Patricia Clarke is a reporter and producer at Tortoise, working across investigative podcasts and data stories. She was a reporter on award-nominated investigations into domestic abuse homicides and abuse in the porn industry. She joined Tortoise after completing an MSc in Digital Journalism at Goldsmiths, and was previously Commissioning Editor at Culture Trip. Born in Spain to a British-Argentine family, and having lived in Madrid and Paris, she is now based in London. You can find her on Twitter.
Patricia Clarke
Reporter/Producer

“It’s the people behind the numbers who matter. As our world – and the power structures that uphold it – are increasingly measured through data, my job is to make sense of it all and tell stories that help people understand what is going on around them. Only then can we hold power to account and give a voice to our most marginalised communities. Tortoise gives me the space to do just that.”
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Monday 10 July 2023
Why a Spanish megastar had her dead son’s baby at 68
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Friday 26 August 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Spiking fears spread
What just happened
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Friday 18 March 2022
10 minute readSensemaker: Moscow mules
What just happened
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Monday 21 February 2022
Spiking: An injection of fear
Case file – Spiking: An injection of fear
We will never know for sure what happened last autumn. But by digging into the data, we can get a better sense of what didn’t
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Thursday 2 December 2021
10 minute readSensemaker Special: A new age of robotics
What just happened
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Thursday 14 October 2021
Under the cover of Covid, big businesses are rolling back their commitments to fair pay and the planet
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Friday 10 September 2021
The Arms Race
The waning efficacy of the Pfizer jab – and what it means
Various studies now suggest that the Covid immunity conferred by the Pfizer vaccine declines over time. Perhaps by as much as half over just four months
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Friday 20 August 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Israel and Covid
What just happened
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Tuesday 27 July 2021
CEOs facing backlash for pay hikes
A Tortoise analysis reveals that 38 companies in the FTSE 100 have awarded bigger pay packages to their CEOs during the pandemic – a time of general economic hardship and rising inequality
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Tuesday 27 July 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Pandemic pay hikes
What just happened
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Wednesday 9 June 2021
Europe falls behind in the AI race
A weak startup ecosystem is holding the EU back from unleashing its full potential in the AI space, while the US and China still reign supreme, according to the latest release of the Tortoise Global AI Index
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Friday 21 May 2021
#PornPlanet
Hunt for the porn king: the secretive owner of Pornhub revealed
As dozens of women accuse the world’s largest porn company of profiting from their abuse, we trace its owner to his London mansion
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Thursday 29 April 2021
Nine FTSE 100 companies stopped reporting on gender pay last year
During the pandemic, the government changed the law so that companies no longer had to publicly disclose the difference between what they pay men and women. The latest update of Tortoise’s Responsibility100 Index reveals how 2020 changed the FTSE 100
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Thursday 8 April 2021
What teenagers are telling us on Everyone’s Invited
Young people have shared 14,000 accounts of rape culture at over 600 different schools. Analysis of their testimonies reveals the challenges children face, and what they want done about it
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Wednesday 24 March 2021
Starmer’s case history
Obstacle course
Before he can win power, Keir Starmer has a series of challenges ahead of him: dealing with the Left, rebuilding the Red Wall and finding a way to defeat Boris Johnson
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Tuesday 16 February 2021
WallStreetWins
The most important site on the internet?
WallStreetBets is just one fiefdom of the website that has shaped the humour of the modern internet more than any other
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Wednesday 3 February 2021
Corinna & the king
Secret stash
How much money does Juan Carlos have? We’ve tried our best to find out
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Monday 25 January 2021
Hidden Homicides
The uncounted
How many women die at the hands of their partners? We simply don’t know – and that needs to change
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Thursday 21 January 2021
The Trump hangover
Could it happen again?
We investigate not just whether Trump might run again – but how. This is what his 2024 campaign might look like
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Thursday 14 January 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Trump vs. the rebels
What just happened
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Thursday 14 January 2021
The Vaccine
A user’s guide
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Friday 8 January 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: DC: the post-mortem
What just happened
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Wednesday 6 January 2021
10 minute readSensemaker: Democracy update
What just happened
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Tuesday 1 December 2020
The healthcare industry: did it move quick enough?
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Wednesday 25 November 2020
Scottish Independence
Uncharted territory
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Tuesday 24 November 2020
What went wrong with education?
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Monday 9 November 2020
10 minute readSensemaker: Biden’s time
What just happened
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Monday 25 September 2023
Blue light: one woman’s story of policing on the frontline
For years, Claire McEnery was one of the most senior women in the Lancashire police force. With that seniority came exposure to the best – and worst – of life, but also to the best and worst of the police
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Wednesday 13 September 2023
Chinese spying allegations in Westminster
It’s been revealed that two people – including a parliamentary researcher – have been arrested on suspicion of spying for China. Why is the news causing so much trouble for the government?
