Ex-footballer suspected his phone hacked

A FORMER Premiership footballer who tried to stop a tabloid paper publishing details of his adultery suggested journalists may have hacked his phone.

Ex-Blackburn Rovers captain Garry Flitcroft took out an injunction in April 2001 to prevent the People newspaper running a “kiss-and-tell” story about a brief affair.

This was overturned by the Court of Appeal in early 2002, leading to public humiliation for the married father when his name was finally disclosed.

Flitcroft told the Leveson Inquiry yesterday that he “strongly suspected” reporters had hacked his phone to discover details of a second woman with whom he had an affair.

But he admitted he had no firm evidence his voicemail messages were illegally intercepted.

He told the inquiry: “That is just speculation. I have no evidence at all. It just seems a massive coincidence that the same newspaper gets two girls in the space of a couple of months.”

Before the injunction was lifted, Flitcroft said rumours circulated that it was him and he was teased in the dressing room about it.

Once the injunction was lifted, his solicitor called him and warned him to “get out of the house”, he said. Before Flitcroft had a chance to tell his wife about the affair, a reporter from the Daily Mail rang his buzzer.