Richard Wallace tells Leveson inquiry that he did not know about phone hacking, but it 'might well have been' hidden from him
The editor of the Daily Mirror has told the Leveson inquiry that he agreed it was "possible" that the ultimate source of the paper's revelation of Sven-Goran Eriksson's affair with Ulrika Jonsson was phone hacking.
During two hours of at times tense questioning on Monday, Richard Wallace was also pressed about the provenance of the story, which emerged at a time when he was the head of news at the tabloid in April 2002.
He said that he briefed then editor Piers Morgan on the information once he had heard about it, saying at that stage, it was just a "tip" – the provenance of which he could not recall: "I don't recall exact nature of it, it was from within showbusiness department".
The journalist who later became Morgan's successor said that he agreed with a question from David Barr, junior counsel for the inquiry, that he was not "in a position to positively assert one way or the other" what the ultimate source of that news story was.
He was then asked by Barr if it was "possible, even if you weren't told, that it [the source of the story] was phone hacking?" In response Wallace said that "it's possible, yes" the ultimate source was phone hacking.
Wallace became editor of the Daily Mirror in June 2004 – although the wide-ranging questioning covered large parts of his 21 years at the paper.
Mirror insiders deny that phone hacking was the source of the Sven/Ulrika source, pointing instead to a leak that came from a journalist at the News of the World. There is no evidence to suggest that hacking was involved.
Wallace also said that he could not rule out that the tabloid's showbusiness team had obtained information via phone hacking when he was showbusiness editor more than a decade ago.
He was showbusiness editor between 1999 and October 2000 and replied "not to my knowledge" when asked whether phone hacking was going on at that time on the desk. Asked by Barr "Can I take it, therefore, that it's possible that it was going on but being hidden from you?", Wallace replied: "Might well have been."
Last year, Leveson heard from a former Mirror business journalist, James Hipwell, who said he had seen "repeated" examples of phone hacking as he sat next to the showbusiness team at that time.
Hipwell's witness statement to the inquiry said that he "witnessed journalists carrying out repeated privacy infringements, using what has now become a well known technique to hack in to the voicemail systems of celebrities, their friends, their publicists and public relations executives".
Phone hacking was not illegal in the period when Hipwell was working at the Daily Mirror. Hipwell was dismissed in February 2000 in an unrelated share-tipping scandal, while the legislation outlawing phone hacking, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, was introduced in October of that year.
Trinity Mirror, the owner of the newspaper, last August that it had "sought and received formal written confirmation from senior editorial executives across both the nationals and regionals" that they, and their staffs, have not been responsible for the interception of voicemail messages "since the commencement of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act in October 2000."
Wallace apologised for his newspaper's coverage of Christopher Jefferies, who was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Joanna Yeates at the end of 2010, but who was later released without charge. The Mirror was one of two newspapers subsequently found in breach of contempt of court over its reporting and find £50,000, although it is pursuing an appeal. The Sun was fined £18,000.
The Mirror editor said of Jefferies: "We obviously caused him and his nearest and dearest great distress which I regret personally greatly and I regard it as very much a black mark on my editing record."
He said that the news desk told him that the police investigating had told Mirror reporters off the record that they believed that Jefferies was "their man" – and added that incorrect information "would have greatly coloured my judgment".
Wallace also agreed that the Mirror had paid "public sector employees connected with the health and prison services for information about prisoners or prison conditions". Barr asked if the tabloid paid for confidential information, to which Wallace said: "Yes probably."
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