Hugh Grant ‘sent former phone hacker to gather evidence against the Mail’
Actor was out to ‘destroy’ newspaper, according to email referred to at the High Court yesterday
HUGH Grant ‘ was out to destroy’ the Mail – and allegedly sent a convicted phone hacker to gather evidence, according to an email referred to at the High Court yesterday.
The actor and Press campaigner and his lawyer were said to have instructed Graham Johnson, a former News of the world reporter, the court heard.
Mr Johnson was handed a two-month suspended sentence in 2014 for hacking phones.
The email emerged on day four of a preliminary hearing in a High Court case in which Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, Baroness Lawrence and others are suing the Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers, for allegedly stealing their private information, which it firmly denies.
The Duke of Sussex – who was back in court yesterday afternoon – sat on the same row of seats as Mr Johnson. Mr Grant was not in court but his wife Anna came in to watch the proceedings. Yesterday the judge was referred
‘Accused of spreading mendacious smears’
to an email mentioning Mr Johnson and alleging that Mr Grant wanted to ‘ destroy’ the Mail. It was written by Christine Hart, a freelance journalist and private investigator, who the claimants allege carried out unlawful acts for the newspaper.
In the email, sent to an executive at the Daily Mail on february 9, 2016, she wrote: ‘I have had an approach from a freelance ex-NOTw [News of the world] reporter Graham Johnston [sic] who is working on behalf of Hugh Grant and his lawyer.’
Ms Hart said Mr Johnson had interviewed her about her work for the newspaper.
She wrote: ‘I spoke to him and then he announced that what I had said was illegal – as far as I know it is NOT illegal – he then added that if not it was immoral – then announced that Grant was out to destroy/get the Mail and I must give over my old bank statements or remittances to prove I worked for the Mail.’
Ms Hart said it was ‘all getting overwhelming for me’ and she sought advice.
Mr Grant – a founding member of the Hacked Off pressure group urging tighter controls on the Press – is not directly involved in this case, but has provided a witness statement in support of the claimants who include his ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley.
He has been campaigning for newspaper restrictions since the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in 2011, when the actor infamously suggested The Mail on Sunday had engaged in phone hacking despite the Mail’s firm denials, and he was accused of spreading ‘mendacious smears’.
Yesterday in court David Sherborne, the claimants’ barrister, was warned by the judge to ‘ be careful’ when he referred to this episode as an example of the newspaper launching ‘ aggressive attacks’.
The Christine Hart email about Mr Grant’s alleged mission to destroy the Mail is evidence, say the newspapers’ lawyers, to support its application to have the case dismissed.
The Mail has applied to the judge to dismiss the case on the basis the claimants brought their allegations to court ‘far too late’, with the claims relating to events said to have happened up to 30 years ago.
Under the Limitation Act 1980, claims are automatically barred if they are more than six years old, to ensure justice for all parties and prevent evidence being tainted by fading memories.
The claimants all say they did not know, and could not have known, about the alleged unlawful hacking and bugging acts until more recently.
They claim, among other things, that they believed the Mail’s assurances given to the Leveson Inquiry that it did not engage in phone hacking.
The Mail’s lawyers said the significance of the 2016 Christine Hart email was that it suggested the people behind these claims were – more than six years ago – already trying to gather evidence, on the basis that they believed unlawful information gathering had been going on. And that this cast doubt on the idea they had accepted the Mail’s assurances at Leveson in 2012.
for the claimants, Mr Sherborne urged Mr Justice Nicklin to reject the Mail’s application.
He said: ‘It is manifestly inappropriate because it is plainly an impermissible mini-trial or worse. Each individual has a compelling case.’
He said the claimants only knew they had been hacked after fresh information had emerged such as ‘confessions’ from a private detective, Gavin Burrows, who allegedly admitted tapping their landlines and mobiles, bugging their cars and other unlawful acts.
Mr Sherborne said the private detective had been the ‘trigger’ for the claims, saying Mr Burrows had ‘informed the claimants or Baroness Lawrence’ about his activities. But Mr Burrows has signed a witness statement for the High Court flatly rebutting the allegations relating to him, saying they are ‘false’ and declaring he had never been asked ‘by anyone at The Mail on Sunday or Daily Mail to conduct unlawful information gathering on their behalf’.
Adrian Beltrami KC, for the newspaper group, has told the court that all the claims ‘ are rejected by the defendant in their entirety as are the unfounded allegations that are repeatedly made that the defendant either misled the Leveson Inquiry or concealed evidence from the Leveson Inquiry’.
The barrister said the legal action had ‘no real prospects of succeeding’ at a trial.
