Anorak

Anorak News | Ryan Donovan: How The Media Lied About HMS Astute ‘Shooter’ Reggie Moondogg

Ryan Donovan: How The Media Lied About HMS Astute ‘Shooter’ Reggie Moondogg

by | 11th, April 2011

RYAN Donovan, aka Reggie Moondogg, is charged with the murder of Lieutenant commander Ian Molyneux and three counts of attempted murder aboard HMS Astute. The media reacts to the submarine sailor.

The Daily Mail tells readers:

“A simple Google search would have alerted the Royal Navy that the submariner held over a gun killing led a secret double life as a rapper named Reggie Moondogg.”

A simple Google search unveiled a “secret life”? Er..? Go on:

Social networking websites reveal that he wrote a series of violent rap songs in which he boasted about being ‘big and mean’ and a ‘serious sinner’ and talked about ‘dead presidents’.

Want to hear the bad rap about being “big and mean“? Here you are:

To put the tin lid on the shock that a man in the armed forces played music, the Mail quotes “Liberal Democrat MP and defence expert Mike Hancock”.

That name rings a bell, doesn’t it? Well, not to the Mail it doesn’t, which omits to mention that Hancock’s the MP who employed alleged Russian spy Katia Zatuliveter as an aide. She is fighting deportation and denies passing on secrets to the Russians.

The Evening Standard sums up:

As Mr Hancock’s parliamentary aide, Ms Zatuliveter had access to potentially sensitive information given to the Commons defence committee.

Here’s Hancock on Donovan:

“I am surprised that this man was on a nuclear submarine. I would have thought there was tight scrutiny for our submariners, so how on earth he passed I don’t know.”

The talk is of secret lives. But the Sun thunders:

Tinie Tempah’s rap pal Moondogg on sub murder charge

The 22-year-old – last night charged with murder over the shooting of a commanding officer on HMS Astute – even gave himself the nickname Reggie Moondogg for street cred.

Nickname? But the Mail says Donovan is one of the “craziest name changes” of 2009. The Mail says he changed his name by deed poll. Nickname or real name? Well, one clue might be that on Moondogg’s Navy uniform the badge identifies him as “R. DONOVAN”.

Anyhow, Donovan is a pal of top British musician Tinie Tempah, right? Well, not exactly:

Donovan met Pass Out singer Tinie, 22, when they had drama classes together at their school in London’s Abbey Wood.

Go on:

Donovan worked as a sound engineer while trying to launch his rap career before joining the Navy three years ago. He and Tinie would often call each other to speak about music.

Says who? How often? We are not told. Still, hang the facts – the murder of a man has a celebrity element. Yippee! Now the story might make the red-top news cycle for longer than a day.

And what about that job as a sound engineer? The Mail says:

Unemployed Donovan is believed to have joined the Navy about a year ago.”

Such are the facts of the man who allegedly killed by rap.

Donovan will appear at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday April 13.

9658025

Image 10 of 12

File photo dated 21/10/2008 of the the Duchess of Cornwall on a visit at the BAE Systems Shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness to the submarine HMS Astute. which has run aground off the Isle of Skye.



Posted: 11th, April 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink