Former UK Tabloid Writer Sought in Investigation
John Deeter | 01.04.2006 17:34 | Culture | London | World
Former UK tabloid writer Julian "JJ" Brouwer is being sought by Interpol and Scotland Yard and Greenwich City police.
by John Deeter
March 31, 2006
Former UK tabloid writer [X] is being sought in what Interpol and Scotland Yard and Greenwich City police department state as "the most disgusting fall from grace ever witnessed."
Considered a promising staff writer with the Liverpool Prestige, [X] was dismissed in early 2000 for unspecified "indiscretions," and took flight to New York City. There, he found employed as a stringer for New York's Greenwich Male and The Rough Trade, both gay news weekly. His employment was similarly terminated within months at both for chronic absenteeism and what one editor cited as, "abusing the stall in such a manner that no decent male could go in it again."
Lacking financial means and with no legitimate green-card, police state that [X] turned informant.
"His job was to ferret out known 'glory-hole' artists at Grand Central Station and Central Park," said one officer, upon condition of anonymity. "This guy knew the ropes, knew how to work it. We didn't ask many questions. Just picked up the tapes that he made while in the station and park johns, and arrested the men he found."
"No one on our force would touch it," said the officer. "We had to hire out--and [X] came to us from an advertisement that we'd placed in one of the newspapers for which he had worked."
Greenwich P.D. state that [X] was working his way up the ladder of informants, and was making twice his earnings at his former gay news weeklies.
All that changed one afternoon.
Sergeant David Dreckstein was on duty at the lavatory of one St. Paul's Street common area for gay men.
"[X] was actually cleaning the latrine floor with his tongue. We knew he was British, was a gay man and had worked for gay newspapers...but this was hard to stomach. And he was enjoying it."
A departmental decision allowed [X] to escape arrest, on condition that he returned to his native England.
"The whole thing was illegal," said a senior departmental official. "He was working without visa, and without protection of any sort. A gay man in that kind of position will spread infections from all manner of contributors and unknown strains from foreign nations."
What has become of [X] is not known. He has not surfaced in any UK newspapers or tabloids.
A Scotland Yard magistrate said, of the report: "When we do find him, he will be quarantined. We expect that he is highly infectious; our goal is to be able to locate those men with whom he has been intimate and to try to quell the spread of whatever he is diagnosed as having."
Neither the Liverpool Prestige, or Greenwich Village's Greenwich Male or The Rough Trade would respond to this story.
March 31, 2006
Former UK tabloid writer [X] is being sought in what Interpol and Scotland Yard and Greenwich City police department state as "the most disgusting fall from grace ever witnessed."
Considered a promising staff writer with the Liverpool Prestige, [X] was dismissed in early 2000 for unspecified "indiscretions," and took flight to New York City. There, he found employed as a stringer for New York's Greenwich Male and The Rough Trade, both gay news weekly. His employment was similarly terminated within months at both for chronic absenteeism and what one editor cited as, "abusing the stall in such a manner that no decent male could go in it again."
Lacking financial means and with no legitimate green-card, police state that [X] turned informant.
"His job was to ferret out known 'glory-hole' artists at Grand Central Station and Central Park," said one officer, upon condition of anonymity. "This guy knew the ropes, knew how to work it. We didn't ask many questions. Just picked up the tapes that he made while in the station and park johns, and arrested the men he found."
"No one on our force would touch it," said the officer. "We had to hire out--and [X] came to us from an advertisement that we'd placed in one of the newspapers for which he had worked."
Greenwich P.D. state that [X] was working his way up the ladder of informants, and was making twice his earnings at his former gay news weeklies.
All that changed one afternoon.
Sergeant David Dreckstein was on duty at the lavatory of one St. Paul's Street common area for gay men.
"[X] was actually cleaning the latrine floor with his tongue. We knew he was British, was a gay man and had worked for gay newspapers...but this was hard to stomach. And he was enjoying it."
A departmental decision allowed [X] to escape arrest, on condition that he returned to his native England.
"The whole thing was illegal," said a senior departmental official. "He was working without visa, and without protection of any sort. A gay man in that kind of position will spread infections from all manner of contributors and unknown strains from foreign nations."
What has become of [X] is not known. He has not surfaced in any UK newspapers or tabloids.
A Scotland Yard magistrate said, of the report: "When we do find him, he will be quarantined. We expect that he is highly infectious; our goal is to be able to locate those men with whom he has been intimate and to try to quell the spread of whatever he is diagnosed as having."
Neither the Liverpool Prestige, or Greenwich Village's Greenwich Male or The Rough Trade would respond to this story.
John Deeter