Phone Hacking: You Can’t Kill The Sunday Mirror Because It’s Already Dead
Former tabloid journalist Dan Evans leaves The Old Bailey law court in London, Monday, Jan. 27, 2014. Evans told Britain’s phone hacking trial on Monday that he intercepted voicemails with the knowledge of senior staff _ not just at the now-defunct News of the World, whose employees are standing trial, but at the rival Sunday Mirror. Dan Evans has pleaded guilty to phone hacking while working at both newspapers between 2003 and 2010. He gave evidence as a prosecution witness at the trial of former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and five others. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
CLAIMS that Dan Evans learnt how to hack phones at the Sunday Mirror before the News of the World recruited him for his skills is interesting.
Evans made his claim at the Old Bailey phone hacking trial of ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson. He says he told Coulson of his skills during an interview. He got the job. Coulson, former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks and five others deny charges linked to phone hacking.
Evans pleaded guilty to hacking at the Sunday Mirror between 2003 and 2005 and at the News of The World up to 2010. He also pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office between 2005 and 2010. Evans has admitted intending to pervert the course of justice.
Evans claimed he has been hacking phones with the Sunday Mirror for about a year-and-a-half from 2003. He claimed hacking had been going on well before that. He says a “senior executive” at the Sunday Mirror “proceeded to show me how to hack a voicemail for the first time”.
He said of his next job at the News of The World: “I was bringing phone-hacking techniques and methodology and bringing a list of hacking targets, how voicemails could be intercepted and general skills to perpetuate that activity. The methodology of screwing around with people’s telephonic data was a pretty standard tool in the tabloid kit.”
This is how the Mirror reported on the death of its great rival the NoW:
In the weekend after the NoW died on July 7 2011, The Sunday Mirror gained almost 730,000 extra sales.
Should remaining Sunday titles be upbeat about their prospects of increased sales when the ‘toxic’ Sunday Mirror curls up its toes? Of course, in 2012, the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror stated plans to merge the titles into one seven-day-a-week operation. Wonder what brought that decision to the table..?
Posted: 27th, January 2014 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
