I'm a bit surprised this is still being discussed but I guess there remains so much mystery. This post won't help resolve any of it.
I climbed with Rich quite a bit. Indoors at the school, at his home board, my home board, etc etc. I've also been lucky to climb with a number of other strong climbers, although never with anyone from the new breed of superwad. I can honestly say that Rich was a level above anything I'd ever seen on a board. I can't remember exactly which problems he did or didn't do on which board, but I do remember his level. I do remember being on perky pinky with him and I can remember him not being able to do it in a oner but he could piss the moves. I hear this is pissed all over these days by the young superwads but it's still an ok benchmark relative to everyone else who was climbing in Sheffield at the time.
I also climbed with Rich outdoors. In fact, I was with him for most that fateful trip in Frankenjura where we wrote off a car, he littered his jizz tissues all over my bed, and he probably didn't do Action Direct. I belayed him on lots of different routes. I did see him warm up on 8b routes (as in, actually doing them). I belayed him on some 9a's which he later claimed although I didn't see him do them. One of those was action direct. I belayed Rich for several sessions on Action Direct. I remember how bad conditions were some days with holds turning black instantly. I remember some days he was really struggling on the route and couldn't do the moves. Other days he would link sections consistently. I also saw him climb from just after the first jump to the top. That's when I realised Rich could definitely do it and it was a case of conditions and a good go. But then I left to go the UK for a week of exams and when I came back he'd ticked off a bunch of stuff... including Action Direct.
From experience, I know the gap between climbing from one move in to the full ascent can be massive, sometimes it's infinite. Most people have experienced that to some extent. I don't know the truth of the Rich situation, or his ascents, but he was a very strong climber, both indoors and on rock. I also think he was probably a bit troubled due to a bunch of personal/family reasons and I don't think they should be discussed publicly (and I don't know about them either but speak as an observer).
It's a shame that anyone should feel the need to lie but ultimately lying about climbing a piece of rock is pretty low impact. It's nothing compared to Lance Armstrong and even that is basically nothing compared to someone like Trump/Bolsonaro/Jong-Un etc where the lies are genuinely costing lives.