A source told Newsnight that Sunday Mirror reporters used phone hacking to get scoops Evidence of possible phone hacking at the Sunday Mirror newspaper has been found by the BBC's Newsnight.
The programme spoke to a journalist who worked on the paper in the past decade who claimed to have witnessed routine phone hacking in the newsroom.The source said celebrities including actress Liz Hurley and footballer Rio Ferdinand were targeted.
Trinity Mirror said its journalists work within the criminal law and Press Complaints Commission code of conduct.
'Dark arts' The source told Newsnight's Richard Watson: "One afternoon in the newsroom I saw Liz Hurley's phone being hacked and a reporter listen to her mobile phone messages and take a note of what was said.
"It was a Thursday and I was told that there wasn't much on there - just something about lunch from another woman, so they would keep trying before the weekend to see what they could find."
The programme's source said the technique of phone hacking was used on a daily basis.
"Designated reporters would be doing it pretty much every day," they said.
"One reporter who was very good at it was called the 'master of the dark arts'.
Voiceover artist "At one point in 2004 it seemed like it was the only way people were getting scoops.
"If they didn't just randomly hack people in the news, they would use it to stand up stories that people had denied."
The source claimed the Sunday Mirror hired a voiceover artist to imitate famous people in order to get information about them.
"I was told he had successfully managed to get health records too," the source said.
"He was such a god of a voiceover artist that he could pretend to be famous people or failing that he'd pretend to be their lawyer or someone related to them.
"I was told that we had got [actress] Leslie Ash's medical records from the 'dark arts'."
'Followed extensively' Meanwhile, BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said a former Daily Mirror journalist James Hipwell has told an Australian newspaper he is willing to testify that in the late 1990s Mirror journalists were told to go through the voicemails of celebrities to look for stories.
Hipwell has served time in prison for writing about companies whose shares he owned.
Trinity Mirror Group said in a statement: "Trinity Mirror's position is clear. Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct."
The BBC has also learned that the News of the World hired a private investigator to follow Labour MP Tom Watson while he attended his party's conference in Brighton in 2009.
A source close to the now defunct Sunday tabloid said the paper was attempting to write a story about the MP but nothing was published.
There is no suggestion that Mr Watson's mobile phone was hacked.
"Politicians were being followed extensively," said the source who worked for the newspaper for several years but asked not to be named.
News International, which published the News of the World, said it would not comment.
In other developments:
- Prime Minister David Cameron said James Murdoch "clearly" needed to answer questions from MPs after his evidence on phone hacking was challenged
- Strathclyde Police are to investigate claims of phone hacking and breaches of data protection in Scotland. Its inquiry will centre on allegations that witnesses gave perjured evidence in the perjury trial of ex-MSP Tommy Sheridan
- John Yates, who resigned from his role as assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on Monday, issued High Court proceedings for libel against the London Evening Standard over aspects of its reporting of his conduct in the phone-hacking investigation
- The Law Society will write to the judge leading the inquiry into phone hacking asking him to investigate after revealing that police have warned solicitors their phone messages might have been hacked
- The Solicitors Regulation Authority launched its own investigation into the role of solicitors in the events surrounding the crisis
- Labour MP Chris Bryant, who is suing over allegations his phone was hacked, wrote to non-executive directors of News Corporation asking for James and Rupert Murdoch to be suspended by the company's board
- Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg confirmed he did raise questions about Mr Cameron's decision to bring ex-NoW editor Andy Coulson into No 10 as his director of communications
- The BBC learned the FBI plans to contact actor Jude Law following claims his mobile phone was hacked during a visit to the US. News International denies the claims.
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