Ex-reporter says he bought records detailing how the footballers were targeted by organised crime gangs
The Sunday Mirror illegally bought police reports on Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney that detailed how the footballers were targeted by organised crime gangs, the high court has heard.
Graham Johnson, a former reporter on the newspaper, told the phone-hacking trial that he would often commission private investigators to illegally blag the records of Premier League footballers.
He hacked the voicemails of the actor Denise Welch, the mother of the 1975 singer Matty Healy, in an attempt to stand up a story that she was in a relationship with a criminal underworld figure.
He was ordered by the top editors at the Sunday Mirror to bug Welch’s hotel room in order to catch her in the alleged relationship.
The Sunday Mirror hacked the voicemails of footballers and football managers including Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand and Avram Grant.
Hugh Grant’s emails were hacked by a private investigator, who then provided them to the Mirror for a story about Grant’s private relationship.
The use of Grant’s hacked emails was carried out with the knowledge of the acting Sunday Mirror editor Richard Wallace, who is now the boss of Rupert Murdoch’s talkTV.
Mirror journalists bought access to celebrities’ flight details through a contact who had access to the computer terminal at the British Airways VIP lounge at Heathrow.
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