CLAIMS that the Loch Ness Monster was a public relations stunt dreamed up in the 1930s are “greatly exaggerating” the role of the English writer reportedly behind the scheme.

In a new twist to the latest controversy to surround the existence or otherwise of the Loch Ness Monster, a Nessie expert has debunked the story of public relations people dreaming up the whole thing over a pint in a London pub in 1933.

Adrian Shine, leader of the Loch Ness and Morar Project, would not rule out the involvement of Digby George Gerahty, author, screenwriter and publicist, in spreading the story of Nessie, but added that it was “over-egging the pudding” to say that he invented the monster legend.

Professor Gareth Williams of Bristol University reports in his new book A Monstrous Commotion that Gerahty made the claims about Nessie in his semi-autobiographical novel Marise, written under the pseudonym Stephen Lister.

Williams told The National: “I could not find any reference to a monster in Loch Ness in the decades prior to 1933.

“It’s as if the whole Nessie story just landed on one day in 1933, when it was picked up by the London papers – just as Gerahty claimed.”

Not entirely true, said Adrian Shine: “I first heard of this Gerahty claim 30 years ago when it was first published in a book, The Enigma of Loch Ness by Dr Henry Bauer.

“Though he was a firm believer in the Loch Ness story, Dr Bauer did not rule out Gerahty’s involvement entirely.

“It must be remembered, however, that Gerahty made these claims in a novel – in other words, a piece of fiction.

“Sometimes it is possible that a writer will over-egg the pudding a little.”

Shine’s own version of events in the early 1930s also does not rule out Gerahty’s involvement in pushing the monster story in order to boost tourism in the Loch Ness area.

He said: “One of the first sightings in that year of 1933 was by Mrs MacKay of the Drumnadrochit Hotel.

“I met her before she died in the 1980s and she absolutely insisted that she had never spoken about the monster, that she had tried to keep it quiet, but her husband dropped her in it by telling the local water bailiff, who in turn told the Inverness Courier.

“Next up was the English couple, the Spicers, who claimed in July of 1933 that they saw a creature with a long neck and flippers on the road beside the Loch.

“Mr Spicer wrote to the Inverness Courier to tell them what they had seen, and he used the words prehistoric monster.”

From then on, said Shine, the London press took an interest “and I have to wonder if perhaps Gerahty got involved then.”

Shine concluded: “There were plenty of sightings of a ‘river horse’ or kelpie in Scottish lochs, including Loch Ness, before then and those could be the real origins of Nessie.”