Leveson Inquiry Mark Lewis: Phone Hacking Went Beyond News International, Says Lawyer
Mark Lewis, the lawyer for victims of phone hacking, has told the Leveson inquiry the practice went beyond the News of the World and News International.
Lewis told the probe into press ethics that he'd learned Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator hired by the News of the World, gave lessons on how to intercept voicemail messages to a journalist who worked for Associated Newspapers.
Speaking at the inquiry in London on Wednesday, Lewis said he obtained a CD that had a phone conversation between Glenn Mulcaire and the unnamed sports reporter who at the time worked for the Evening Standard.
From Lewis' written evidence it is implied the unnamed journalist went on to work for News International at The Times.
Lewis said that phone hacking was not just practised by the News of the World and admitted he almost "felt sorry" for the tabloid and its readers.
He said the NotW had been unfortunate as Mulcaire had made the mistake of writing things down in a notebook that connected him to the paper.
Lewis also told the inquiry that the editor of the Daily Mail warned him not to suggest his paper had engaged in phone hacking.
"I was told Paul Dacre wouldn't hesitate to sue me if I suggested the Daily Mail was involved in phone hacking," he said.
Lewis said the warning was prompted by an interview he gave in which he suggested phone hacking went beyond the News of the World.
He said he took it to be a "general warning" from the tabloid.
Lewis also recounted how Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell had unfairly attacked him for being a "greedy lawyer" when negoatiating a financial settlement from News International for the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Rupert Murdoch agreed to pay the couple £3m in compensation after it was found their phones had been hacked.
Lewis said Platell had implied the time taken to finalise the deal was that he was trying to get more money out of the Murdochs. But Lewis said this was untrue and the Mail Online was forced to remove the story from its website.
He added that journalists engaged in phone hacking thought the activity was no worse than "driving 35mph in a 30mph zone" and beleived they could do what they liked in the name of a free press, "almost as if they are above the law".
The lawyer, whose clients include the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked by Mulcaire, said he believed illegal voicemail interception was widespread because there was no other means for journalists to get certain information.
"It is evidence-based conclusions, certainly on a civil basis, of what I am being told by clients and taking instructions from them as to whether or not stories are written that could not have got to newspapers in any other way," he said.
Lewis also told the inquiry of the moment he realised the extent of phone hacking, when he linked the convictions of Glenn Mulcaire and the former royal editor of the News of the World.
"It was a light bulb moment, a eureka moment," he said.
The parents of kidnapped Madeleine McCann are also due to give evidence to the inquiry on Wednesday.
Kate and Gerry McCann are expected to describe their anger at newspaper stories suggesting they may have been involved in the little girl's disappearance from the family's holiday flat in Portugal in May 2007.
The inquiry, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, is also hearing evidence from Sheryl Gascoigne, the ex-wife of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne, and journalist Tom Rowland.
FOLLOW LEVESON LIVE HERE: Gerry McCann says the newspaper articles that suggested he and his wife played a part in the disappearance of their daughter have had a long reach.
"We have experienced long lasting damage as a result of the headlines," he says.
Kate McCann is recalling the moment she found out her diary had been published in the paper.
"I felt totally violated," she says."I'd written these thoughts and words at the most desperate time of my life."
She says it was her "only way of communicating with Madeline" and it showed "no respect" for her as a "grieving mother or a human being". Gerry McCann is recalling the time he and Kate agreed to give an interview to 'Hello' magazine.
They agreed to give the interview for free in order to promote a EU wide child abduction alert system.
He says that the then editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, then called them to "berate" them for giving an interview to a rival publication.
"Mr Myler was irate when he learned of the publication," McCann says."He was berating us for not doing an interview with the News of the World and told us how supportive the paper had been.
"He basically beat us into submission verbally…and we agreed to do an interview the day after"
Gerry McCann's written evidence is now on the Leveson Inquiry's website. Gerry says that because they were unable to reveal the facts of the investigation as they knew them for legal reasons, they were unable to challenge untruthful stories in the press that suggested they were involved in their daughter's disappearance.
"We were being tried by the media and were unable to defend ourselves," he says.
Kate and Gerry are recounting what it was like for them when they returned from Portugal to England.
