PANTOMIME
Rogue Witness Sabotages Prince Harry Hacking Claim v Daily Mail
SENSATIONAL hacking claims brought by Prince Harry and Doreen Lawrence against The Daily Mail could collapse due to a nasty legal dispute between key witnesses in the case.
Graham Johnson, a corrupt former tabloid reporter, and Gavin Burrows, a private investigator who did “naughty” work for newspapers, are locked in a contractual dispute over a tell all memoir.
The bust up raises questions about the workings of a secretive network of lawyers and activists behind the claim against the Mail and other newspapers caught up in the phone hacking scandal.
Johnson, who runs a small publishing company, commissioned Burrows to write about his life as a corporate gumshoe, titled Hack, Blagger, Tapper.
However, the pair’s relationship soured amid allegations of unethical conduct and unpaid fees that has escalated to claims of assault, intimidation and perjury.
A courtroom showdown now looks likely, which could draw the actor and press reform activist Hugh Grant into the fray.
The spat has wider implications because Johnson and Burrows are key witnesses and sources of information for a network of lawyers who’ve already won significant pay outs from Rupert Murdoch for misconduct at The News of The World and from the owners of The Mirror newspaper group.
This same network of lawyers are now gunning for the Daily Mail and recently brought a super claim alleging widespread bugging and hacking of Prince Harry, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, Elton John and others.
The super claim could prove ruinous for the Tory-supporting Rothermere family, who last year took the Daily Mail private in a £2bn share buy back deal, and may also cost former editor Paul Dacre a seat in the House of Lords.
Sources say the newspaper is already shaken that Baroness Doreen Lawrence has now turned on the Daily Mail and issued legal proceedings.
The newspaper emphatically denies the hacking and bugging allegations but has yet to acknowledge the super claim, let alone file a defence with the High Court.
Burrows, 52, was assisting Prince Harry’s claim and helped obtain information about the alleged bugging of Baroness Lawrence.
But the once prized insider has gone rogue and his legal case against Johnson could prove useful to all newspapers still in the cross hairs of the hacking scandal.
Johnson, 54, built his corrupt career in journalism on fabricating stories and was later convicted of phone hacking. He has since reinvented himself as a truth teller and evangelical scourge of media corruption at the Mail and other newspapers.
His rehabilitation owes a lot to Hacked Off, the pressure group fronted by Hugh Grant, who championed Johnson as a '“whistleblower”.
The former News of The World and Sunday Mirror journalist is an important witness, fixer and source of information for the law firms behind the super claim against the Daily Mail.
He introduced Burrows to the lawyer that represents Baroness Lawrence, Sir Elton, his husband David Furnish and Liz Hurley.
Johnson also paid Burrows £30,000 to trace and turn private investigators into sources of information for books, online articles and TV projects.
But after several years working together, Burrows has turned against Johnson and the claimant lawyers.
So much so, the private investigator is now questioning the reliability of information, including his own witness statements, and happily refers to the claimant lawyers as “greedy ponces” and “ambulance chasers”.
The Upsetter interviewed Johnson and Burrows about their legal fight on a media battlefield already populated by a rum cast of characters reaching for the higher ground.
Among them are hooker-loving actors, a kinky fascist benefactor, buggers, hackers and blaggers with drink and drug problems, crooked journalists and cops and claimant lawyers with air miles, suntans and hourly rates beyond the dreams of avarice.
Christmas is over, but this is one pantomime worth watching over the New Year.
Elton John is clearly the Panto ‘Dame’ and Harry the love struck prince. But who are the real villains, village idiots, henchman and damsels in distress?
Take your seats.
