Overview
This dossier contains confidential records for Simon Fielding.
Material is provisional, cross-referenced from recovered files, protected records, and field notes.
COT / MI5 Case File
Restricted
Eyes Only
Maritime Evidence Dossier
Simon Fielding
Subject: Simon Fielding
FORMAL SAFETY INTERVIEW RECORD
SUBJECT: Simon Fielding
CLASSIFICATION: OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE // SAFETY INVESTIGATION
REFERENCE: CONTROLLED COPY // COT/MARINE/2035/CTC065
Document control
CASE REFERENCE: COT/MARINE/2035/CTC065
SUBJECT: Simon Fielding
CENTRAL RECORD: COT954DC818FAD31
RANK / APPOINTMENT: BBC news anchor
ORGANISATION: BBC News
DATE OF BIRTH: 1990-02-09
PLACE / NATIONALITY: Unknown, Unknown, British
INTERVIEW STATUS: Witness / account holder
LOCATION: Secure interview suite — location withheld
DATE: 19 September 2035
LEAD AUTHORITY: Marine Accident Investigation Branch
RECORDING MEDIA: Two sealed digital masters and one independent evidential hash
DISTRIBUTION: Named recipients only. No automated onward distribution.
NOTE: Handling notice. This document contains operational, personal and evidential material. It may be read only by a person with both the required clearance and a recorded need to know. Extraction of images, transcript segments or metadata creates a new controlled copy.
Identity and visual evidence control
VISUAL ASSET STATUS: Passport image: attached; dossier image frames available: 1; surveillance frames available: 3; identity match: matched by subject/asset map.
Reason for interview or reconstruction
This record concerns the subject's knowledge of events, communications and decisions under active investigation. The scope of this record is confined to the matters set out above and to evidence formally introduced during the session.
Preliminary investigator note
The subject arrived before the scheduled time, requested confirmation that the recording route was isolated, and inspected the exhibit seals before answering substantive questions.
Recorded interview transcript
LEAD INSPECTOR: State your full name for the record.
SIMON FIELDING: Simon Fielding
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you understand the status of this interview and the limits placed on distribution?
SIMON FIELDING: Yes. Record that I have asked for the original media and audit trail to be preserved.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Have you been offered the representation, legal advice or staff support applicable to this procedure?
SIMON FIELDING: Yes. The offer should not be mistaken for my acceptance of your account.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-01 Retained extract: The anchor, Simon Fielding, adjusted his glasses and addressed the panel. “The government has yet to release an official cause for the disaster, but early reports indicate that navigational miscalculations could have played a role.” The screen cut to a side-by-side image of Harriet Caldwell and Wei… Associated persons: Harriet Caldwell, Wei Zhang, Professor Richard Henshaw
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SIMON FIELDING: You are asking for certainty that did not exist on the deck. I can give you the decision and the reason for it. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What did you understand at that moment, before later analysis supplied a larger explanation?
SIMON FIELDING: That is the order as I remember it. The machinery and the later summary are separate questions. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-02 Retained extract: Investigators retained a record concerning the retained record concerning Simon Fielding.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SIMON FIELDING: You are asking for certainty that did not exist on the deck. I can give you the decision and the reason for it. The missing interval matters more than the wording placed around it afterwards.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who else was physically present and capable of confirming your account without relying on the same electronic record?
SIMON FIELDING: I accept the event. I do not accept the conclusion you have attached to it. My answer is limited to what I personally saw, heard or ordered.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Are you saying the official record is wrong?
SIMON FIELDING: I am saying the record should remain evidence, not become an alibi for the system that produced it.
DOCUMENTARY EXHIBIT D-03 Retained extract: Investigators retained a record concerning the retained record concerning Simon Fielding.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you accept that this extract accurately records an event in which you were involved?
SIMON FIELDING: That is the order as I remember it. The machinery and the later summary are separate questions. the person who held the contemporaneous log can confirm the sequence, but not necessarily the interpretation.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Why was the matter not escalated through the ordinary reporting route?