They say they were "hemmed in" their house for days before the police moved the press away from their property.
Kate says that photographers would hide behind hedges and then jump out at her in her car in order to photograph her looking startled or scared.
"They would bang on the windows sometimes with the camera lenses," she says.
Gerry is recalls a headline in the Daily Mirror that read "She's Dead".
He said this was presented as fact, even there was no proof. He said he and Kate read this at 11pm and it was one of the "most distressing headlines" they had read. Gerry says that it is "crass and insensitive" to think that just because they engaged with the media with a view to find their daughter the press could then write "anything they want" without punishment. Gerry McCann says when his daughter disappeared he made the decision it would be in the best interests of his daughter to interact with the media who had descended on Portugal.
"We got a distinct impression there was a genuine want to help attitude from journalists there," he says. "There was a huge amount of empathy." Gerry McCann says he has four main points he wants to address.
Sat side by side, the McCanns say they have agreed to give evidence for the first time because they feel a system has to be put in place to prevent the "damage the media can cause". Gerry and Kate McCann are now giving evidence to the inquiry. Former Daily Telegraph journalist Tom Rowland is now giving evidence to the inquiry. He had his phone hacked by the News of the World.
Simon Greenberg is perhaps best known for speaking on behalf of News International when the phone hacking scandal broke.
His rather ineffectual performances attracted some rather unwanted attention, as noted by the Daily Telegraph at the time. The lawyer for News International has challenged Mark Lewis' written evidence.
He said that the suggestion Simon Greenberg of News International worked at the Evening Standard when an unnamed journalist was "coached" on how to hack phones is untrue.
Greenberg is said to have left the ES before the conversation occurred.
The lawyer also said that Greenberg subsequently had no involvement in hiring the unnamed sports journalist for the Times as he did not work for News International at the time. Gascoigne says the fact that she had such a high profile public life meant she was "asking for it" when it came to press intrusion.
She tells Leveson that she is not asking to be left alone by the media, rather she wants the press to have to ensure they print stories that are true.
Her main complaint about the media in the UK appears to be that too often then print inaccurate stories. Leveson hears that Gascoigne was friends with former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks.
She says she "wouldn't have a bad word to say about her personally". Gascoigne says it's "common knowledge" for people in the public eye that the Press Complaints Commission will do "absolutely nothing" about stories they are felt to be unfair. Gascoigne says journalists who followed her "hoped I would give birth on the pavement".
She is speaking about the effect of the media pursuit had on her family. She says it was especially tough on her children, who often could not go out and play. As the BBC's Ross Hawkins reports, Lewis' statement appears to have been removed from the Leveson website.
Lawyers for News International had challenged it.
Gascoigne says she has had to put up with news articles about her relationship with Paul that were "untrue".
But she says that she was advised not to challenge them as "you don't win" cases against the papers. Sheryl Gascoigne, the ex-wife of former England footballer Paul Gascoigne, is now giving evidence to the inquiry. Lewis' full written statement has now been published online. You can read it here.
Lewis tells the inquiry that "a certain section of the press" acts as if it's above the law and treated phone hacking in the same league as driving 35mph in a 30mph zone.
As the FT's media correspondent notes below. Lewis says the infamous 'For Neville' email was known at the time 'we've got them' email.
The email revealed the extend to which senior News of the World staff were involved in hacking - something they had denied.
@ rosschawkins :
Gerry McCann at #leveson : anomaly commercial organisation can make profit from your image without consent
@ rosschawkins :
Link to Mark Lewis' witness statement appears to have been removed from the #leveson inquiry website
@ skymarkwhite :
Lewis said journalists often talk about freedom of the press, but what they really mean is freedom to do what they like #leveson
@ rosschawkins :
Mark Lewis at #leveson : Was told Mail Ed Paul Dacre would sue him if he suggested Associated were involved
@ SkyFixer69 :
#Leveson Lewis claims #phonehacking was so easy to do that journos thought it was no worse than doing 35mph in a 30 zone.
@ benfenton :
Lewis tells #leveson that the smoking gun email from Met was not known as "for Neville" then, but the "we've got them" email.
Loading comments… 
First Posted: 23/11/11 12:18 Updated: 23/11/11 12:39