By Nathan Jones-Sparkes

David Sherborne, acting for Lord Watson and Prince Harry in their claims against Sun and News of the World publisher News Group Newspapers(NGN), will this week set out their case that alleged phone hacking and illegal data theft took place at both newspapers – and that an alleged corporate cover-up was perpetrated on an “endemic scale”.

Court papers, which have been deployed at previous hearings, are expected to be summarised in their trial documents, and will allege that:

·      James Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks & Will Lewis “instigated and authorised” a cover-up of the publisher’s alleged illegality – and that Brooks was aware of the illegal activity as it was happening, which is denied by NGN.

·      Current Sun editor Victoria Newton wrote articles based on illegally accessed information, allegations which are denied or not admitted.

·      There were “key hubs of illegal activity” across The Sun, including the News and Showbiz desks.

·      The publisher relied on a strategy of “buying off” potential whistle-blowers

·      That Rupert Murdoch misled a Parliamentary Committee

·       Over 30 million emails were deleted by the publisher in a desperate attempt to cover up wrongdoing – in a plan discussed at Rupert Murdoch’s California house, and approved by Brooks

·       Mazher Mahmood, the disgraced “fake Sheikh”, “routinely used” illegal methods to get stories

·       The Leveson Inquiry was lied to under oath by senior News Group executives – adding fuel to calls for a second-stage inquiry and perjury charges.

At this stage, the claims are allegations - which are denied - as a judge has not made findings on the criminality.

These allegations, which are set to be tested in court over the next nine weeks, follow 1300 other claims and 14 previously planned trials.  All of these were subject to settlement agreements, sometimes at the very last moment.

But for the first time, this trial is expected to see these allegations finally tested in court.

High profile names to face allegations

A host of senior executives and other figures at News Group are named in the claimants’ case – including James Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, Will Lewis, Mazher Mahmood and Victoria Newton.

Some of them remain in senior roles in the media industry, with Brooks now Chief Executive of News UK (which owns News Group), Will Lewis CEO of The Washington Post, and Victoria Newton the current editor of The Sun.  Rupert Murdoch continues to preside over an international media empire, which includes News UK.

Lewis and Brooks will be accused of being instrumental in the cover-up, misleading the police and the public and – at least in the case of Brooks – misleading the first part of the Leveson Inquiry. NGN deny the allegations and neither Lewis or Brooks will turn up to give evidence.

Rupert Murdoch is expected to face allegations of misleading the Parliamentary Home Affairs Committee over News Group’s payments to criminals, but is not being called to give evidence and NGN deny any wrongdoing.

Mahmood is accused of using illegal methods, and Newton of writing articles based on illegally accessed information. Neither are trial witnesses and NGN deny that they did anything wrong.

If findings are made that the Leveson Inquiry was misled, the culprits could be vulnerable to perjury charges.  

Such a judgement would also add fuel to calls for a second-stage of the Inquiry, which had been promised, but was since abandoned –partly on the basis of News Group’s claims that The Sun was innocent of illegality and that such an Inquiry would not be proportionate.

If it is found this was not the case, and that in fact News Group had lied to and misled the first stage of the Inquiry, calls for Part Two could become irresistible.

Political interference

Lord Watson’s claim alleges that he was targeted by News Group to “obtain kompromat, purely as revenge for his political attempts to make NGN accountable for their wrongdoing”.

Others named as targets by NGN for similar reasons include the Secretary of Justice Shabana Mahmood, former Commons Speaker John Bercow, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Culture Minister Sir Chris Bryant and former Attorney General Dominic Grieve.

The allegations are thought to indicate a broad and non-partisan campaign aimed at attacking and undermining any and all of NGN’s political opponents.

Vast evidence deletions

Senior executives are set to face allegations of presiding over what News Group itself referred to as the “Email deletion/JRM plan” – a process of deleting potentially incriminating emails. This began after the police had begun investigating hacking at the publisher, in violation of NGN’s obligation to preserve evidence.

This was – the claimants look set to allege – part of the cover up, which involved several batches of strategic deletions.  These took place after a letter of claim was first issued against the publisher by Sienna Miller in autumn 2010, in early 2011 just after the Met’s investigation into News Group had begun, and a further batch in February 2011.

A total of over 30million emails were deleted over this period, which covered exchanges throughout the 00s, when hacking was most common at News of the World and – it is alleged – The Sun.

These deletions took place against a backdrop of public scrutiny, police inquiries, and political deliberation over how to improve accountability in the press.

Deliberately deleting potential evidence over this period would represent an extraordinary attempt to protect those responsible for any illegality, and to pull the wool over the eyes of law enforcement, legislators, and the general public.

News Group have said that they fully co-operated with the police.  But former senior Met officer Sue Akers will give evidence that News Group dealt with the Met’s investigation in a “deeply concerning way” and “failed to tell the truth” – naming Will Lewis as among those responsible.

The claimants also accuse News Group of making payments to former staff to suppress further evidence from emerging, alleging, “NGN bought off convicted journalists, such as Clive Goodman, Neville Thurlbeck, Ian Edmondson and others, with enormous financial payments in return for gagging clauses preventing them from implicating other journalists or editors.”

No further questions, your Honour

News Group denies the allegations, and it is not known whether they will put forward any senior executive figures as a witness if the case goes ahead. Brooks, Lewis, Murdoch and Mahmood may not even appear in court, despite –as the claimants remark – Brooks working only a “short taxi ride” away.

The claimants describe this as “like an episode of Succession but without Logan Roy, Shiv, Roman or even Kendall”.

Claimants: News Group accountability is “paramount”

By making large settlement offers News Group has previously been able to prevent trials from going ahead, as claimants who turn them down can be left liable for enormous costs – even if they win their case.

The claimants accept that pursuing their claims puts them at “huge financial risk” – but are determined to expose the extent of the wrongdoing they believe occurred.

News Group continue to deny the allegations, and the outline of their defence is expected to be presented to the court later this week.

This article is part of a joint project with Byline Times, reporting on the trial with accuracy.  Learn more and support here.