Hacking Was 'Rife At Three Mirror Papers'

Phone hacking was "rife" at all three Mirror Group newspapers from the end of the 1990s, the High Court has heard.

One journalist had 100 celebrity targets and was making 250 hacking calls a day, it was claimed.

The revelations emerged at a hearing to decide the level of compensation for eight high-profile complainants: TV executive Alan Yentob, actress Sadie Frost, ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne, soap stars Lucy Taggart, Shane Richie and Shobna Gulati, flight attendant Lauren Alcorn and TV producer Robert Ashworth.

Their claim relates to hacking at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and the People - which all belong to Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).

Opening his case, lawyer David Sherborne said: "It is a reasonable inference that phone hacking was rife at all three of MGN's national titles at or around the same time, that is by mid-1999 at the latest."

The lawyer said he had evidence of hacking covering eight - and possibly 10 - years.

Mr Sherborne said MGN had admitted that all eight of his clients were victims of voicemail interception and other unlawful methods by journalists.

A total of 109 stories appeared on the victims - but Mr Sherborne said this was just the "tip of the iceberg".

"It does not mean that voicemail interceptions which did not result in articles were not intrusive," he said. "Some of it was obviously way too sensitive even for these deeply insensitive journalists to publish."

Mr Sherborne said examples included Frost attending AA meetings, Richie's financial problems, Ashworth's divorce or Taggart's relationship with actor Steve McFadden.

He said "hordes" of reporters would have been discussing these messages.

One journalist due to give evidence - covering April 2003 to December 2004 at the Sunday Mirror - is Dan Evans.

Mr Sherborne said the court would hear that Mr Evans hacked the voicemails of his regular targets twice a day - and that at the height of his work there were 100 such targets.

James Hipwell, a former Daily Mirror journalist who is also due to give evidence during the two-week hearing, characterised the hacking as "endemic".

In MGN's written argument, Matthew Nicklin QC said it published a public apology to all hacking victims and parent company Trinity Mirror had sent private letters of apology to the eight claimants.

The hearing will resume on Wednesday.