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Friday 4 August 2023
Why is the latest Trump indictment so significant and who cares about wild camping?
Giles Whittell and the team discuss the latest charges against Donald Trump, assisted dying and wild camping returning to Dartmoor.
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Monday 31 July 2023
Twitter becomes X: why?
Elon Musk has renamed Twitter as X. Could this be more than just a rebrand?
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Wednesday 26 July 2023
Actors strike over AI and pay
Hollywood’s biggest strike in 60 years is being driven by concerns about pay and the use of artificial intelligence. A resolution seems a long way off.
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Wednesday 19 July 2023
Aspartame and cancer: what the evidence says
The World Health Organisation has labelled a low-calorie sweetener that’s in soft drinks, chewing gum and ice cream as “possibly carcinogenic”. A carcinogen is something capable of causing cancer. But what does the ruling mean in reality?
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Monday 17 July 2023
European heat storm, inheritance tax, and Hollywood strikes
The team discusses the record-breaking heatwave in southern Europe, potential plans to scrap inheritance tax, and why Hollywood’s actors and writers are going on strike. James also reflects on The Sun’s coverage of the Huw Edwards allegations.
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Friday 14 July 2023
Sarah Silverman sues OpenAI and Meta
The Hollywood star is among a group of authors suing the tech companies for $1 billion each, alleging copyright infringement. The cases could set important legal precedents.
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Monday 10 July 2023
Modern family: I had my dead son’s baby at 68
Spanish celebrity Ana Obregón shocked the world when she announced that she had a child via surrogate, using a donor egg and the sperm of her deceased son. Her story takes us to the new frontiers of fertility, where technology challenges our ideas of family, motherhood and the law.
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Monday 12 June 2023
What’s happening with the Covid inquiry?
After repeated calls to set up an inquiry into its response to Covid the government eventually appointed a judge called Baroness Heather Hallett to lead one. Why is it now taking its own inquiry to court?
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Wednesday 24 May 2023
The gangs matrix
Awate Suleiman challenged how London’s Metropolitan Police gathers information about potential gang members. His campaign with Liberty and Unjust has been nominated for a Sheila McKechnie Foundation National Campaigner Award.
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Thursday 18 May 2023
Sam Altman testifies
The man behind ChatGPT has warned the US Senate that there is an “urgent” need for AI regulation. What might that look like?
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Monday 15 May 2023
Children locked away: Britain’s modern bedlam
A new Tortoise investigation into how the country’s most distressed and vulnerable children are being abandoned by the state.
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Monday 17 April 2023
Airports lift the liquids ban
London City Airport is the latest to scrap the 100 millilitre liquid rule for hand luggage. When will others follow suit?
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Monday 3 April 2023
No questions asked: A convenient death in Rwanda
John Williams Ntwali, one of the last critical journalists in Rwanda, died in suspicious circumstances just before Suella Braverman, the British home secretary, flew in to Kigali to sell the country as a “safe” place to send asylum seekers and migrants
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Tuesday 21 March 2023
Troubled banks
Credit Suisse is the latest bank to be rescued after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sent shockwaves through the global financial markets. Can confidence in the system be restored?
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Friday 17 March 2023
Cladding crackdown, the collapse of SVB and Xi Jinping
Former Sky News political editor Adam Boulton is this week’s guest host. He’s joined by Tortoise journalists Mark St Andrew, Patricia Clarke and Cat Neilan who pitch the story they think mattered most this week.
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Tuesday 14 March 2023
Governments ban TikTok
The UK may become the latest country to ban the use of TikTok on official government devices, joining the EU, US and Canada. What will this mean for the future of the app?
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Thursday 2 March 2023
Will energy bills rise?
The government’s energy price guarantee is due to be scaled back but with the cost of energy falling it is under pressure to maintain it for a little longer, so will bills rise at the end of March?
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Monday 27 February 2023
After the fall: A death on the Lansdowne Estate
When a vulnerable woman falls from a tower block, how do you find out what really happened?
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Tuesday 21 February 2023
North Korea’s unlikely leader
There has been speculation about whether Kim Jong-un’s young daughter is being lined up to succeed him. But it is more likely that Kim Ju Ae’s public appearances are designed to be a distraction from North Korea’s problems.
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Monday 20 February 2023
Wagner’s war: A year in Ukraine and beyond
First they were known as the “little green men”, an anonymous private Russian force appearing first in Crimea, then Syria, then in central Africa. Now, they are on the frontline of Putin’s war in Ukraine. Just how powerful is the Wagner Group and their increasingly vocal founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin?
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Tuesday 14 February 2023
A nuisance at the Tate Modern
The Supreme Court ruled that the Tate Modern’s viewing platform is a “nuisance” to residents of a nearby luxury high-rise. The case could change the way we think about our right to privacy.
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Wednesday 1 February 2023
Striking pay gap
Public sector workers want pay rises to counter the rising cost of living. The government faces a dilemma, because wages are rising in the private sector.
