A day of evidence from Northern & Shell culminated in a long-awaited appearance by owner Richard Desmond.He appeared alongside executives from Express Newspapers and the current editors of the Daily Star and Daily Express at the Leveson Inquiry.First up was Nicole Patterson, head of legal at Express Newspapers. She answered questions over the use of private investigator Steve Whittamore, and ran through a series of invoices paid to his company, J.J. Services. Patterson said Whittamore had been used 65 times by the Express and four times by the Star. It was revealed that the private investigator was contracted by the papers until 2010, despite being convicted of information theft in 2005.Dawn Neesom, editor of the Daily Star, told the inquiry that some of her paper's headlines had gone “too far”. This included a front-page story – “Terror as plane hits ashcloud” - which resulted in copies of the Star being removed from sale in airports. She was questioned over the paper’s alleged anti-Islamic agenda but said: “We are not biased against Muslims”. She described the Star as a “young tabloid” that relied on “eye catching” front pages to sell copies, and said the paper had a “certain style of writing which appeals to the readers”.When asked about regulation she told Lord Justice Leveson: “I know you are going to come up with something very good”. She added it was a “dangerous area” to have editors on a self-regulatory panel.Daily Express editor Hugh Whittow claimed that the PCC could have stepped in over coverage of the McCanns, saying that the body “should have intervened”. He said it was one of the reasons why Northern & Shell pulled out of the PCC in 2011. Express Newspapers was ordered to pay £550,000 to the McCanns in 2008 after the Express and Star published libellous articles about the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine.Whittow said: “I regret what happened in the McCann case and all I can do is repeat the apology on page one for the hurt and distress we caused them”.Peter Hill, former editor of the Express, told the inquiry that it was his decision to switch the paper to supporting the Conservative Party in 2005 and added that: “An enormous number of readers who had abandoned it in despair”. He denied being “obsessed with the McCann story”, dismissing claims made by former Express reporter Nick Fagge before the inquiry last year.He said: “It was nothing to do with an obsession, it was more to do with a method of working”.Hill said the reporter had “misunderstood” the reasons why he repeatedly used the story, and that the paper had been reflecting the interest of the readers. He compared the coverage to articles about Big Brother and Princess Diana.The editor became angry when Robert Jay QC suggested he encouraged “whacking the story” into the paper. He accused Jay of using “judgmental” language and said: “The fact of the matter is this is a public inquiry and I do not believe that I’m on trial”.Paul Ashford, group editorial director of Northern & Shell, said he "found the behaviour of the PCC to be wholly hypocritical and unhelpful" in relation to the McCanns, and like Neesom favoured a regulatory body with no serving editors.Richard Desmond started his evidence by referring to a rival paper as “the Daily Malicious”, later referring to Paul Dacre at “the fat butcher”. He went on to tell the inquiry that he didn’t know what the word “ethical meant” and said: “We do not talk about ethics or morals because it’s a very fine line”.Desmond also said he felt he had betrayed Tony Blair “as a mate” when the Express switched to supporting the Conservatives in 2004, but backed the decision of editor Peter Hill.He described a meeting with Blair after buying Express Newspapers in 2000 and the pair talked about “music and drums” before the then Prime Minster asked about politics, and said he took the decision to back Labour because Blair “seemed a nice fellow”.Desmond tried to defend Express and Star coverage of the McCanns by comparing rumours over Madeleine’s disappearance to conspiracy theories about the death of Princess Diana.Jay accused Desmond of “grotesque characterisation” after he said newspapers should be allowed to report on opinions as well as fact. Desmond added: “There are views about the McCanns and what happened”.He apologised to the McCanns several times but said the PCC had scapegoated Express Newspapers over national coverage of the story, saying that if 38 articles had been labelled defamatory, then many more printed in the paper must have been acceptable.Desmond said he would “get rid” of the inquiry, which he called ”probably the worst thing that’s happened to newspapers in my lifetime”.He described a new regulator called the “RCD board” to replace the PCC. When Leveson asked what this stood for, he said: “Richard Clive Desmond”. Jay became visibly irritated when Desmond later said he thought it was “a good name”.As-read statements from Robert Sanderson (group finance director at Northern & Shell), Gareth Morgan (editor of the Daily Star Sunday), Martin Ellice (joint managing director at Northern & Shell) and Martin Townsend (editor of the Sunday Express) are available on the inquiry website.