrian Gatton, TV producer and investigator

Latest topics