A News of the World undercover researcher was accused of lying to a court today over whether he was prompted to ask members of an alleged gang about a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham.
A lawyer acting for one of the alleged gang members - a Romanian who is suing the paper for libel - accused Mahmood Qureshi of changing his story in the course of testimony today.
Qureshi is known by the nickname "Jaws" and is a cousin of the paper's investigations editor, Mazher Mahmood.
He agreed in the libel hearing this afternoon he had been asked by his cousin to "initiate conversation about the kidnap".
David Price, who is representing the claimant, then accused him of admitting something he had denied when questioned this morning. He went on to accuse Qureshi of changing his story to "protect" Mahmood, because Mahmood had "given him a chance in life" by getting him work at the News of the World after a criminal career stretching back to 1982.
"You are trying to protect your cousin, Mr Mahmood, because he gave you a chance in life," Mr Price said.
"How did he give me a chance?," Qureshi replied. "He did not give me a chance. How?"
Mr Price then went through a list of convictions against Qureshi, dating from a theft case at Bradford crown court in 1982 to a case at Leeds in 1999.
He said: "You owe a debt of gratitude to Mr Mahmood and that explains why you lied to the court this morning, that's what I'm suggesting. Do you want to comment on that?"
"No, I do not want to comment, there's no comment on that," Qureshi replied.
Asked if he had lied to the court he said: "I did not lie, I got it wrong."
Later in the course of evidence, Mr Price said Qureshi was trying to make it seem that the kidnap plot was not invented by Mahmood.
"You are trying to distance him from the question that you asked because you are trying to paint a picture that he was not setting this up," he said. "That's why you are telling lies to the court."
"I'm not telling lies to the court," Qureshi replied. "What I remember is that they were out to kidnap Victoria Beckham. They were ruthless criminals, this lot."
Returning to the theme later in his questioning, Mr Price asked what "subject areas" Mahmood had asked Qureshi to bring up.
He replied: "Whether they were carrying guns, each of them, which we established - Adrian [one of the alleged gang] was carrying one. Basically, work out yourself whether they meant business."
He added: "One [subject area] is the gun, second, how much they know themselves, to listen in and to see how much they knew, how much homework they had done."
Qureshi said he had not been prompted to ask anything about the Beckhams' children or to mention their luxurious home, known as "Beckingham Palace".
Later the court was shown a Sky News report from the day the News of the World published its story, including undercover camera footage of Qureshi, who was not clearly visible and unidentified, saying, "the baby will have a good sleep," a reference to the use of chloroform-style gas in a possible kidnap.
"That's not a reference to Victoria Beckham, is it?" Mr Price asked Qureshi.
"Yes [it is]," Mr Qureshi replied.
The lawyer asked him repeatedly whether he had been referring to the Beckham's second son, Romeo, then just a baby.
But Qureshi said he was talking about Mrs Beckham when he used the word "baby".
Qureshi also revealed how much he had been paid for his work on the story: hotel and petrol expenses plus a "wage" of £150 a day, and "a couple of hundred quid" on top of that.
Mr Price accused him of lying to police when he spoke to them after the alleged gang's arrest by not revealing he had made a profit on top of his expenses.
"I put it to you that you told a lie to police because you were trying to minimise the profit element that went to you so that they would be less grounds for impugning your credibility."
Qureshi replied: "I was not paid more than £600. It was not thousands of pounds at all."
He said that over the course of his work for the News of the World on various stories he had been paid "less than £10,000 and more than £1,000... perhaps near £5,000".
The court also heard today from the News of the World's technician and photographer, Conrad Brown, whose evidence lasted around 20 minutes.
Mahmood appeared in court briefly but was asked to wait outside until being called. His evidence will now be heard tomorrow.
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