SIMON FIELDING: You are asking for certainty that did not exist on the deck. I can give you the decision and the reason for it. The missing interval matters more than the wording placed around it afterwards.
[Exhibit S-01 introduced. Subject permitted to inspect the displayed copy without handling the source medium.]
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you identify the person shown as yourself?
SIMON FIELDING: I identify myself in the frame. I cannot authenticate the date from the crop alone.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Can you establish the location or date from anything visible in the frame?
SIMON FIELDING: The location is supportable from the surroundings. The purpose you are implying is not.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Were you aware that the image was being made?
SIMON FIELDING: I was not aware of the camera at the time shown.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who had advance knowledge of your presence at that location?
SIMON FIELDING: That depends on whether the source is an official system, a copied feed or a separate observer.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What does this image prove, and what does it not prove?
SIMON FIELDING: Preserve the frames before and after it. A single image is a fact about light, not a complete account of conduct.
[Exhibit S-02 introduced. Subject permitted to inspect the displayed copy without handling the source medium.]
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you identify the person shown as yourself?
SIMON FIELDING: I identify myself in the frame. I cannot authenticate the date from the crop alone.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Can you establish the location or date from anything visible in the frame?
SIMON FIELDING: The location is supportable from the surroundings. The purpose you are implying is not.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Were you aware that the image was being made?
SIMON FIELDING: I was not aware of the camera at the time shown.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who had advance knowledge of your presence at that location?
SIMON FIELDING: That depends on whether the source is an official system, a copied feed or a separate observer.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What does this image prove, and what does it not prove?
SIMON FIELDING: Preserve the frames before and after it. A single image is a fact about light, not a complete account of conduct.
[Exhibit S-03 introduced. Subject permitted to inspect the displayed copy without handling the source medium.]
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you identify the person shown as yourself?
SIMON FIELDING: I identify myself in the frame. I cannot authenticate the date from the crop alone.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Can you establish the location or date from anything visible in the frame?
SIMON FIELDING: The location is supportable from the surroundings. The purpose you are implying is not.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Were you aware that the image was being made?
SIMON FIELDING: I was not aware of the camera at the time shown.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Who had advance knowledge of your presence at that location?
SIMON FIELDING: That depends on whether the source is an official system, a copied feed or a separate observer.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What does this image prove, and what does it not prove?
SIMON FIELDING: Preserve the frames before and after it. A single image is a fact about light, not a complete account of conduct.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Is there any material fact you have withheld because you consider this recording or its distribution unsafe?
SIMON FIELDING: I have withheld attribution, not the physical event.
LEAD INSPECTOR: What is the single next action this investigation should take?
SIMON FIELDING: Find the first system that accepted an answer without asking who had authority to give it.
LEAD INSPECTOR: Do you wish to add or correct anything before the recording is suspended?
SIMON FIELDING: Yes. Do not improve the certainty of my answers in the written summary.
[Recording suspended. Source media sealed. Any resumed session requires a new opening declaration and exhibit schedule.]
Supplemental visual evidence exhibits
Confidential investigator assessment
The subject's account conflicts with at least one administrative record but not necessarily with the underlying physical evidence. The conflict is an investigative lead, not a concluded finding.
Actions and inconsistencies outstanding
- Obtain or compare the independent account of Harriet Caldwell; do not disclose this transcript before their unaided account is fixed.
- Obtain or compare the independent account of Wei Zhang; do not disclose this transcript before their unaided account is fixed.
- Obtain or compare the independent account of Professor Richard Henshaw; do not disclose this transcript before their unaided account is fixed.
- Recover acquisition authority, original-resolution files and adjacent frames for every surveillance exhibit.
NOTE: Finding limit. Nothing in this record establishes guilt, operational direction or final causation unless expressly stated as a supported finding. A valid credential, image or system entry proves only what that item can independently support.
LEAD INSPECTOR — sealed electronic signature held separately
Evidence custodian — receipt and hash recorded
END OF CONTROLLED RECORD — CTC-065