The Express newspaper group yesterday admitted they may still be using the services of the convicted private detective, Steve Whittamore.
On a day its owner, Richard Desmond, claimed the paper was
"scapegoated" over its coverage of Madeleine McCann's
disappearance, the group's legal manager told the Leveson Inquiry
that Whittamore's company was still carrying out work for the
Express group as late as 2010.
The Independent revealed last September that before his arrest,
Whittamore had conducted 17,000 searches for personal data on
behalf of journalists but the authorities were afraid to question
newspapers on the apparently illicit activities.
The conviction of Whittamore and the subsequent jailing of the
royal editor of the News of the World, Clive Goodman, along with
the private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, was widely regarded as the
closing chapter of Fleet Street's use of private detectives. The
revelation by the Express challenges that.
Nicole Patterson, the Express group's legal boss, said an
internal audit had revealed no evidence that phone hacking had been
practiced by Express journalists. However, Ms Patterson was asked
by the inquiry's counsel, Robert Jay QC, if the group was still
using Whittamore's company, JJ Services.
"The last entry [in the audit of Whittamore's commissions] was
2010," she said. But she also admitted she did not know if the firm
was still being used.
In a list of invoices and payments showed on the inquiry's
internal monitors, but not published publicly, Whittamore's company
was paid £174,000 for commissions over 10 years.
The list included searches on "John Birt", the former BBC
director general and the singer Charlotte Church. Another search
names Robert Murat, who was the man falsely accused of being
involved in the abduction of Madeleine McCann in Portugal.
Asked by Mr Jay why Whittamore's company continued to be used
when "a cloud hung over him", Ms Patterson said the hiring was "a
matter for the editor and the news editor".
Peter Hill, editor of the Daily Express from 2003 until last
year, said he had no knowledge that private investigators had ever
been used. His newspaper's coverage included published allegations
that the McCanns had been responsible for the killing of their
daughter. A 2008 libel action brought by Kate and Gerry McCann
ended in the Express paying out £550,000. Mr Hill denied he had
been "obsessed" with the McCann story, blamed the Portuguese police
for giving the paper false information and said there were reasons
to believe the stories had been true.
Current editor, Hugh Whittow, suggested the PCC was, at least in
part, responsible for the paper libelling the McCanns: "I feel
perhaps that they [the PCC] should have intervened. Everyone had
too much leeway. As a result, the story carried on and on and
on."
Mr Jay accused Mr Desmond of a "grotesque characterisation" when
he said the Express "ran the story for four months and they [the
parents] were quite happy to have articles about their daughter" on
the front page. The Express owner refused to back down: "On your
figures we ran 102 articles for four months and nothing happened
until a new firm of lawyers... then came in to sue us. I'm sorry we
got it wrong, but every paper was doing the same thing, which is
why we paid money to the McCanns. But only we were scapegoated by
the PCC."
Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, said Mr Desmond must
be "living in a parallel universe" if he believed the couple were
happy with the Express coverage.
Media mogul in full flow: What Richard Desmond
said...
On his newspapers' libelling of the McCanns
"If there were 102 articles on the McCanns, and 38 bad ones...
you could argue there were 68 or 70 good ones."
On the PCC
"A useless organisation run by people who wanted tea and
biscuits, and phone hackers."
On the Daily Mail
"Britain's worst enemy... [Paul] Dacre is the fat butcher."
On his detractors
"The only thing I wasn't accused of is murder."
On the Leveson Inquiry
"Probably the worst thing that's ever happened for newspapers in
my lifetime."
On phone hacking
"Hacking is illegal, why are these people still walking the
streets?"
