More Lawsuits - Sun And Mail Silent

The inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker have today decided that, despite the share crisis, the pension funds crisis, the Sterling crisis, the cost of living crisis and whatever other crises emerge from our terminally inept Government, we should Look Over There at its campaign to have the May Day bank holiday moved because of King Charles’ upcoming coronation.

Phone hacking? Not at the Sun when I was editor ...

Likewise, the Murdoch faithful working on the Super Soaraway Currant Bun want us to look at yet another Maddie story, as if the public needs to know, and indeed whether the McCann family wants the constant reminders. But what neither title is going to tell you is that the litany of lawsuits against them has just taken on a new impetus. And they won’t like it one bit.

The Sun’s management won’t want to be reminded that they spent so many years telling the world that phone hacking had only happened at the late and not at all lamented Screws, which was closed down as a result (OK, Rupe and Co wanted to close it anyway, and turn the Sun into a seven days a week operation, but we’re supposed to ignore that). They didn’t do it, right?

Indeed, as James Doleman has pointed out, “It was a key part of Rebekah Brooks' defence in court that there was no evidence phone hacking took place at The Sun while she was editor … Indeed, it was an ‘agreed fact’ put to the jury”. So guess what is now alleged? You got it - that phone hacking did indeed take place at the Sun during Ms Brooks’ time as editor.

As Jim Waterson at the Guardian has told, “There are now eight additional ‘Sun-only claims’ working their way through the legal system. The group is led by the actor Hugh Grant, who has been joined by the 7/7 London bombings survivor John Tulloch, the jockey Kieren Fallon, and David Beckham’s father, Ted. The other individuals making Sun-only claims include Charlotte Church’s mother, Maria, George Best’s former agent Phil Hughes, Paul Gascoigne’s friend Jimmy ‘Five Bellies’ Gardner and Tricia Bernal, the mother of the murdered stalking victim Clare Bernal”. And there was more.

“The Sun-only claims come after more than 150 individuals launched new phone-hacking cases against Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN). They include … Gerry McCann … Peter Mandelson, Andy Burnham, Tom Watson, Vince Cable, Chris Huhne, Alistair Carmichael [and] Tim Farron … Tom Parker Bowles and Andrew Parker Bowles … Doreen Lawrence”.

Any more? “Tulisa … Christopher Jefferies … Shaun Wright-Phillips and Robbie Fowler … Jimmy Carr, Christopher Biggins … Sam Mendes … Tom Bradby, Clare Balding, Chris Moyles, Diane-Louise Jordan, Anne Diamond … Louise Redknapp, Gary Barlow and Nadine Coyle”. That’s a lot of claimants for something that never happened. But for the Mail, the news is worse.

... and not at the f***ing Mail either, c***

Remember that the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, now editor-in-chief of the Mail titles, told the Leveson Inquiry that his paper - he was then editor of the Daily Mail - had not indulged in phone hacking. And even the claims that someone working on behalf of the Mail had planted bugs and listened in to landline conversations did not necessarily mean hacking took place.

Jim Waterson again: “The Daily Mail’s parent company is facing its first legal claim for phone hacking, after the former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes filed a case against the newspaper publisher. Hughes is alleging that Associated Newspapers … misused his private information. He is expected to claim that the newspaper publisher employed a private investigator who improperly accessed his voicemail messages”. Ouch!

Dacre’s testimony to Leveson - “I cannot be any more unequivocal, that all my inquiries and all the evidence I’ve received, and having spoken to the editor of my group: our group did not hack phones” is repeated. Waterson’s colleague Jane Martinson tells why this is bad timing for Dacre.

“News of the legal action … and the subsequent revelation that [Simon Hughes] has filed a case accusing Associated Newspapers, the owner of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and MailOnline, of phone hacking have done little so far to dent expectations of Dacre’s imminent elevation to the House of Lords”. But there are misgivings about the Vagina Monologue’s peerage.

“Chris Bryant … who has accused Dacre of ‘poisoning the well of British politics’, has called for any potential peerage to be delayed during the legal action”. Ms Martinson concludes “for [Dacre] to go to a place of public service without clarity about claims that allege a great deal of public harm would be a travesty”. Lords Appointments Commission take note.

The Murdoch mafiosi said there was no hacking on Ms Brooks’ watch. Dacre said his paper didn’t do hacking. So there’ll be no payments to any of those claimants, will there? Meanwhile, there may be a garden bridge for sale.

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