Ex-Mirror journalist says he was asked to give Coronation Street star flowers containing listening device
A former Mirror Group journalist has told Sky News that he was asked to give a Coronation Street actress a bunch of flowers bugged with a listening device during a visit to a spa.
Dean Piper, a showbiz reporter at The Mirror in the early 2000s, said he was asked to carry out the task while working for the paper’s sister title, The Sunday People.
However, he said he refused and later decided to leave the paper.
Last week, in a privacy case brought by Prince Harry, a High Court judge found another practice – phone hacking – was carried out by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) from 1996 to 2011.
The judge said hacking was “widespread and habitual” from 1998.
He also found there was “some unlawful activity” – involving the use of private investigators – in 1995.
Prince Harry, pictured outside the High Court in May
Speaking to the UK Tonight with Sarah Jane Mee about his experience working at MGN, Mr Piper said: “The worst thing I was ever asked – and it was probably ultimately what made me walk from my job at The People – involved Coronation Street star Tracy Shaw.
“She was having a lot of issues in those days, but she was very big news. She was on the front cover all the time.
“I was called over at one point and said that I was going to go to a spa and have a spa break, and I thought: ‘Brilliant’.
“They said you are going to have a bunch of flowers, and we’re going to put a bug in it, and we’re going to deliver it to Tracy Shaw, and we have booked the room right next door to her, and you’re just going to stay up all night and write down everything that’s gone on.”
Mr Piper said he “point-blank refused” the request.
“There were enough whipper-snappers that want to further their career that probably would have taken the flowers, but that wasn’t morally right, and it’s kind of illegal,” he said.
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Prince Harry: The mission continues
‘It was a Voldemort scenario’
Mr Piper was speaking after Prince Harry’s victory in a phone hacking against his former employers.
The judge ruled in the case that phone hacking “remained an important tool in the climate of journalism” at all three MGN papers – the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – from 2006 to 2011.
The judge also ruled that directors at MGN – Paul Vickers and Sly Bailey – knew about phone hacking but did not inform the rest of the board.
Mr Piper said he was aware that people were phone hacking during his time working there, but insisted “not everybody was phone hacking”.
“I’m able to talk about it because I’ve got a completely clear conscience about the fact that I was never involved in it. But there were people at the paper that did phone hacking,” he said.
“There were certain people on each desk – they were usually away from the main throng of the editorial team – we knew what they did, and we knew that their exclusives were coming from the phones.”
Mr Piper compared the topic of hacking to the main villain in the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort, who is referred to by most characters as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named because of the culture of fear surrounding him.
The ex-reporter said: “It was a ‘Voldemort’ scenario – as far as you didn’t openly talk about it. But everybody knew what was going on.”
Morgan ‘brilliant boss’ but hacking excuse ‘ridiculous’
The judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, said in his ruling that he found it “convincing” that Piers Morgan knew about phone hacking when he was in charge of the Daily Mirror – from 1995 to 2004.
After the judgment, Mr Morgan made a statement outside his London home, in which he said he had “never hacked a phone or told anyone else to hack a phone”.
Former Mirror editor Piers Morgan speaks to the media following the ruling
“There is just one article relating to the prince published in The Daily Mirror during my entire nine-year tenure as editor that he [the High Court judge] thinks may have involved some unlawful information gathering,” Mr Morgan said.
“To be clear, I had then and still have zero knowledge of how that particular story was gathered.”
Mr Piper praised Piers Morgan as a “brilliant boss” who was “very supportive”.
But asked about the judgment and Mr Morgan’s defence, Mr Piper said: “I mean, look, if you’re a national newspaper editor, and you’ve got all of this power, and you’re deciding what the narrative is for the Daily Mirror the first thing you’re going to say is, where did that story come from?
“So I find that quite amusing and kind of ridiculous because that’s the first port of call as an editor and as a journalist, you want to know where the story came from.”
Read more:
What were the articles at the centre of the case?
Key findings in the judgment
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Morgan: “I have never hacked a phone”
Mr Piper added: “But there is an open conversation that I feel is important about the way that those newspapers did work in those days.
“And it wasn’t good what they were doing, and it would be nice if people started to get to the point where they accepted some responsibility for what they put people through.”
He continued: “You only have to look at the front pages in those days to realise how many stories were coming from that [phone hacking]. It wasn’t just the odd one, it was endless amounts.”
A spokesperson for Mirror Group said following last week’s judgment: “We welcome the judgment that gives the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.
“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation.”
Entertainment
Bob Vylan on ‘death, death to the IDF’ chant: ‘I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays’
Bob Vylan’s frontman has said he does not regret chanting “death, death to the IDF” at Glastonbury – and would do it again.
The outspoken punk duo sparked controversy with their performance at the festival in June, with the broadcast also leading to fierce criticism of the BBC.
But speaking on The Louis Theroux podcast, Bobby Vylan said he stood by the chant, adding: “I’d do it again tomorrow, twice on Sundays.”
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BBC bosses grilled over Masterchef, Bob Vylan and Gaza documentary
The US condemned the act’s “hateful tirade” and revoked their visas, with several festivals cancelling their upcoming appearances.
Vylan claimed this backlash is “minimal” compared with what the people of Palestine are going through – with many losing members of their family or forced to flee their homes.
He said: “If I have their support, they’re the people that I’m doing it for, they’re the people that I’m being vocal for, then what is there to regret. Oh, because I’ve upset some right-wing politician or some right-wing media?”
The musician revealed he was taken aback by the uproar caused by the chant, which was described by the prime minister as “appalling hate speech”.
