Journalist desires to assist ‘victims of the organised crime’ at MGN, courtroom hears
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cellphone hacking “whistleblower” desires to assist “victims of the organised crime” on the writer of the Mirror newspaper, the High Court has heard.
Journalist Graham Johnson, who beforehand pleaded responsible to cellphone hacking, alleged that Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) senior executives and legal professionals “had been aware of the widespread organised crime and involved in its subsequent cover-up”.
Giving proof at a trial in London on Wednesday, the investigative reporter denied being a “professional liar” amid questioning over his credibility.
MGN – which additionally publishes the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – is contesting claims introduced by the Duke of Sussex and different people over allegations its journalists have been concerned in voicemail interception, securing info by way of deception and hiring non-public investigators for illegal actions.
The writer says board members have denied information of such actions and claims there’s “no evidence, or no sufficient evidence, of voicemail interception” in any of the 4 claims chosen as “representative” instances.
Mr Johnson, who was a senior reporter after which investigations editor from 1997 to 2005 on the Sunday Mirror, rejected options that he had confessed to cellphone hacking as a “self-confessed professional liar bent on self-preservation”.
Under questioning from MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green KC, over his objectivity within the trial, Mr Johnson mentioned: “I think it is wrong for organised crime to take place at your newspaper and other newspapers and I write stories about it and I’m very happy to help victims of the organised crime at the Mirror group.”
In a written assertion, the journalist claimed he was instructed in 2001 by then deputy editor Mark Thomas, with the information of then editor Tina Weaver, to “intercept the voicemails” of Denise Welch “because of a tip that she was in a relationship with an alleged underworld figure”.
He mentioned he was “very uncomfortable doing it”, claiming that Mr Thomas “castigated me for not hacking frequently enough”.
Mr Johnson mentioned he was advised Mr Thomas organised for Ms Welch’s lodge room to be bugged by photographers, including: “I knew that bugging a hotel room was illegal and I walked off the job.”
He later got here ahead to the police, admitted that he “only ever hacked phones on a few days in 2001”, and in the end acquired a suspended jail sentence for cellphone hacking in December 2014.
Mr Johnson claimed to be “the only journalist who was involved in this activity to have ever come forward voluntarily and make admissions”.
Elsewhere in his assertion, Mr Johnson mentioned he was conscious of “a very large number of private investigators (PIs) used by media organisations who used unlawful means to obtain information, for example by blagging, phone hacking, phone tapping, email hacking or intrusive surveillance etc” and claimed MGN used PIs.
He claimed to have proof “relating to over 150 PIs including those active in the mid and late 1990s”.
At an AGM in 2015, he questioned David Grigson, then chairman of Trinity Mirror – as MGN was previously identified – over cellphone hacking as he felt senior executives “were not being held to account for their actions” over an alleged “cover-up”.
Mr Johnson’s assertion included a sequence of examples of alleged work finished by PIs, whereas he additionally claimed he was advised of a “well organised phone hacking conspiracy” on the Sunday Mirror which noticed the footballers Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand focused.
The journalist mentioned he was concerned in “pulling phone bills and commissioning blags on footballers and buying sensitive police intelligence reports on targets such as Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney”.
Under cross-examination from Mr Green, it was put to Mr Johnson that he “acted dishonestly” and engaged in “illegal activity” whereas working on the now defunct News of the World (NoW) newspaper between 1995 and 1997 – with the courtroom performed a BBC interview wherein he confessed he had “fabricated stories”.
Asked if he had learnt to be a “convincing faker”, Mr Johnson mentioned he used his “skills” whereas on the NoW, however added: “I don’t use them in the witness box under oath in the High Court.”
He denied being motivated by a hope of limiting the influence of police motion when confessing to cellphone hacking at MGN, saying he didn’t do that earlier as there was no investigation into the Sunday Mirror till 2013.
Mr Johnson mentioned he “did not lie” to police and rejected a decide’s earlier discovering in separate litigation that he was amongst a bunch of “prolific hackers”.
The journalist later denied “making up evidence” and rejected Mr Green’s suggestion he “utterly, utterly embellished” his account of alleged cellphone hacking at MGN.
Earlier on Wednesday, the courtroom heard from Derek Haslam, a retired undercover police officer, who infiltrated alleged PI Jonathan Rees’s agency Southern Investigations between 1997 and 2006 in reference to the unsolved homicide of Daniel Morgan – Mr Rees’ former enterprise accomplice.
In a written assertion, he mentioned Mr Rees and his new accomplice Sid Fillery admitted they steadily labored for MGN newspapers by “selling tips and story leads to them but also selling to MGN journalists their regular PI services such hacking and blagging”.
He mentioned Southern Investigations had “totally inappropriate” connections with newspapers and claimed Mr Rees and Mr Fillery have been “deeply involved in the business of corrupting serving police officers and acting as a conduit between corrupt police officers and organised criminals”.
Mr Haslam advised the listening to that Mr Rees would “openly brag about what they were doing” and that he had a “thirst for information”.
The former police officer mentioned he was “amazed” by “how naive Scotland Yard was (about) how this information gathering was going on”.
In his assertion, he claimed Mr Rees mentioned he had bought info to the Mirror for a narrative about Prince Michael of Kent allegedly being in debt to the financial institution.
“He was always very proud about this kind of thing and loved to boast about it,” Mr Haslam mentioned.
Coronation Street actors Michael Turner and Nikki Sanderson and comic Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman are additionally named as “representative” instances for the seven-week trial.
The listening to earlier than Mr Justice Fancourt continues.