Coronation Street star Michael Le Vell says phone hacking trial has taken ‘years off his life’
Coronation Street star Michael Le Vell has said the legal fight with Mirror Group Newspapers over phone hacking has taken “years off his life” and transported him to “really dark places”.
The veteran actor, who has played mechanic Kevin Webster in the Manchester soap for almost 40 years, said confusion over where certain stories had come from caused him to “alienate decent people in my life” and become “extremely paranoid”.
Colleagues suspected him of being a “mole”, he said, as stories about them appeared in the newspapers.
Speaking on the final day of evidence at the Rolls Building in central London, Le Vell, whose real name is Michael Turner, said of the saga: “It’s taken about five years off my life.
“It’s been emotional and it has made me go to somewhere where I thought I would never go again – and that’s really dark places.”
Le Vell went through several stories about him which were splashed in the Mirror, including an article about his arrest in 2011 on suspicion of sexual offences – of which he was later cleared.
Regarding that arrest, he said he remembered seeing an article and “wondering how the press got hold of this information”.
Asked by his barrister David Sherborne how he felt about the publication, he said he was “disgusted”.
He continued: “It just makes me sound like I was a broken man, and I was, but I didn’t want the world knowing.”
Le Vell said he had become ‘extremely paranoid’
In written evidence before the court, Le Vell said he had become “extremely paranoid” over stories about him in the press and that he blamed people around him.
That caused a huge amount of damage to trust and to relationships, he said, commenting: “I feel like I wasted a lot of years alienating decent people in my life.”
He went on to explain why he had joined the legal fight with the Duke of Sussex and more than a hundred others, saying: “Sometimes you just have to speak up for yourself. Now is the time to do that.”
The 58-year-old is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People, for damages over alleged unlawful information gathering between 1991 and 2011.
He claims journalists there were linked to phone hacking; so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception; and the use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
Prince Harry gave evidence in his case earlier on in the trial
MGN denies Le Vell’s claim, arguing there is “no evidence” of voicemail interception or unlawful information gathering relating to him.
Richard Munden, lawyer for MGN, previously alleged Le Vell’s case is “particularly weak”, saying that some articles in the claim were before phone hacking started or when it had “significantly dropped off”.
Le Vell was followed on the witness stand by Alan Halsall who is supporting his claim. “To think that people did not trust him and wrongly suspected him of leaking information to the defendant is heartbreaking to me and to him,” Halsall said in his witness statement.
Halsall also talked about his own experiences of phone hacking; he described voicemails “going missing” for a period or described dialling in to listen to a voicemail and hearing an “engaged tone”.
At the end of the submissions in court on Tuesday, the judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, read a list of journalists’ names, including Matthew Wright, Neil Wallis, Katie Hind, and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, and questioned why none of them had been called as witnesses in the case.
Mr Morgan, who has always denied any knowledge of phone hacking or illegal activity at the Daily Mirror, was yesterday accused of knowing how to hack phones, and explaining how to do it to others, by a former Mirror journalist.
Mr Justice Fancourt said he had a “question in my mind” about whether several people, including three or four associates of the Duke of Sussex, “could and should have given some evidence”.
The judge then specifically referred again to Mr Morgan and former Sunday People editor Neil Wallis, whom he said had “relatively recently had a lot to say about this matter outside of court”.
Closing submissions will be entered this week before final arguments pick up again in court on Tuesday.
The case will formally conclude at the end of next week, with a ruling expected at a later date.
It has become almost impossible to book a driving test on the government website due to bots on the booking system, driving instructors have told Sky News.
The only official way to book a practical car driving test is through the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) website.
New test slots are released by the DVSA at 6am every Monday, but “no matter how fast I am, there’s nothing available”, said Aman Sanghera, a driving instructor based in west London.
Driving instructor Aman Sanghera wants ‘stronger oversight and regulation’ from the DVSA
When asked about the cause, she said: “All of the tests are taken by bots, they are definitely taking over the booking system.”
In this context, bots are automated software designed to mimic human behaviour and programmed to carry out actions like searching for and reserving driving test appointments on the official government website much faster than humans can.
Individuals and companies use bots to block-book driving test slots and then resell them at a profit, which is not illegal, although it is a violation of the DVSA’s terms of use.
Recent data shows the DVSA has closed over 800 business accounts for misuse of its booking service in the past two years.
It takes five months on average for a test in England – unless you pay a middleman
Ms Sanghera, who has been in the trade for over a decade, said the usage of bots started a few months ago “but is now getting out of hand”.
She said: “I’ve actually heard about driving instructors being approached by certain individuals to then take on their IDs to log in and to run this scam.
“I struggle to actually book a test for my students, which means that by the time my students are logging in, they’ve got no chance.”
Driving instructors can book driving tests on behalf of their pupils using a dedicated service, allowing them to bypass the general queue and potentially secure test slots more efficiently.
As a result, Ms Sanghera said students are “forced to go to third-party sites” to secure “the same test dates which are then available later on during the day at a premium rate of like £200-£300”.
She added: “Given that the DVSA is a government-regulated body, one would expect a more robust and fair system to ensure affordability and accessibility for all candidates.”
The long waiting lists and high demand for tests has led some to take advantage
The standard test fee is £62, offered by the DVSA, which is responsible for carrying out driving tests in Great Britain.
The biggest concern for the driving instructors Sky News has spoken to, including Ms Sanghera, is “the fact that students are being exploited”.
When Ahmed Ali struggled to find a practical test on the DVSA website, he turned to third-party sites – a decision he now regrets.
Ahmed Ali started looking for a test two years ago
He said: “I’ve spent about £650 on driving tests, and I’ve sat zero tests. I’ve given all this money to third-parties that look for cancellations so they could try to get you a faster test.”
But the 20-year-old said that despite making the payments, he “didn’t hear back from them again”, which is illegal.
“When you lose all that money, you get to a point where you can’t really afford to find another driving test,” he said.
“I just feel very frustrated because I’ve spent all this money, all this time into driving, and I haven’t sat a single driving test.”
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The DVSA urged applicants to only book tests via the official Gov.uk website and told Sky News it “deploys enhanced bot protection to help stop automated systems from buying up tests unfairly”.
“These applications, however, are constantly evolving and changing, and DVSA’s work on this is ongoing,” it said.
From Tuesday, the DVSA will require learner drivers to provide 10 full working days’ notice to change or cancel their car driving test without losing the test fee, up from the current three days.
Also part of the DVSA’s crackdown to reduce waiting times is a consultation expected to launch in spring 2025 “to streamline the driving test booking process” and “tighten terms and conditions”.
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
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