15 Dec 11 | Leveson Inquiry
A former News of the World reporter whose byline appeared on a story about Kate McCann’s diary on her missing daughter has said he believed the paper had permission from the McCanns to publish the story.
“My understanding was if they didn’t give the green light the story wouldn’t be published,” Daniel Sanderson told the Leveson Inquiry today. “Seeking their permission was not in my sphere of responsibility,” he said, adding that he believed the then news editor, Ian Edmonson, had been in touch with the McCanns’ press secretary “on a daily basis.”
Testifying at the Inquiry last month, Kate McCann, mother of missing toddler Madeleine, said the News of the World’s publication of her diaries was done without her knowledge, leaving her feeling “totally violated”.
Sanderson said it was “wrong” to for the paper to publish the diaries without the McCanns’ consent, adding that he had “every intention” of apologising to the family.
He described how the diary had been “publically circulated” around Portugal, and said he had contacted a Portuguese journalist who he was told was in possession of it before liaising with Edmonson. He said he was unaware at the time that the ultimate source of the diary was the Portuguese police, who had obtained it when the McCanns’ holiday home in Praia da Luz was investigated following Madeleine’s disappearance in May 2007.
Lord Justice Leveson pressed Sanderson about the provenance of the diary, with Sanderson repeating that his understanding was publication would not go ahead without the express permission of the McCanns. He conceded that the diary was “clearly a private document” and that the “whole thing caused me concern”, adding that his writing had been taken out of the final copy, leaving the diary printed in its entirety.
He went on to describe the “high-pressure” environment of the tabloid, saying that “you have to give a certain part of your life over” to the paper in order to work there. He denied, however, that there was a culture of bullying at the redtop.
Also testifying today was private investigator Derek Webb, who was hired by the tabloid this year to monitor lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris, who both acted for phone hacking victims. A former police detective, Webb revealed he had surveyed around 150 different people at the instruction of the News of the World between 2003 and 2011, including Labour MP Tom Watson and, on one occasion, Jude Law and Sienna Miller.
He told the Inquiry how he had met with former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck around 1999 or 2000, with Thurlbeck telling him there may be surveillance work for him at the paper after his retirement. When he retired in 2003, Webb said he soon began working “full-time” for the paper, being asked by the newsdesk to follow an individual or go to a particular address.
Contrary to former editor Colin Myler’s testimony that the use of PIs was cracked down upon once he joined the paper in 2007 in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, Webb said he was carrying out the “same type of work” as he had during Andy Coulson’s reign.
He revealed it was Thurlbeck who had told him in 2009 that there had been a “hiccup” with the use of PIs after the jailing of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, and urged Webb to terminate his private investigator’s licence and join the National Union of Journalists. He was also asked to change his email address from Silent Shadow — referring to the name he had been trading under — to Derek Webb Media. It was revealed yesterday that Webb was still referred to as “silent shadow” in a July 2009 email sent by then managing editor Stuart Kuttner, although the company Silent Shadow had gone out of business at the time of Webb’s 2007 arrest.
Webb said he would not have described himself as a journalist — despite the paper’s legal chief Tom Crone being under the impression he was — noting that his main work was “surveillance”. He estimated watching MPs and celebrities made up 85 per cent of his job, with the remaining 15 per cent being drugs offences and crime.
The Inquiry continues on Monday.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
15 Dec 11 | Leveson Inquiry
The former editor of the News of the World revealed he was afraid there “could have been bombs under newsroom floor” when he joined the tabloid after the 2006 phone hacking scandal.
Colin Myler told the Leveson Inquiry today he “didn’t know where they [the bombs] were or when they were going to go off”.
He revealed he “always had some discomfort” upon becoming editor in 2007, shortly after the paper’s Royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire had been jailed for hacking phones of members of the Royal family.
“There was no appetite to go back to that place,” Myler said.
He echoed Tom Crone’s testimony that News International’s settlement with PFA boss Gordon Taylor over a phone hacking claim did not suggest a “culture of cover-up” at the company. Myler argued it was “not wrong or unreasonable” for a company to protect its reputation, noting that NI was “dealing with a very difficult negotiation” and that Taylor “wanted £1 million or to go to trial”.
“I remember being told he wanted to humiliate the paper,” Myler said.
He added that “nobody was very keen” on a trial following the Goodman-Mulcaire convictions.
Referring to the 10 June 2008 meeting with Crone and News Corp CEO James Murdoch to settle the Taylor claim, Myler said he “didn’t recall” whether Crone had shown Murdoch the front page of the “damning email” that implicated other reporters in phone hacking. But he added he had “no reason to disbelieve” Crone’s testimony.