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Friday 27 January 2023
Nadhim Zahawi’s taxes
The Conservative Party chairman’s tax affairs have been under scrutiny after it was revealed he settled a multimillion-pound tax dispute with HMRC while he was chancellor.
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Friday 13 January 2023
Sport’s reckoning with risk
24-year-old quarterback Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during a game of Monday night football. Could his injury be a turning point for the NFL?
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Tuesday 3 January 2023
Damn and blast off: How not to go back to the moon
Nasa wants to put people back on the moon, half a century after Apollo 11. Its Artemis moon mission is over-budget, overhyped and underpowered – it might even be the end of Nasa as we know it
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Thursday 1 December 2022
The return of a Disney hero
Bob Iger has returned as CEO of Disney two years after stepping down. What does his comeback tell us about the challenges for Disney and other streaming services?
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Wednesday 9 November 2022
Albania’s asylum seekers
Home secretary Suella Braverman singled out Albanians when talking about migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. Why might more be coming to the UK?
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Tuesday 1 November 2022
Bird flu flies high
Orders to keep all captive birds and poultry indoors will be extended across the whole of England to try to contain a virulent strain of bird flu that is threatening to wipe out some wild species.
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Wednesday 26 October 2022
Policing the police
A new report has exposed how the Metropolitan Police deals with wrongdoing within its ranks. Who is the woman holding a mirror up to the Met and what has she found?
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Monday 17 October 2022
The robot artist
Ai-Da made history when she became the first robot to give evidence to the House of Lords. The hearing was an important examination of the role of artificial intelligence in the arts.
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Monday 3 October 2022
The death of Molly Russell
14 year old Molly Russell viewed images of self harm and suicide on social media in the months before she died. A coroner has now concluded that the content was “unsafe” and it contributed to her death.
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Thursday 15 September 2022
The killing of Chris Kaba
A firearms officer has been suspended after Chris Kaba was shot dead whilst driving a car that had been flagged by number plate recognition cameras. He was unarmed. His case will be the first challenge for the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
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Wednesday 31 August 2022
Vaccine wars
A truce between rival pharmaceutical companies is over. Moderna is suing Pfizer/BioNTech over claims it used patented technology to make its Covid vaccine.
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Thursday 25 August 2022
The sprinter twice stopped
A Black sprinter was twice stopped by the police while driving. What does his story reveal about institutional racism in the Met?
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Tuesday 9 August 2022
Profiting from energy prices
Oil and gas companies have made massive profits as household energy bills soar. Could they be doing more to help consumers?
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Wednesday 27 July 2022
Holiday homes under the hammer
Scotland’s Highland council has introduced a scheme to reduce the number of properties used as second homes and holiday lets. It’s not the first one to try. Will it work?
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Monday 18 July 2022
After America’s abortion ban
In a Sensemaker special, feminist and best-selling writer Caroline Criado Perez explains how limiting abortion rights harms women.
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Tuesday 28 June 2022
Ending life support: who decides?
A 12-year-old boy was declared legally dead by a judge, who ruled that he should be taken off life support. His mother, Hollie Dance, will fight that decision in the Court of Appeal.
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Thursday 23 June 2022
World swimming’s trans decision
Swimming’s world governing body, Fina, has decided to bar transgender women from elite female competitions. Could other sports now follow?
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Friday 10 June 2022
Britain’s airport chaos
Flights are being cancelled and people are queuing for hours at Britain’s airports. What’s causing the chaos and how long will it last?
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Monday 30 May 2022
Stripped. Searched. Traumatised. Children and the police
How many more Child Qs are there? How many children are strip-searched by the police and who are they? Patricia Clarke and Claudia Williams investigate
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Monday 7 March 2022
Russian warship, go f*** yourself
We thought the Russians were masters of the information war; that they’d sweep Ukraine aside. Why is it not turning out that way?
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Thursday 24 February 2022
Needle spiking: what really happened?
Last autumn, reports of women being spiked with needles in clubs or at parties began to circulate. But months on, no confirmed cases have been found. So what happened?
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Monday 21 February 2022
Spiking: An injection of fear
The “epidemic” of spiking with needles in clubs and at parties in autumn 2021 revealed something important about women’s lives in Britain. But it wasn’t what we thought
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Monday 6 December 2021
The super divorce: The Akhmedovs and a game of hide and seek
When a High Court Judge awarded Tatiana Akhmedova a record £450m divorce payout, it was only the beginning of a case that went on to become the most expensive family feud in history…
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Monday 6 September 2021
Orphaned by America
Thousands of children were separated from their parents at the US border under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. This is the story of how, five years later, 300 remain lost in a system designed to swallow them
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Monday 24 May 2021
Hunt for the porn king
As dozens of women accuse the world’s largest porn company of profiting from their abuse, listen to the full story of how we traced its secretive owner to his London mansion