Vylan added: “It wasn’t like we came off stage, and everybody was like (gasps). It’s just normal. We come off stage. It’s normal. Nobody thought anything. Nobody. Even staff at the BBC were like: ‘That was fantastic! We loved that!'”
A spokesperson at Mindhouse Productions – which was founded by Theroux and produces The Louis Theroux podcast – told Sky News: “Louis is a journalist with a long history of speaking to controversial figures who may divide opinion. We would suggest people watch or listen to the interview in its entirety to get the full context of the conversation.”
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Calls for Bob Vylan concert to be cancelled
‘The response was disproportionate’
The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit has since found that the broadcast of Bob Vylan’s set breached editorial standards related to harm and offence.
Theroux asked Vylan what he meant by chanting “death to the IDF” – with the musician replying: “It’s so unimportant, and the response to it was so disproportionate.
“What is important is the conditions that exist to allow that chant to even take place on that stage. And I mean, the conditions that exist in Palestine. Where the Palestinian people are being killed at an alarming rate.”
Read more from Sky News:
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No more investigations into ‘non-hate crime incidents’, Met says
Victim of Manchester synagogue attack speaks out
Pic: PA
He said he wanted an end to the oppression that the Palestinian people are facing – but argued chanting “end, end the IDF” wouldn’t have caught on because it doesn’t rhyme.
“We are there to entertain, we are there to play music,” Vylan added. “I am a lyricist. ‘Death, death to IDF’ rhymes. Perfect chant.”
He went on to reject claims that their set had contributed to a spike in antisemitic incidents that were reported a couple of days later.
“I don’t think I have created an unsafe atmosphere for the Jewish community. If there were large numbers of people going out and going like ‘Bob Vylan made me do this’. I might go, ‘oof, I’ve had a negative impact here’.”
Vylan’s conversation with Theroux was recorded on 1 October – before the Manchester synagogue attack, and prior to the ceasefire in Gaza coming into effect.
Entertainment
Gavin Plumb: Man jailed for plotting to rape and murder Holly Willoughby loses appeal against life sentence
A security guard jailed for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder TV star Holly Willoughby has lost an appeal against his life sentence.
Gavin Plumb was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years last year after being convicted of soliciting murder and encouraging or assisting others to rape and kidnap.
A trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard that police found bottles of chloroform and an “abduction kit” with cable ties when officers raided the 38-year-old’s flat in Harlow, Essex.
Plumb’s kidnap plan involved attempting to “ambush” Willoughby at her family home, jurors heard.
Plumb argued in his defence that it was just online chat and fantasy.
Police believed Plumb was an ‘imminent threat’ to Holly Willoughby. Pic: PA
He was caught after an undercover police officer in the US infiltrated an online group called Abduct Lovers.
He told the officer, who used the pseudonym David Nelson, that he was “definitely serious” about his plot to kidnap the former This Morning host, leaving him with the impression that there was an “imminent threat” to Willoughby.
Due to the officer’s concern over Plumb’s post, evidence was passed to the FBI, who then contacted police in the UK.
Willoughby, who asked for her victim personal statement to be private, waived her right to anonymity in connection with the charge against Plumb of assisting or encouraging rape.
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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is appealing the conviction handed down to him earlier this year over prostitution charges relating to his former girlfriends and male sex workers.
The music mogul was given a 50-month sentence and a $500,000 fine for flying people around the US and abroad for sexual encounters, including his then-girlfriend and male sex workers, in violation of prostitution laws.
He was cleared of more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking that could have put him in jail for life.
The two-page formal notice of appeal, seen by Sky News, was filed in Manhattan federal court on Monday, confirming he will be challenging both his conviction and his sentence.
It lists Combs’s defence council as Alexandra A E Shapiro, and shows a $605 (£450) docketing fee was paid to lodge the formal notice.
More detailed filings are expected to follow.
On the day of sentencing in early October the rapper’s lawyers had signalled they intended to appeal.
Combs, 55, has been in custody since his arrest last year.
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Diddy jailed for more than four years
His seven-week trial earlier this year included four days of testimony from Cassie, now Cassie Ventura Fine, who told the court she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into sexual encounters with male sex workers, referred to as “freak offs”.
Jurors were also shown video clips of Combs dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one of those sessions in 2016.
Ahead of the sentencing, Cassie also submitted a letter to the judge, calling Combs a “manipulator” and saying she would fear for her safety should he be immediately released.
Diddy and Cassie at the premiere for a film she starred in, just days after the 2016 hotel incident. Pic: zz/Galaxy/STAR MAX/IPx/ AP
Ahead of his sentencing, Combs told the court he admitted his past behaviour was “disgusting, shameful and sick”, and apologised personally to Cassie Ventura and “Jane”, another former girlfriend who testified anonymously during the trial.
He told the court he’d got “lost in my excess and lost in my ego”, but since his time in prison he has been “humbled and broken to my core,” adding “I hate myself right now… I am truly sorry for it all.”
Judge Arun Subramanian, who had rejected bail for the rapper several times before sentencing, told him that he would get through his time in prison and would still “have a life afterwards,” calling it “a chance for renewal and redemption”.
He was facing a maximum of 20 years in prison for the prostitution-related charges, so the sentence was towards the lower end of the scale.
Prosecutors had argued he should spend at least 11 years behind bars, while Combs’s lawyers had called for him to be freed almost immediately due to time already served since his arrest just over a year ago.
Sky News has contacted Combs’s lawyers for comment.
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