A former showbusiness editor at the Daily Mail used sources close to celebrities or referred to publicly available information when writing articles about Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, the High Court has heard.
Nicole Lampert was giving evidence in the trial of claims of unlawful information gathering brought by a group of famous names against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), which publishes the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.
The publisher strongly denies the claims and is defending the case.
The case is also brought by the Duke of Sussex, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, David Furnish, Sadie Frost and Sir Simon Hughes.
The court in London heard that Ms Lampert worked at the Daily Mail from 2003 to 2006, and approved invoices for private investigations firm Express Locate International (ELI) as she was in charge of the finances for the department.
She is bylined in two articles complained of by Hurley, one titled “Now I wish I’d stayed with Hugh admits a lonely Liz”.
In her witness statement, the journalist said she does not recall using ELI for the story.
She also said that she worked with a freelance reporter in the United States who would inform her of potential stories of interest from magazines published there.
Ms Lampert added: “I also had a confidential source, who was not a journalist, who gave me information on Ms Hurley at this time.
“They were able to provide reliable information on Ms Hurley because they moved in the same socialite circles and went to the same parties as Ms Hurley and her close circle of friends.”
Sir Elton and his husband Mr Furnish have complained about an article that Ms Lampert wrote in December 2005 about the costs around their wedding.
Ms Lampert said: “I think the fact that the couple were entering into a civil partnership, that it was taking place in Windsor and that the local council and police were making plans to manage expected crowds would have come from other reporting.”
She added: “It may be that the £10,000 figure was a ‘guesstimate’ of likely cost given the number of police officers involved.
“I can also see from the article that I spoke to Sir Elton John’s spokesperson to get his reaction on paying for the police costs.”
Ms Lampert also said she “would not have used anyone”, including the private investigators she is alleged to have paid, to help her with the story, “because of what was in the public domain – this was a well-known couple with a publicist who could be approached for a comment and it was known where the wedding was taking place”.
The court heard that Frost has complained about four articles published between 2003 and 2005 on which Ms Lampert is bylined.
In her witness statement, Ms Lampert said that the information in one of the articles was either already old news or “almost certainly came from a freelance contact” called Sharon Feinstein.
She added: “Sharon had a very strong source in Sadie Frost Law’s social circle or family and was able to get excellent information from that source, so I would usually speak to her about Sadie Frost articles.
“This was always the same source, and I knew who her source was, and knew that they were able to provide reliable information.”
One of the articles in the case relates to Frost’s divorce from Jude Law.
Ms Lampert also told the court that although she used ELI while working at the Daily Mail, she thought journalists could properly use the service at the time.
She continued: “I did sometimes ask them to find out information that I suppose, looking back, could have involved them blagging or them not properly identifying themselves when making inquiries – such as phoning up hotels in order to find out where someone was if it was a celebrity staying in the UK.
“However, I never asked them to find out financial or medical information, or hack phones, and wouldn’t have imagined that they would have done that, or even been able to do that.”
In written submissions, David Sherborne, who is representing the group bringing the claim, said the article relating to the Frost Law divorce “contains the fruits” of unlawful information gathering.
He said Ms Lampert was “another regular commissioner” of ELI and the services of Trace Direct International (TDI) and BDI UK Consultancy.
In relation to the articles complained of by Hurley, he added that Ms Lampert was a “habitual user of private investigators” who engaged in unlawful acts, and had a “propensity” for using ELI.
The trial before Mr Justice Nicklin is due to conclude in March, with a written judgment expected at a later date.
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