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4 hours ago
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A former Daily Mail reporter said allegations that he ordered a private investigator to deceive Stephen Lawrence’s mother were “absolute cobblers” and had “completely devastated” him.
Stephen Wright helped lead the newspaper’s long-running campaign over the murder of 18-year-old Lawrence, who was killed in 1993. He is one of the journalists now accused of tasking private investigators to use unlawful methods to secure stories.
The claims form part of the legal action brought by Doreen Lawrence, Stephen’s mother, and six other people against Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), which publishes the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
ANL denies all the allegations, which include phone hacking, tapping and “blagging” – the use of deception to obtain information.
In a combative appearance at the high court, Wright said he had been accused of the “most despicable allegation put to any journalist”, stating that the allegations were “absolute cobblers”.
The high court has been played a recording of a private investigator, Christine Hart, in which she says she “100% blagged” information from Lawrence on Wright’s orders by pretending to be a journalist from the Guardian.
ANL said in its written submissions that Hart has since denied carrying out any illegal activity on behalf of the publisher’s journalists.
Wright said while he was aware of Hart, he remembered her as a freelance journalist who had pitched him stories that he did not use. He said he never asked her to “blag” information about Lawrence.
“You’re scraping the barrel,” Wright told David Sherborne, the lead barrister acting for the claimants, who also include Prince Harry and Elton John. “[You’re] scraping the bottom of the cesspit.”
In a written submission, Wright said he had the “utmost respect” for Doreen Lawrence and was proud to think that she considered him a “professional ally”.
“When I first learned of Lady Lawrence’s allegations against me, I was completely devastated,” he said. “To this day, I struggle to understand how she could be persuaded to take such a course of action.
“I worried that her casting me on the side of the racist and corrupt could whip up worse than a Twitter mob and, having worried intensely about my family over the past three years, felt that I had to improve security measures at our home.
“I have never bugged, burgled or ‘blagged’ information about Lady Lawrence, her family members, or her legal representatives. I have never asked anyone else to do any of these things for me.”
Sherborne pointed to both Hart’s alleged admission and records of a £75 payment to her, with “Wright” as a reference. However, Wright said to the best of his knowledge, it did not relate to him.
Wright denied Sherborne’s suggestion that he was a regular user of private investigators or that he had paid police officers for information. He said he was being portrayed as being “guilty until proven innocent”.
Wright compared some of the accusations being made about corrupt payments to those made by Carl Beech, a man who made false accusations of murder and child sex abuse.
“People can criticise me for some things,” Wright said. “I worked tirelessly for 25 years to help the Lawrence family to get justice for their son. This is nonsense. Mr Sherborne, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
The case continues.
