He’s Now a Councillor. I Told You So.
An update to: Founder Dan Brown (aka Daniel Murray / David Barker) | Originally published 06.04.2025
http://thegroomingfiles.com/2025/04/06/expose-behind-the-mask-the-dark-truth-about-the-masked-truth/
© Sophie Lewis | The Grooming Files
On 6th April 2025, I published an investigation into a man operating under multiple aliases within vulnerable advocacy spaces online.
I named him. I documented the pattern. I referenced the conviction already on public record. I published the aliases. I put it on record.
His name is David Barker. Also known as Daniel Murray. Also known as Dan Brown.
And as of this week, he is a newly elected Reform UK councillor for Deptford and Hendon in Sunderland.
Let that land.
What I already knew
Over a year ago, this platform documented serious concerns about Barker’s conduct within The Masked Truth, a Facebook group he founded which claimed to help vulnerable people navigate social services and family court.
What I found instead was a pattern. Vulnerable women, many of them survivors of domestic abuse, mothers in family court battles, women with trauma histories and neurodivergent diagnoses, were being drawn in. Emotional entanglements followed. Documents were allegedly withheld. People who raised concerns were removed or silenced.
I also referenced the publicly available 2019 court record, reported by the Sunderland Echo, in which a man named David Barker from the same area received a suspended sentence for assault and actual bodily harm against his girlfriend. The attack left her, in the prosecutor’s own words, black and blue.
I was careful. I was evidenced. I published in the public interest.
And I was ignored.
What happened next
David Barker stood for election under Reform UK.
He won.
The Canary reported today that Reform Party Exposed had uncovered the same aliases, the same conviction, and the same pattern of allegations surrounding child abuse, neglect, and harassment that this platform documented in April 2025. Screenshots from a Facebook group called Predator Awareness allege that Barker and a former partner abused and neglected a child in their care. Female social and court workers have reportedly described sustained harassment from Barker over a long period.
All of this was findable. All of this was on record. The Sunderland Echo conviction alone appears in a basic Google search.
Reform UK either did not look, or they looked and did not care.
One of those is incompetence.
The other is something far darker.
This is not a vetting failure. This is a values failure.
Reform UK would have you believe this is an administrative oversight. A slip through the net. An unfortunate anomaly.
It isn’t.
When a political party repeatedly fields candidates linked to documented allegations of violence against women, racism, harassment, or abuse, it stops looking like coincidence. Patterns matter. And patterns reveal what an organisation is willing to tolerate long before any press statement does.
A man who beat his girlfriend black and blue. Who has faced allegations relating to child abuse and neglect. Who allegedly used an advocacy platform to access and manipulate vulnerable women. Who operated under multiple aliases.
That man now has a council seat and a mandate.
And the women allegedly harmed in the process do not.
To anyone still in The Masked Truth
Leave.
Not because I am telling you to. But because your instincts already know something is wrong. Trust them.
If you have been affected by David Barker under any of his aliases, this platform will listen. Accounts will be handled with care, confidentiality, and the seriousness they deserve.
Contact: sophie.editorial@outlook.com
To Reform UK
You knew, or you should have known.
Either answer is disqualifying.
This article is an update to original reporting published by Sophie Lewis at The Grooming Files on 06.04.2025. All original documentation, screenshots, and source material remain on record. This update references publicly available reporting from the Sunderland Echo and The Canary published 09.05.2026. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Corrections will be issued if new evidence arises.
© Sophie Lewis | The Grooming Files
