The current editor of the Daily Express was “involved in phone hacking” and other illegal activity in the 1990s and 2000s, the high court has been told.
The trial of Prince Harry’s phone-hacking claim heard on Thursday that Gary Jones was “a prolific user of private investigators” while working at the News of the World and Daily Mirror.
Although the court has heard allegations against many former editors, including Piers Morgan, this is the first time during this trial that a serving national newspaper editor has been accused of involvement in phone hacking.
Graham Johnson, a former Sunday Mirror reporter, told the court that hundreds of people at Mirror Group Newspapers were involved in a cover-up of illegal behaviour. “This is an investigation into an organised crime group, which is Mirror Group Newspapers. I investigated drug gangs in Liverpool, fraud factories in south-east London, and street gangs in Birmingham. The Mirror Group is no different from an organised crime group in that respect. This is a true crime story.”
He claimed that Jones, who has been editor of the Daily Express since it was bought by the Mirror’s parent company in 2018, handled hacked material relating to Sadie Frost while working as a reporter for the Daily Mirror. Johnson said Jones “was a prolific user of private investigators” and was also “involved in phone hacking” while working with Greg Miskiw, who commissioned hundreds of hacks at the News of the World.
Jones worked for Morgan at the News of the World in the mid-1990s, before following his boss to the Daily Mirror. Jones became a regular client of Southern Investigations, the private investigation firm heavily linked to police corruption and the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan, allegedly using them to obtain Prince Michael of Kent’s bank records.
Johnson told the court it was noteworthy that Jones has not been called as a defence witness by the Mirror: “None of these people will give evidence and I’d like to know why. I’d like Mirror Group to answer that question. I’d like to know why Piers Morgan isn’t here to give evidence.”
Asked for comment on the allegation that the Daily Express editor once engaged in illegal activity, a spokesperson for Mirror Group Newspapers said: “Where historical wrongdoing has taken place, we have made admissions, take full responsibility and apologise unreservedly, but we will vigorously defend against allegations of wrongdoing where our journalists acted lawfully.”
Prince Harry and more than 100 other claimants are suing Mirror Group Newspapers, alleging that the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and People engaged in widespread illegal behaviour and then covered up the evidence.
Andrew Green KC, the Mirror’s barrister, suggested that Johnson, who made the allegations against Jones, was not an “objective and independent witness” because he was working closely with the lawyers for Prince Harry and the other claimants.
Johnson is a self-confessed phone hacker who accepts that he regularly commissioned illegal acts and fabricated stories while working as a tabloid journalist during the 1990s and 2000s. He was sacked from the News of the World after claiming he had found evidence of the “Beast of Bodmin”, a mythical wild beast, on the loose in Devon. In reality he had photographed a tame puma in a wildlife park and carved scratch marks into a tree.
The journalist said he realised the error of his ways after reading a philosophy book by Alain de Botton and had since dedicated himself to exposing wrongdoing in the media.
Green told the court that Johnson had paid tens of thousands of pounds to people who made allegations of illegal behaviour at newspapers. The Mirror raised doubts about the source of this money, suggesting Johnson was not an independent journalist but a campaigner working in collaboration with the lawyers for the claimants.
Johnson responded: “I am not objective and independent, in as much as I think it is wrong for organised crime to take place at your newspaper and other newspapers. I am very happy to help the victims of the organised crime at Mirror Group.”
The court also heard evidence from the convicted private investigator Steve Whittamore, who said he illegally obtained records on behalf of Daily Mirror journalists and used the email address blag2049@hotmail.com. The court heard that his clients at the newspaper included Tom Newton Dunn, now a presenter on TalkTV, who was invoiced for identifying an individual based on a mobile phone number.
