Why let reality get in the way of a story? That seems to be the mantra of career criminal Luke Steele and his Wild Moors organisation.
Earlier this year he provided Unearthed Magazine with satellite images, purporting to show controlled burning on deep peat. Only rather than being current, they were in fact over five years old.
Photos also recently emerged of Steele seemingly tampering with a legally set snare trap, only for photos to emerge afterwards of the same trap only incorrectly set.
He has also been responsible for ‘harassing staff at Harlan’s laboratories’, which ultimately landed Steele an 18-month prison sentence.
One of the victims told the Guardian at the time of the abuse: “It is part of their methodology to equate animal work with paedophilia. If they find out your name, you will appear on their website as a paedophile. It is disgusting.”
But in a strange story appearing over the weekend it would seem that Steele has been telling more lies, this time to Helena Horton from the Guardian, who then wrote an article titled: ‘victory for environment campaigners’ claiming that grouse had been taken off the menu at The Ritz after their protests. The only issue however was that it hadn’t been.
In one of the few things that we agree on with Ruth Tingay, grouse is still very much listed as being on the menu at The Ritz.
Indeed, when a call was made to The Ritz recently by one reader the hotel confirmed that the story in the Guardian was a 'load of bullsh*t'. This video was then shared on a Facebook group covering the Guardian story. Well done to that reader.
Is this sloppy journalism by Helena Horton? Unlikely. Instead it seems it is just the latest example of Luke Steele making up nonsense.
Luke Steele's approach to never letting the truth get in the way of an opportunity to criticise grouse moor management has won him few friends, apart from Mark Avery. Even his former Moorland Monitors group went as far as to release a statement saying:
"Moorland Monitors have absolutely nothing to do with Luke Steele. Luke has caused nothing but trouble for MM and our volunteers, piggybacking our work for his own ends. Luke’s actions, values and attitudes have nothing to do with us and we are in no way associated with him."
Hopefully Helena Horton and the Guardian will think twice about the credibility of their sources in future.
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