An open letter to David Dinsmore

Dear David,

As editor of the Sun, you’re responsible for Ben Perrin’s ‘exclusive’,  TROLLS PAY MADDIE LIE COP’S COURT BILL. 

Ben wrote: <British trolls are helping pay legal bills of an ex-cop who said Madeleine McCann's parents were behind her disappearance.> 

Then, you’d know all about trolling, working for News Corporation. 

I see you’ve been there 24 years. It must be hard to have a real-world perspective, when you’ve spent so long inside what has been described as a corrupt and criminal corporation.

Your sister newspaper, the News of the World, was forced to close – it “died of shame” – after a culture of hacking was exposed, one that your company covered up and denied for years.

That same newspaper even trolled Kate McCann, printing extracts from her diary under the pretence it had permission, then bunging her £125k compensation when the McCanns called in the lawyers.

Your own newspaper, The Sun, published on its website ‘exclusive’ footage of a cadaver dog searching the McCanns’ rental car and apartment 5a, marking the ‘scent of death’. 

(The footage is still here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lrrMoUr3OA, with your paper’s logo attached) 

David, that’s evidence that may or may not be used in a future trial. And your predecessor published it on the internet. 

Sun journalists have admitted in court to paying policemen and public officials for tittle-tattle about Royals, politicians or celebs. Most of them claimed they didn’t know it was illegal. 

(What do they teach you NewsCorp guys about journalistic ethics?)

In your own tenure, in October 2013, you thought it fit to print a souvenir Maddie pullout, which was offered as ‘an exclusive e-book ONLY for Sun+ members. If you’re not already a member, join now.’

You trolled a missing kid, the same way the News of the World hacked a dead girl’s phone, to try to squeeze an extra few quid into Rupert Murdoch’s bank account. 

You hired and condone the writings of Katie Hopkins. You signed off her piece which described refugees, dying in the Mediterranean, as “feral humans” and “cockroaches”.

Every time you print a picture of a bare-breasted woman on page 3, for no other reason than to show off her tits, you troll other women.

(C’mon David, how old are you? Thirteen?)

And here we are, supporting a man who we believe has been unfairly traduced by the McCanns, with lawyers paid for by money from the Fund set up to find Madeleine.

And you call us trolls.

David, you know as well as I do, that, if at any time in the future, the Met give any indication that the McCanns have anything to do with the disappearance of their daughter, your paper will flip, without hesitation, into destroying the couple.

You will have absolutely no compunction in doing that, simply to sell another paper or drive another visit to your website.

When you do, we’ll be watching. And we’ll remind you all about trolling.

PS Thanks for the free advertising.

To contribute to Gonçalo Amaral's defence fund, go to http://www.gofundme.com/legal-defencepjga