Investigator jailed for phone hacking claims Mail on Sunday paid for his information

The private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of The World, has claimed in an interview with ITV News that The Mail on Sunday also paid for his illegally obtained information.

“The public perception that my services were only used only by News International - is not the case. As my services and skills were used by other papers, such as the Mail on Sunday.”

The phone hacking scandal led to the closure of the News of The World in 2011. But Associated Newspapers have always insisted they never employed the so-called “dark arts” of their rivals.

At the Leveson Inquiry the then editor of the Daily Mail, Paul Dacre, said so under oath.

'Phone hacking was not practised'

“I can be as confident as any editor, having made extensive enquiries into his newspaper's practices and held an inquiry, that phone hacking was not practised by the Daily Mail or the Mail on Sunday. You know that because I gave my unequivocal, unequivocal assurances earlier in this week.”

But Glenn Mulcaire has shown ITV News what he claims is a “paper trail” of evidence from 2006. He says he was tasked by a freelance journalist, who then offered hacked information to Associated Newspapers.

The documents include Glenn Mulcaire’s handwritten notes, transcripts of hacked voicemail messages, emails and a payment record, which he claims show his illegally obtained information was paid for by the Mail on Sunday.

The documents refer to Sadie Frost and the former Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes. Both are among a group now taking legal action against Associated Newspapers for alleged “abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy”.

A spokesman for Associated Newspapers told ITV News: "We have never instructed, commissioned or paid Glenn Mulcaire to engage in “hacking” or unlawful information gathering for any Associated Newspapers titles. Nor have we ever knowingly published articles as a result of his activities.

"Any suggestion to the contrary is indefensible and highly defamatory, particularly when it relies on the word of a man convicted and jailed for phone-hacking, who is being paid via “a book deal” by a journalist involved with Hacked Off who was also convicted of phone hacking.

"Seventeen years ago freelance journalist Greg Miskiw, who is now dead, did offer a Mail on Sunday executive information which many years later Miskiw revealed came from Glenn Mulcaire. This was emphatically not made clear at the time. The information was not used and Miskiw was paid a kill fee.

"As has been widely reported over the years, far from being the beneficiaries of Glenn Mulcaire’s services, journalists at the Mail on Sunday were the targets of such illicit activities.

"These rehashed allegations – first published five years ago - are part of an orchestrated campaign against Associated Newspapers in advance of a court hearing next week, for which the papers are sealed."

When it emerged in 2011 that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked by the News of the World it led to public outrage and Glenn Mulcaire’s second conviction.

But Mulcaire insists he was not the main culprit at the News of the World.

He said: “I have four daughters myself, all I wanted to do was find a missing girl.

“They were hacking Milly Dowler's phone, the police knew they were hacking Milly Dowler's phone, long before I was tasked.

“The venom, being one of the most hated men in Britain, it’s taken its toll on me and my family. So I totally and absolutely understand the devastation that happens to other people.

“Everyone’s after justice. I’d rather be part of the solution, not the problem.”

Glenn Mulcaire now hopes to appeal and one day overturn his second conviction.

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