The front page of The Times on Saturday, November 29, 1969 not only featured a photograph of Apollo astronauts walking on the moon. Alongside it was an exclusive report on Scotland Yard detectives who were blackmailing criminals. It claimed that corruption was widespread. One of the two reporters who exposed this scandal was Garry Lloyd.
Lord Justice Edmund Davies spoke of the “great public service rendered by these two reporters” which laid bare a hideous cancer that, if unchecked, could have done even greater damage to law enforcement. The story earned the then editor, William Rees-Mogg, a press award for backing Lloyd and his colleague in a decision to use hidden tape recorders — a first for a newspaper hitherto not known for investigative reporting.