Myler conceded that the email, also known as the ‘for Neville’ email (referring to former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck) was evidence that the paper’s previous defence of hacking being limited to “one rogue reporter” was not sustainable.
Meanwhile he said he did not recollect the 3 June 2008 opinion of the company’s leading counsel that there was a “culture of illegal infrmation access” at the tabloid. “That would hit you absolutely between the eyes,” Lord Justice Leveson responded.
Myler reiterated his main recollection was the ‘for Neville’ email, which he said was “fatal” to the company’s case.
Taylor was eventually paid over £700,000 by News International in 2008.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
14 Dec 11 | Leveson Inquiry
The former legal manager at the News of the World has denied a “culture of cover-up” at the paper in settling a phone hacking claim in 2008.
Tom Crone told the Leveson Inquiry today that News International’s payout to Professional Footballers Association boss Gordon Taylor over a phone hacking claim was made to avoid “reputational damage” from bad publicity. Taylor was eventually paid over £700,000 by NI in 2008, in payment authorised by News Corp boss James Murdoch.
Crone also reiterated his assertion that Murdoch was made aware of “direct and hard evidence” that phone hacking went beyond “one rogue reporter”, saying he had shown Murdoch a copy of the “damning email” that implicated other News of the World reporters in the practice at a 2008 meeting.
Yet, in a letter to MPs released yesterday, Murdoch said he had not read a key email sent to him in June of the same year by former editor Colin Myler that indicated the practice was not limited to one journalist.
When asked by Lord Justice Leveson if the hacking allegations raised concerns about how NI approached ethical compliance, Crone replied that, in alerting Murdoch, he had notified the highest levels of the company.
“I didn’t see corporate compliance as really within my role,” Crone said, adding that ultimate responsibility lay with Murdoch.
However, former director of legal affairs at News International, Jonathan Chapman, told the Inquiry he believed compliance was within Crone’s remit and “would have been picked up by lawyers on the editorial side”.
Reiterating his tesimony from yesterday, Crone also denied knowing that Derek Webb, who was hired by the News of the World in 2010 to survey two lawyers for phone hacking victims, was a private detective. While he admitted he knew Webb was a former policeman, he repeated he was under the impression he was an accredited freelance journalist, with the paper urging Webb to join the National Union of Journalists.
Crone argued surveillance was standard practice in journalism, arguing that “there’s not a newspaper in the country that doesn’t occasionally or regularly watch people.”
It was also revealed that in one email from former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, Webb was referred to as “silent shadow”, though Crone denied that this indicated Webb was an investigator.
This afternoon the Inquiry heard from former editor Colin Myler, who joined the tabloid in 2007 after the resignation of Andy Coulson in the wake of the 2006 phone hacking scandal. In a lengthy back-and-forth with counsel to the Inquiry, Robert Jay QC, Myler reiterated the steps he took to “change” the culture of the paper, which he described as “laddish”. Upon joining the paper he ordered all cash payments be recorded and have a “compelling justification”, and notified staff that the use of private investigators was only permitted in exceptional circumstances.
“Whatever acts that individuals took part in, the full force of the law should take care of them,” Myler said.
He added that he did not recognise the picture painted of the tabloid by Paul McMullan as one where blagging, phone hacking and “doing rather disagreeable things” was rife.
Yet Jay was keen to remind him of some of the paper’s questionable coverage under his editorship, namely the paper’s 2008 splash on Max Mosley, in which the ex-Formula 1 boss was accused of partaking in a Nazi-themed orgy. To Lord Justice Leveson’s amazement, Myler defended publishing the Mosley video on the paper’s website, arguing it was “custom” and not playing to “prurient interest”.
He conceded, however, that he should have reprimanded chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck over contentious emails sent at news editor Ian Edmonson’s request to two women involved in the orgy about a follow-up story. In agreement with Leveson, Myler said the messages were “totally inappropriate”.
He was also pressed about the paper’s 2008 publication of Kate McCann’s dairies on her missing daughter, Madeleine. Asked why he did not seek the McCanns’ consent before publishing, Myler said he was assured Edmonson had made the family’s spokesman aware of the story. Had she known, Myler said, he would not have published. “I felt very bad that she didn’t know,” he said.
The Inquiry continues tomorrow with further evidence from Myler, as well as private investigator Derek Webb and Daniel Sanderson, a former News of the World reporter whose name appeared on the story about McCann’s diaries.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
13 Dec 11 | Leveson Inquiry
The former legal manager at the now defunct News of the World has told the Leveson Inquiry he first advised the paper on phone hacking in 2004, two years before the first arrests were made in relation to the practice.
