As the first module of the Leveson Inquiry drew to a close yesterday, Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre refused to retract a statement accusing actor Hugh Grant of “mendacious smears” against his company unless Grant agreed to take back the “toxic and explosive” statements made about the Mail.<\/p>\n
In a heated debate Dacre and David Sherborne, counsel for the core participant victims,\u00a0discussed answerphone messages left for Grant from a “plummy-voiced woman,” described in a 2007 Mail on Sunday article.\u00a0In his evidence to the Inquiry in November, Grant suggested<\/a> that the information for the story, which suggested his relationship with Jemima Khan was on the rocks, could only have been accessed by phone hacking.<\/p>\n Dacre, who was recalled to give evidence on the issue for a second time this week, said:\u00a0\u201cOur group did not hack phones and I rather resent your continued insinuations that we did,\u201d adding that he had given the Inquiry his “unequivocal word” on the matter earlier in the week.<\/p>\n Dacre accused Sherborne of “attacking my group rather unpleasantly”.\u00a0Referring to Grant as the “poster boy for Hacked Off<\/a>,” Dacre went on to add that the actor “is obsessed\u00a0by trying to drag the Daily Mail into another newspaper\u2019s scandal.\u201d<\/p>\n Lord Justice Leveson Leveson suggested that the editor may need to appear before the Inquiry again at a later date. Dacre replied: ” I have shown this week I am prepared to devote a lot of time to this.”<\/p>\n Heather Mills, who also appeared before the Inquiry yesterday, said she had “never” played voicemail recordings to former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.\u00a0In his\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0to the Inquiry last December, Morgan\u00a0claimed he had heard voicemail tapes, in which Mills’ then partner Sir Paul McCartney sang an apology and asked for forgiveness, that had been obtained legitimately, but he refused to “compromise” his source.<\/p>\n Mills added:\u00a0“I couldn’t quite believe that he would even try to insinuate [that], a man that has written nothing but awful things about me for years, would relish in telling the court if I had played a voicemail message to him.”<\/p>\n The court also heard how Mills had recorded over 64 hours of footage of alleged harassment from journalists, including evidence, shown to the court of a car chase involving paparazzi which resulted in a crash.<\/p>\n Thursday’s session also focused on bullying within the journalism industry, hearing a number of anonymous testimonies from reporters. Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) presented 12 written accounts to the court,\u00a0detailing “tremendous pressure,” “macho culture” and other “degrading” treatment.<\/p>\n One testimony described a journalist being forced to write “anti-Islam stories”, and being called the “token lefty” when they complained. The journalist described being “in tears” at the treatment, but explained that it continued.<\/p>\n Another said: “three or four staff suffered physical collapses, almost certainly to some extent as a result of the stress.”<\/p>\n Former News of the World news editor\u00a0Ian Edmondson also described a “culture of bullying” at the newspaper, explaining that “you will do what you are told”.\u00a0Edmondson said that everything was dictated\u00a0by the editor and explained editor Colin Myler, who replaced Andy Coulson following his resignation in 2007, continued the newsroom bullying.<\/p>\n