TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Saturday, Jun 03, 2023

MGN journalists knew work was illegal, investigator tells court

MGN journalists knew work was illegal, investigator tells court

A private investigator who worked for the Daily Mirror's publisher says journalists he dealt with knew "full well" he was a practitioner of "the dark arts" of unlawful gathering of information.

Steve Whittamore dismissed the newspapers' claims that only a small amount of what he did was illegal.

The Mirror Group Newspapers' denies senior executives knew about the practices and failed to stop them.

Another key witness also described the MGN as an "organised crime group".

Mr Whittamore was giving evidence to the civil trial into breaches of privacy of the Duke of Sussex and other figures.

It is alleged journalists from the newspapers obtained private and confidential information about people's lives through a variety of unlawful means between 1991 and 2011 - including accessing voicemail messages on their phones.

Mr Whittamore said he was in no doubt his newspaper customers were aware the information was obtained through 'blagging'.

If the information had been available legitimately, he said, the newspapers would not have needed his help.

At one point, he claimed he used an email address blag2049@hotmail.com to send invoices to his journalist customers, according to his witness statement.

MGN told the court this address had only been used once.

The company has admitted unlawful methods were used to gather stories, but denies that executives and editors knew.

Mr Whittamore was convicted of breaching information laws in 2005 after an investigation during which all his records and payment invoices were seized.

Cross-examining him, Andrew Green KC, for the publisher, suggested that some of these records suggested he had also provided legitimate research for journalists.

"Would you accept the majority of the work you did for MGN was lawful?"

"No," Mr Whittamore responded.

"Perhaps you weren't quite as bad as you now wish the court to believe," Mr Green said, referring to Mr Whittamore's invoices.

"Well it wasn't me doing the checks," Mr Whittamore responded. His business involved dealing with a network of 'subcontractors' who were experts in blagging confidential information.

He was asked about one invoice for a "mobile TP conversion" under the name of Tom Newton-Dunn, then a young journalist for the Daily Mirror, but later political editor of the Sun, and now a presenter on Times Radio.

He told the court this meant getting a name and address for a mobile number, information which usually can't be obtained legitimately by journalists.

Steve Whittamore's statement claims he offered to obtain criminal records, benefits records, or bank details.

His services included providing telephone bills, ex-directory numbers and vehicle registration details.


'Systematic crime'


A key witness in the civil trial also described the publisher of the Daily Mirror as an "organised crime group" similar to "drug gangs and fraud factories".

Graham Johnson, a journalist convicted of phone hacking, is now helping the claimants bring their case against MGN.

He said the company had been involved in "systematic crime" and a "cover-up which has gone on for over a decade".

MGN has admitted unlawful methods were used to gather stories, but denies that executives and editors knew.

Mr Johnson said as a journalist for tabloid newspapers he had investigated "drug gangs in Liverpool, fraud factories in south-east London, street gangs in Birmingham."

He said MGN was "no different from an organised crime group. This is a true crime story which is constantly evolving."

He was being questioned by Mr Green about his role in obtaining evidence of unlawful information gathering and passing it to the claimants.

Mr Johnson said at first he tried to get media organisations including the BBC, ITV and newspapers to report on the methods used by tabloid journalists but they "didn't want to write the story."

So, he said "if the claimants asked me for information I also started giving them information. I had no other way of getting that information out there, because no-one would take the story."

He said in effect he was "letting the court be my newspaper."


'Right the wrongs'


An American private investigator Daniel 'Danno' Hanks also gave a statement that he was "sure that the UK newspapers and their journalists knew what I was doing, not least because they could see the product of what they commissioned".

Mr Hanks told the court he had been convicted of at least 20 criminal offences but had decided to provide evidence of how newspapers used his services to "right the wrongs before I pass."

He specialised in using US databases to get celebrity information including social security information, voting registration records, phone records and details about vehicles.

Giving an example, he said in his witness statement that he had obtained phone records for a boyfriend of the singer Kylie Minogue.

He told the High Court he had a higher level of access to databases as a private investigator, but used this to provide information for journalists, which was illegal.

"I am able to get round the restrictions by simply accessing the database under the false pretence of legitimate PI work," he said in his witness statement.

After the phone hacking scandal broke in the UK, he said in his statement: "Many of the tabloid newspapers appeared to be panicking about using anyone who was a private investigator."

But, he said: "They only wanted to distance themselves on paper."

He was "encouraged" to send invoices using the company name "British American News Service", rather than his actual names "Detective Danno" and "Backstreet Investigations".

"I was never asked to change my product or methods which they knew to be illegal," he said.

Prince Harry is expected to give evidence at the trial in June. He is among four people whose claims are being heard in the trial as "representative" cases of the types of allegations facing the publisher. They will also help the court set the level of damages MGN should pay if the claimants win.

Others involved are Coronation Street actors Nikki Sanderson and Michael Turner, known by his stage name Michael Le Vell, and comedian Paul Whitehouse's ex-wife Fiona Wightman.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
Close
0:00
0:00
Nvidia Joins Tech Giants as First Chipmaker to Reach $1 Trillion Valuation
Drone Attack on Moscow's Wealthiest Neighborhoods Suspected to be Launched by Ukraine
Elon Musk Meets Chinese Finance Minister in Beijing
AI ‘extinction’ should be same priority as nuclear war – experts
Prominent Hacker Forum RaidForums Suffers Substantial Data Breach
Nvidia CEO Huang says firms, individuals without AI expertise will be left behind
WPP Revolutionizes Advertising with NVIDIA's AI Powerhouse
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
If you donated to BLM, you got played
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
Is Saudi Arabia the holiest place in the world? Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from "The Mount Sinai Stand" Discovered in Saudi Arabia
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Last Walmart in North Portland Closing Down
Florida's DeSantis seeks to disqualify judge in Disney case
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines calls the British monarchy "an absurdity" he wants to remove in his lifetime
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
US Congresswoman threaten Twitter Files journalist with arrest
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
AG decries scapegoating and rushed lawmaking by government
The land of the free violence
×