Former “Selous Scout” trying to get The Insider website shut down

A self-proclaimed former Rhodesian Selous Scout David Israel Ben Jesse is trying to get The Insider website shut down allegedly for copyright infringement.

Jesse, who was previously known as Allan Norton, has written to hosting company for The Insider website complaining that the editor of publisher of The Insider, who he says is a Mugabe journalist, is being used by current Education Minister David Coltart to publish false and fictitious information about him and his wife and their two children.

Coltart was a founding member of the Movement for Democratic Change but is now with the smaller faction led by Welshman Ncube.

The Insider first wrote about Jesse in August 2001 after one of his then girlfriends complained about being abused. She was being represented by David Coltart.

The Insider subsequently got loads of documents about Jesse’s history of abusing women and wrote about the cases. It also talked to South African lawyers who had employed him.

Jesse fled Zimbabwe after the Law Society of Zimbabwe filed a case against him for practising as a lawyer in Bulawayo when he was not. He has been living in South Africa since.

The Insider hosting company has given it 48 hours to withdraw the stories but has not asked The Insider to give its side of the story.

“Please be advised that we have received notice (copy attached) of alleged infringement on your website.  Please remove or disable access to the alleged infringing material within 48 hours, and provide written notice to us to that effect when completed.  Failure to eliminate or disable access to such alleged infringing material within such time period could result in suspension or termination of your website,” the hosting company said in an email dispatched on Friday, 6 August.

The Insider has written to the hosting company and is awaiting its response.

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