After being pressed by an impatient Lord Justice Leveson, Tom Crone, visibly concerned about breaching legal privilege, revealed that he had advised the paper on the practice two years before the then royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were arrested and later convicted for hacking into the phones of members of the Royal family.
With Leveson anxious not to prejudice the ongoing criminal investigation into the practice, Crone was not asked further questions about the issue, but did add later that he believed the paper’s defence that hacking did not go beyond “one rogue reporter” was “erroneous from the outset”. Meanwhile, in a letter to MPs released today, News Corp boss James Murdoch said he had not read a key email sent to him in June 2008 by former editor Colin Myler that indicated the practice was not limited to the “rogue reporter”. One email in the thread warned of a “further nightmare scenario” arising out of a phone hacking case brought forward by Professional Footballers’ Association CEO Gordon Taylor.
Moving on from matters of phone hacking, Crone described the News of the World’s use of private investigators. He said the only ones he knew of that were commissioned by the paper were Mulcaire and Steve Whittamore, the PI involved in personal data breaches uncovered in Operation Motorman. He added that PIs were not used at the paper after the Goodman-Mulcaire convictions in 2007, and that Myler introduced measures to “eliminate illegal or unethical practices”.
Crone’s written evidence also stated that private investigators were commissioned “on a handful of occasions” to check matters that may arise in post-publication litigation.
Crone told the Inquiry he was “not a guardian of ethics” and that his job was merely to “advise on legal risk”.
He denied being consulted about plans for a follow-up story to the paper’s notorious 2008 splash on Max Mosley that accused the ex-Formula 1 boss of taking part in a Nazi-themed orgy. Crone also claimed he was not asked to advise on the posting of a video of Mosley apparently engaging in the orgy to the paper’s website. He said he felt the footage was “pushing it”, but did not advise for it to be removed.
Mosley sued the paper for breach of privacy in 2008 and was paid £60,000 in damages. Crone claimed he was not asked to advise the paper in relation to any appeal, and said he was unaware if chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck had been disciplined after Mr Justice Eady’s ruling on the case.
Crone received a thorough grilling on his involvement from a stunned Lord Justice Leveson and Robert Jay QC. “Here was a high court judge,” Jay said, “was it not of interest to you…didn’t you feel that it fell within your jurisdiction?” Crone responded it did not.
In his testimony he also defended the publication of the Mosley article, arguing it was a “justifiable story without the Nazi element”, but conceded that Thurlbeck’s emails to two women involved in the orgy about a follow-up story were “close to” blackmail.
Also speaking today was Julian Pike, a partner at Farrer & Co, which has advised News International for around 25 years. He revealed that he knew in April 2010 that surveillance ordered by the News of the World was being carried out on phone hacking victims’ solicitors Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris, but did not know of its nature or who was conducting it.
One hoped, Pike said, that the paper “would be able to carry out a very straightforward job of surveillance”. He denied knowledge of Derek Webb, the PI hired to survey Lewis and Harris, in 2010, and insisted that a surveillance operation would not always involve a private investigator, noting that a freelance journalist may also be commissioned to do the work.
Farrers was commissioned in May 2010 to look into the pair, over what Pike said was “perceived to be some very serious breaches of confidentiality over a significant period of time.” He added that it was a “perfectly legitimate exercise” but did not condone the subsequent surveillance of Lewis and Harris’s families.
Earlier in the day the Inquiry heard from Lawrence Abramson, formerly of solicitors Harbottle & Lewis, who were hired by NI to review around 2,500 internal emails following claims by Goodman that the then editor, Andy Coulson, knew about phone hacking at the paper and that others were involved.
Abramson revealed that around a dozen emails reviewed by the firm could have been “potentially embarrassing”, leading to “adverse publicity” and showing NI in “an unfavourable light”. He said the emails showed confidential sources, cash payments and an “active involvement” in Goodman’s prosecution, namely that NI “tried to influence how the defence was conducted”.
He added that he felt the emails “fell outside what I had been asked to consider because they did not suport Mr Goodman’s allegations.”
He also noted that, while working for NI, he had not seen emails from 2003 that may also have been significant. Abramson was asked if he has since seen them, and said his advice to the company would have been different had he known about the emails in 2007.
The Inquiry continues tomorrow with further evidence from Tom Crone, as well as the News of the World’s former editor, Colin Myler, and Jon Chapman, News International’s former legal affairs chief.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
