THE HACKING of voicemails in the UK was not confined to the News of the World, actor Hugh Grant said yesterday during one of the strongest attacks yet on the British tabloid press before the Leveson inquiry.
Yesterday’s hearing showed the impact of tabloid intrusion on the lives of the rich and famous, but also those dragged into the limelight by tragedy, such as Bob and Sally Dowler. Their daughter, Milly, went missing in 2002, only to be found murdered months later.
Long before the Dowlers appeared at the royal courts of justice yesterday, it was known that Sally Dowler had called and called her daughter’s voicemail only to find it full before, miraculously, she thought, she got through to it.
News of the World-hired private investigator Glenn Mulcaire had hacked Milly's voicemails – one of thousands of victims during his decade-long career with the now-closed Sunday tabloid, during which he often earned more than £100,000 (€116,000) a year.
Yesterday, Sally Dowler told Judge Brian Leveson of her reaction as she got through to Milly’s voicemail: “It clicked through on to her voicemail, so I heard her voice,” she said, adding that she turned shrieking, “She’s picked up her voicemails, Bob! She’s alive!”
Their daughter’s body was found dumped six months after she went missing as she walked home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002. She had been kidnapped and killed by car clamper Levi Bellfield.
The Dowlers blame the News of the Worldfor deleting the messages, though last night Mulcaire, who accepts that he hacked into Milly's voicemails, denied that he had erased messages, saying he "had no reason to do so".
The Dowlers’ testimony had been dreaded by News International but also by many in the British press not guilty of hacking, who believe Judge Leveson will leave all of their reputations in the mire.
Press standards campaigners will regret that the Dowlers appeared on the same day as Grant, who scarified the British tabloid press.
However, News International will not be displeased to see Grant allege that the Mail on Sundayhad hacked his voicemails for a 2007 story claiming that his relationship with Jemima Khan was nearing collapse because of late-night phone calls with a Los Angeles film executive.
Instead, he said, the Los Angeles woman was a British ex-pat, “a charming, married, middle-aged lady”, who worked as the secretary to a film production executive. Both being British, he said they had joked about matters from home when they spoke, or when they left messages.
The Mail on Sundayhad claimed, he said, that the woman "was a plummy-voiced studio executive from Warner Brothers", adding that the tabloid could not have known of her existence unless they had listened in to his voicemails.
Last night, Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mailand Mail on Sunday,denied Grant's allegations, saying he had tried to smear it. The company has denied that any of its reporters hacked into voicemails.
Frequently causing ripples of laughter in the courtroom, Grant made little attempt to portray himself as a saint, pointing several times to his 1995 liaison with Los Angeles prostitute Divine Brown.
“I wasn’t aware I was trading on my good name, I’ve never had a good name at all. I’m a man who was arrested with a prostitute and still made loads of money.”
The tabloids, he said, believed that actors and others had to enter into a Faustian pact with them to guarantee good coverage, but this, he said, merely illustrated their “arrogance because they live in this cocoon of self-importance”.
Film executives, he said, did not judge actors by column inches of publicity. Instead, an actor's future depended on his ability to deliver bums on seats: "What made me attractive to other film-makers was the gazillions Four Weddings and a Funeralmade."
Saying the tabloids had a prurient interest in people’s private lives, journalist Joan Smith said the culture was now “so remorseless, its appetite is so unable to be filled that the people involved have lost any sense that they’re dealing with human beings”.
“We’re just fodder for stories,” said Smith, who became a target for tabloids during a relationship with Labour’s Denis McShane.