An email that it is claimed shows a senior Sun executive asking a former News of the World journalist to hack the voicemail of Heather Mills’s sister Fiona is part of new evidence presented by alleged phone-hacking victims in a bid to launch civil claims against the Sun.
The claimants, who do not include Fiona or Heather Mills, allege that the 2006 email shows the Sun executive editor Geoff Webster approving phone hacking.
It has been provided by the convicted phone hacker and former News of the World news editor Greg Miskiw in support of an application to include the Sun in a tranche of phone-hacking claims against News Group Newspapers, the owner of the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.
With the subject line “fiona mills” the email chain begins with Miskiw writing: “Monitored over the weekend and there is nothing new. She may not be using it at the moment. Will keep on but not hopeful. Have a couple of other irons in the fire. Regards Greg”
Webster then replies: “OK thanks Greg keep looking mate.” Miskiw then asks for payment in the form of being put down “for a shift, or two”, to which Webster replies: “Of course”.
Miskiw was at the time working for the news agency Mercury Press, having left the News of the World in 2005. He was one of five people who pleaded guilty to intercepting voicemails for the News of the World, along with the former news editor Neville Thurlbeck, journalists Dan Evans and James Weatherup and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who is also providing evidence supporting the claims.
Acting for the claimants, David Sherborne QC said: “What’s clear is these stories are being fed in ... at a high level by Mr Miskiw or Mr Mulcaire, straight to those at the top end of the tree.”
He added that the email shows voicemail interception was “approved of at a very high level at the Sun newspaper”.
Webster was never arrested or charged with phone hacking, and was cleared of charges relating to payments to public officials in 2015.
The email dates from the middle of the editorship of the Sun by Rebekah Brooks, who returned in September to become chief executive of News UK, which owns the Sun and the Times and Sunday Times. There is no indication that Brooks was aware of the email.
Brooks was acquitted in 2014 of all charges relating to phone hacking at the News of the World, but her successor at the paper, Andy Coulson, was convicted.
The evidence is part of a broader set of statements and exhibits provided by the claimants designed to persuade Mr Justice Mann that they should be able to lodge civil claims against NGN for alleged phone hacking at the Sun.
They are also presenting evidence from two other convicted phone hackers, Mulcaire and Paul McMullan, in support of claims that 40 articles published in the Sun were obtained through phone hacking.
The defence have argued at earlier hearings that the witnesses are not credible, and that the Metropolitan police’s investigations into phone hacking have found no credible evidence of it taking place at the Sun. No journalists were arrested or charged with offences related to alleged phone hacking at the Sun.
A trial on the claims against the News of the World, brought on behalf of 14 claimants, is due to take place in June. The claims against the Sun concern four of the claimants, none of whom is Fiona or Heather Mills. If the court allows the case to go ahead, a trial date is likely to be set for early next year.
The lead solicitors on the action, Hamlins, say there are around 50 other alleged victims preparing to join the News of the World claim, some of which will also relate to Sun articles if the case is allowed to go ahead.
A spokesperson for News UK said: “Following many years of investigation, there were no charges against the Sun or its employees for voicemail interception. Today, certain claimants seeking financial settlements arising from activities at the News of the World have made unsubstantiated claims against the Sun. If the court permits such claims to proceed, the Sun will defend them vigorously.”
