The photo and story we published last week on the ‘torch kiss’ of two retail bosses has been picked up by the Daily Mail.
The newspaper combines the story with one previously reported in This Is Staffordshire (but not credited): that of local torchbearer James Taylor, whose place was withdrawn two weeks earlier due to ‘failing Home Office checks’, despite Taylor having no criminal record and passed CRB checks previously.
The piece suggests that Taylor’s withdrawal may be connected to the fortuitous scheduling that allowed the two bosses to carry the torch on sequential legs of the relay.
This suggestion had also been made by a parent of James Taylor in the comments to a This Is Staffordshire piece on the sponsor’s choice of torchbearer. She added:
“Having had this done on him as angered me even more, his sporting and the family’s reputation has been marked along with his broken spirit, I do hope the people who decided to do this to my son feel shame.”
It was This Is Staffordshire’s David Elks who found the image of the two corporate torchbearers when we approached him to ask if the newspaper had any images of those carrying torches through Stafford.
Torchbearers do not normally have any control over where or when they carry the torch.