The documents were Facebook posts, a letter to Mr Burgon from another MP about a
statement he had made, and other articles and letters. Requests for an explanation as
to why the documents were disclosed so late and the issues to which they were related
were made. These requests were not answered before trial and some time on the
morning of the trial was taken up while the matter was resolved by agreement
between the parties. In the event agreement was reached that certain documents could
be put and other matters raised in cross examination and I was not required to make a
formal ruling.
12.
There was some common ground between the parties about relevant factual matters.
The matters set out below represent my findings of fact unless otherwise stated.
The parties
13.
Mr Burgon was born in Leeds in 1980. After university he converted to law and
became a trainee solicitor at Thompsons, Leeds. He worked for 8 years as a trade
union solicitor. On 7 May 2015 he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Leeds
East and became Shadow Economic Secretary in September 2015. In July 2016 he
became Shadow Secretary of State for Justice. Mr Burgon had kept a public profile
and provided regular television interviews and often talked to constituents via posts on
social media. Mr Burgon had been the subject of numerous newspaper stories.
14.
The Sun is a well-known national daily newspaper which is published by News
Group. Mr Newton Dunn is the political editor of the Sun newspaper. He writes for
both the Sun newspaper and the Sun website.
The band
15. Dream Troll is a power metal band which, according to the evidence, is a “sub-genre of
heavy metal music that has the characteristics of traditional `heavy’ metal music but is
lighter and more uplifting both in lyrics and sound”. Mr Burgon had been friends
with 3 of the band members since he was a teenager.
Mr Burgon’s recording with the band
16. On 16 March 2017 Mr Burgon was with members of the band at a gig in Leeds. There
was a discussion about Mr Burgon recording a spoken word piece on a song. The
song was then titled “Habet Montem” and is now titled “A fairy’s tale”. The song
was one of a number of songs included on an album released by the band. The album,
which was released on 19 May 2017, is called “The Knight of Rebellion”. The
evidence shows that this guest appearance on the song was the full extent of Mr
Burgon’s activities with the band.
The Dream Troll image and other images
17.
Mr Baldwinson said he was a band member and a friend of Mr Burgon, having known
him for about 18 years. He said he was very involved in the music scene at Leeds.
He played bass and guitar with the Dream Troll. Mr Baldwinson said he had created
the Dream Troll image. There was a call for puns on the band’s social media page.