Mr Justice Nicklin is expected to make his ruling on the application at a later date.
‘All claims rejected in their entirety’
HE has yet to deliver his first King’s Speech at Westminster. Instead, he delivered one to the German parliament yesterday, proclaiming ‘the pride I feel in the strength of the partnership between our two countries’ while also adding a few dollops of humour, for good measure.
‘Like all old friends at moments, the warmth of our relationship allows a small smile at each other’s expense,’ he added.
Addressing the Bundestag is a rare honour, one never previously granted to a monarch, not even the late Queen who made five state visits to a country that held her in the highest esteem.
But then Queen Elizabeth II did not speak German whereas King Charles III does – and did at some length yesterday.
He switched to English intermittently for a few paragraphs here and there but the bulk of this 15minute address was in German.
Reflecting on shared modern endeavours and on the tumult of German grief following the death Her Late Majesty, the King received a standing ovation from across this U-shaped parliament.
There was genuine laughter as he went off on several eccentric cultural tangents, linking the earliest Thomas Cook tours down the Rhine with Handel, the Beatles and Kraftwerk. Never a great fan of the Fab Four, even in their prime, it is safe to say that the King is not a fan of the latter’s electronic synth-pop.
Nor was this a case of ‘don’t mention the war’. Anything but. The King made references to both world wars and spoke of his planned visit, this morning, to a Hamburg memorial honouring Britain’s role in the kindertransport rescue mission which saved thousands of Jewish children from the Holocaust.
There was no awkwardness. In welcoming the King to the Chamber, the president of the Bundestag, Barbel Bas, was the first to
mention the war anyway. ‘The United Kingdom made an essential and distinct contribution to the liberation of Europe from National Socialism,’ she declared, prompting a round of applause from across the chamber.
She, too, mentioned the kindertransport memorial and welcomed to the chamber Lisa Bechner, a German with an honorary MBE for her work in commemorating the mission. Ms Bechner was sitting in the main VIP gallery alongside the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverley.
‘The United Kingdom supported our reunification,’ Ms Bas said, ‘which is also something we will never forget.’ And with a nod to the King’s lifelong commitment to ‘our natural resources’, she gave him the floor.
The only notable absentees from the Bundestag were a sprinkling of MPs from the far-Left Die Linke, led by the party’s co-chair Martin Schirdewan. Earlier, he had denounced the royal visit, declaring: ‘It is not appropriate for the highest democratic body to bow to a monarch.’
As a result, there were a few vacant seats on the far left hand side of the chamber. These were snapped up by members of the Royal Household. I am not sure that Mr Schirdewan will be any happier to learn that his party’s places were taken by the likes of the King’s private secretary, Sir Clive Alderton, and his uniformed ( and kilted) equerry, Lt- Col Johnny Thompson.
The King began by alluding to his many earlier visits, going back to the age of 13, which had left an indelible impression on him.
He thanked Germany for its gestures which had ‘deeply touched’ him following the death of the late Queen, not least the sight of the Union flag illuminated across Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
Noting that the Queen had been a member of the wartime generation, he went on: ‘My Mother understood the immense achievement that reconciliation represented, and in returning to Germany time and again, she was determined to play her own part.’
Turning to Ukraine, he lamented the fact that ‘the scourge of war is back in Europe in Ukraine.’ Countless lives ‘ have been destroyed; freedom and human dignity have been trampled in the most brutal way.’ Yet, he observed that it is Britain and Germany who have been Europe’s two largest donors to Ukraine.
On the theme closest to his heart, he noted that the two countries are now at the forefront of the battle against climate change and also ‘the top two in Europe for founding successful new technology start-ups’. Of Brexit we heard no mention. It was vintage Charles – self-deprecating, the hand dipping in and out of the pocket, the wry pause after each joke.
Reaction seemed broadly positive on German news websites afterwards. ‘A king who understands German humour and uses it skillfully,’ was the verdict from broadcaster ARD.
The King’s accent attracted some comment on social media. ‘I fall in love a little bit with his ‘Rrrrrr’,’ one blogger noted.
’Actually, he was practising his rrr’s this morning,’ a member of the entourage told me.
THE royal motorcade then moved swiftly on to meetings with Ukrainian refugees and British troops followed by a visit to an organic farm some way out of town. Here, the King got stuck in to cheese production, thrusting both hands into vats of gloop as it came squirting out of a shiny chrome machine.
Finally, as dusk approached and a thunderstorm pelted a crowded barn, he was invited to cut a huge Victoria sponge cake in the shape of a crown. To the relief of the entire entourage, slices were then dispensed among the crowd. Thanks to the King’s disdain for lunch, it was the first thing many had eaten since breakfast.