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A former Mail on Sunday journalist has denied being the “handler” of a private investigator alleged to have bugged homes and tapped the phones of his targets, the high court has heard.
Paul Henderson, who was the Mail on Sunday’s investigations editor and briefly its news editor, said it was surreal to be described as having a close relationship with Gavin Burrows, a private investigator whose disputed confessions provide the most serious accusations of unlawful information gathering against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
Prince Harry is among seven claimants suing the publisher of the titles, Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), accusing it of deploying private investigators to use a “menu” of corrupt practices to secure stories. ANL denies all the allegations of wrongdoing.
At the high court, Henderson was accused by the claimants’ legal team of being a conduit between corrupt private investigators and other ANL journalists, which he said was an “absolute lie”.
He was repeatedly questioned about his relationship with Burrows, who has since said that a witness statement in his name – which admitted to bugging houses, phone tapping and “blagging” bank and medical records – was forged.
The disputed Burrows statement points to Henderson as his “first proper contact … on Fleet Street” and says they spoke regularly. “I trusted him and he trusted me and we had a good working relationship,” the statement reads.
Henderson said Burrows may have been “the Mallorca man” – a contact he met on the island in relation to a potential story relating to the business magnate Richard Branson. “I do not remember ever working with or having any contact with the Mallorca man again,” he said in a written submission.
He said it was “surreal to me” to be answering questions about working with Burrows, given Burrows himself had disowned the claims in his witness statement.
Henderson said he could not remember what he asked the “Mallorca man” to do, but that he would never have asked anyone to do anything illegal and did not recognise Burrows when shown a picture of him.
David Sherborne, the leading barrister for the claimants, said that the disputed Burrows testimony would need to have fabricated “an exceptionally detailed” account of how Henderson acted as his “handler”.
The account includes claims that Henderson introduced Burrows to other journalists and even sent cash to a virtual mail drop on Regent Street, London, in exchange for an envelope containing tapes. “This is nonsense and is absolutely untrue,” Henderson said.
“I understand there’s detail in there, but it’s fabricated – it’s just not true,” he said. “I’d like the claimants in this action to know I never did any of this.”
Asked by Sherborne why he would have been the target of such fabrications, Henderson surmised that those who put together the disputed Burrows confession “weaved something together” based on their possible Mallorca meeting.
“These are extreme and grotesque claims that never ever happened,” he said. “Mr Burrows has since categorically refuted all of it … I don’t know how this document was put together.”
The judge, Mr Justice Nicklin, is yet to rule on how he will treat the disputed Burrows claims, which play a major role in the cases of some of the seven claimants, including those relating to Elton John and Elizabeth Hurley.
Henderson also denied commissioning other private investigators, including previously convicted figures Glenn Mulcaire, Steve Whittamore and Jonathan Rees.
The case continues.
