Introduction: Daily Mail Phone Hacking Claims
This article explains the circumstances surrounding the Daily Mail Phone Hacking Claims.
A costs and case management conference (“CCMC”) took place before Mr Justice Nicklin and Judge David Cook in the misuse of private information claims against Associated Newspapers Limited (“ANL”) on 26th and 27th of November 2024. The case is being brought by a group of seven high-profile individuals, including Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon OBE, The Duke of Sussex, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, actresses Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost and politician Simon Hughes.
What are the accusations?
ANL, the publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday, is accused of carrying out or commissioning the following unlawful activities between 1993 and 2018:
- The illegal interception of voicemail messages (“phone hacking”);
- The listening into and/or recording of live phone calls (“phone tapping”);
- The obtaining of private information by deception, for example falsely impersonating individuals (“blagging”);
- The hiring of private investigators in order to commit these and other unlawful information gathering acts, including the use of hidden listening devices; and
- The commissioning of burglaries in order to obtain private information.
In addition, the Claimants argue that ANL deliberately concealed and covered up the unlawful activity and made false public denials at the Leveson Inquiry.
Denial of the allegations
In respect of the Daily Mail Phone Hacking Claims, ANL is denying all of these allegations. Moreover it is defending the legal claims being brought. Paul Dacre, the former chairman and editor-in-chief of ANL, told the Leveson Inquiry in February 2012 that he was confident “that phone hacking was not practiced by the Daily Mail or The Mail on Sunday”.
David Sherborne, the Claimants’ barrister, stated in his written submissions that ANL destroyed documents, including some of the journalists’ emails working for ANL, at the time of the Leveson Inquiry. In his submissions, Sherborne also said that further documents, including a spreadsheet of payments to private investigators between 2005 and 2007, should be disclosed by ANL. Catrin Evans KC appearing for ANL, denied the allegations relating to the deletion and destruction of documents and noted that “it is not professionally proper to make [the allegations]”. Evans also argued that the request for further documents was a “premature demand”.
Mr Justice Nicklin stated that evidence would be required to prove the serious allegations of deliberate deletion and destruction of documents, which could give rise to criminal proceedings.
Victims bringing claims against Newspaper Groups
Numerous victims have brought similar claims against News Group Newspapers (“NGN”) and Mirror Group Newspapers (“MGN) for unlawful information gathering and the misuse of private information. Evans argued that it would be incorrect to treat the ongoing cases against ANL in a similar manner to the cases against NGN and MGN due to the lack of criminal convictions of certain journalists and admissions of unlawful activity by ANL.
The Claimants survived a strike-out application by ANL last year, in which ANL argued that they were bringing their claims too late. Mr Justice Nicklin refused to strike out any of the claims and rejected the application “without any difficulty”. In his Judgment in November 2023, Mr Justice Nicklin rejected ANL’s argument that the Claimants could and should have brought their claims prior to October 2016 and noted that this “overlooks the reality of what confronted them” and “applies a large dose of hindsight or reverse engineering”.
For more information on Daily Mail Phone Hacking Claims
Taylor Hampton is currently in the early stages of investigating claims against ANL. If you believe your private information has been misused or believe you may have been targeted by ANL, please contact our specialist teams by emailing [email protected]. A member of our team will get in touch with you to arrange a confidential call. See our phone hacking legal services page HERE.