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Piers
Morgan has said he did not know about alleged phone hacking
at the Daily Mirror |
It was "very unlikely" that former editor Piers Morgan did not know
about alleged phone hacking at the Daily Mirror, the Leveson Inquiry has
heard.
James Hipwell, a former financial reporter for the newspaper, told the
investigation into press standards that "there wasn't very much he
didn't know about".
He also said that Mr Morgan's phone had been hacked by a colleague.
In his evidence, Mr Morgan said he was unaware of any phone hacking at
the Daily Mirror under his leadership and had "no reason" to believe
that hacking was going on.
However Mr Hipwell, who was jailed for purchasing low-priced stocks and
then recommending them to readers, told the inquiry: "Looking at his
style of editorship, I would say it was very unlikely that he didn't
know what was going on because, as I have said, there wasn't very much
he didn't know about."
Mr Hipwell was given a six-month prison sentence in February 2006 for
pocketing nearly £41,000. He mentioned the stocks in the Daily Mirror's
City Slickers column and then quickly sold them as values soared.
On the subject of phone hacking, Mr Hipwell said: "I would go as far as
to say that it happened every day and that it became apparent that a
great number of the Mirror's showbusiness stories would come from that
source. That is my clear memory."
The witness said he heard one reporter claim they had deleted someone
else's voicemail message so that a Sun journalist could not listen to it
as well.
"One of the reporters showed me the technique, giving me a demonstration
of how to hack into voicemails," he told the inquiry.
Mr Hipwell, who worked at the newspaper between 1998 and 2000, said:
"The openness and frequency of their hacking activities gave me the
impression that hacking was considered a bog-standard journalistic tool
for getting information."
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