Phone-Hacking Trial: Titmuss, Leslie, Jowell and Rooney

Titmuss is a model and actress who was in a relationship with Leslie, a TV presenter, when Leslie was due to stand trial for a variety of sex offences. Another TV presenter, Ulrika Johnson, had written an autobiography in 2002 in which she claimed she had been raped by a TV presenter. Johnson did not name the alleged rapist but a Channel 5 talk show presenter, Matthew Wright, named Leslie on air as the person involved. This led, according to the prosecution, to intense media interest in the couple.

In July 2003 John Leslie was tried for sexual assualt, but the prosecution offered no evidence and the case was dropped. A document found at the home of convicted phone hacker Glen Mulcaire was shown to the court: in it are the names and numbers of both Leslie and Titmuss including the words “Do both phones.”

The court was then read statements from both Titmuss and Leslie, in which they confirmed their numbers were those found on Mulcaire’s notes and that they had never given anyone permission to access their voicemails.

After those statements the court heard one from Eunice Huthart, which said she had been the winner of the television show 'Gladiators' and then became the stunt double for actress Angelina Jolie. In 2005, while working in LA with Brad Pitt and Jolie filming 'Mr and Mrs Smith', Huthart had problems accessing her mobile phone messages as her PIN code would not work, which she complained about to Vodafone. Her statement went on to identify her telephone number from Mulcaire's notes which also contained the line "re-set voicemail". The prosecution said this would fit with the problems had in accessing her voicemail. The jury was also asked to consider a number of News of the World articles about Pitt and Jolie from the period corresponding to this incident.

Other possible victims mentioned today included Kate Middleton and Tom Parker Bowles. The jury were told more detail on these accusations would be put before them as the trial continued.

We then moved on to Laura Rooney and Wayne Rooney, the professional footballer. The court heard told Laura, a hairdresser, is not related to Wayne and has never even met him. However, the jury was told that her name and telephone number were found in Glen Mulcaire's notes and that telephone records show he accessed her voicemails on numerous occasions in 2006.

The jury was then shown a number of stories relating to Wayne Rooney in the Sun newspaper from 2006. These included a story, subsequently denied by both parties, that Rooney had paid for sex in a massage parlour with a Patricia Tierney. Documents were shown to the court from Mulcaire’s notebooks with the notation “Sun £250 Patricia Tierney and Wayne Rooney”. Statements were read from Rooney and Tiernan confirming the telephone numbers on Mulcaire’s notes did belong to them in 2004 and 2005.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, defence barrister for then Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, suggested the reference to The Sun” is “rather puzzling in context of Mulcaire notes". There are, he said, 8000 pages or so of notes yet this is the only reference to The Sun, nor any reference to any journalist working for the Sun. He also questioned how the police could be certain of the dates given as no date appears on this note. There is also, he said, no evidence of any phone contact between Mulcaire and The Sun. There is also no evidence of any payment of £250 from the paper to Mulcaire, or any story that shows any evidence of a “hack” the police have discovered.

He also pointed out to the jury that the accusations that Wayne Rooney used prostitutes was not “broken” by the Sun but instead by the Sunday Mirror. He also told the court that in August and September 2005, Tierney was in the process of litigation, suing the Sun over the truthfulness of these allegations. Her claim was she did not have sex with Mr Rooney and neither was she a prostitute. Her claim, he said, failed and had to be withdrawn. This he said showed a different context to the material. Perhaps, he added, this gave a possible reason why Mulcaire may have decided to add the words “The Sun” to his notebook.

The court then took a short break.

On the jury’s return, Andrew Edis, QC for the prosecution, returned to the statement from Tierney, telling the court that after the story about Wayne Rooney broke Tierney was called by people pretending to be “doctors from the Red Cross”. One came to her home and after gaining entry he revealed he was a journalist from the News of the World and offered her £250,000 for her story. She also identified her husband and doctor’s name from Mulcaire’s notes.

We then moved on to the timeline for Tessa Jowell and David Mills. Jowell was an MP and a goverment minister, Mills, her husband, a lawyer who was being prosecuted in Italy for alleged corrupt links with then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, including allegations that Berlusconi had paid the Mortgage on Jowell’s and Mills’ home. The jury was shown text messages between Jowell’s accountant, a Sue Mullin, and a Sunday Times journalist, Gareth Walsh, from 4 March 2006. The journalist accuses Jowell’s accountant of submitting a false statement to the Inland Revenue and asked her to call him to discuss a story he was planning on the matter. Mullin refuses to discuss the matter due to client confidentiality.

The jury was then shown contact records which show Glen Mulcaire had accessed Jowell’s mobile number and shortly after Mills’s number. There was then a record of a call between Ian Edmonson, a News of the World journalist, followed by an incident of hacking directly from a private line at the News of the World’s HQ in Wapping, all on 4 March 2006.

The court was then shown a series of articles from the News of the World edition of 5 March 2006. One was headlined “Tessa in a Messa”, highlighting a loan she had taken out jointly with Mills. The second story on Jowell was one where the News of the World had contacted her sister to tell her about a “marriage breakup” headlined “A Split Dodgy”. Her sister was quoted as being “shocked by the news".

The prosecution then moved on to an invoice from “9 Consultancy Ltd”, a firm owned by Glen Mulcaire, billing the News of the World for £750 re “Urgent work Jowell”. More calls between Edmonson at the News of the World and Mulcaire, the hacker, were brought into evidence. Tessa Jowell was, according to the prosecution, repeatedly hacked by Mulcaire after these calls were made. Stories from the paper corresponding to these hacks were also shown to the jury. The court was also shown an email from Mulcaire to Edmonson at the News of the World - subject “Tessa” - giving Mills' and Jowell’s mobile numbers and PIN numbers, adding: “substantial traffic both ways and “looks like she is selling up”

A digital recording of a hacked call from Tessa Jowell’s mobile was seized by police in 2006 from Mulcaire’s home.

Statements from Tessa Jowell and David Mills were then read to the court. Jowell’s confirmed that in 2006 the couple were “seperated” but spoke often on their mobile phones and left many voicemails about their children and other domestic matters. The statement confirmed that neither had ever gave anyone permission to access their mobile phone messages.

The trial continues.