Leveson inquiry: Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre defends past use of private detectives

THE editor of the Daily Mail was aware the newspaper was using “search agencies”, but not the extent to which they were doing so, he told the inquiry into press standards.

Paul Dacre, editor-in-chief of Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, told the Leveson Inquiry that using private detectives to access information used to be commonplace in the newspaper industry.

The inquiry has previously heard from Mail on Sunday editor Peter Wright that the paper continued using private detective Steve Whittamore for 18 months after he was raided in an investigation into the unlawful trade of personal information.

Whittamore was convicted of illegally accessing data in April 2005. Mr Dacre, the longest-serving Fleet Street editor, said: “We wrote to Mr Whittamore and said could he give us an assurance that he was acting within the law.”

He added: “In 2007 we brought the shutters down and absolutely banned the use of all these... of Whittamore inquiry agencies.”

Mr Dacre said that “everybody, every newspaper” had been using Whittamore at one stage. He said: “We didn’t realise what they were doing was illegal. There was a very hazy understanding of how the Data Protection Act worked and this was seen as a very quick way of obtaining phone numbers and addresses to corroborate stories.”

He was asked by counsel to the inquiry Robert Jay QC about his reaction to an Information Commissioner’s report which had put the Daily Mail top of the league of newspapers using Whittamore, with 958 transactions which were positively identified as illegal, involving 58 journalists.

“Obviously it brought things home to me,” he said. “Everybody was using this, law firms use them even now. Local authorities use them, insurance companies use them.”

Mr Dacre also called for a new system of accrediting journalists to act as an “essential kite mark” for standards. He told the Leveson Inquiry that “the existing press cards don’t mean much”.

Mr Dacre also argued that there should be a new self-regulatory body, standing alongside the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), to deal with press standards.

Mr Dacre defended a story about stabbed mother Abigail Witchalls in the Daily Mail. Last week the mother of Ms Witchalls, who was left paralysed after being stabbed in front of her son in 2005, told the inquiry about media intrusion following the attack.

Baroness Hollins had given an example of an article in the Daily Mail in November 2005 which linked the attack on her daughter to an assault suffered by her vulnerable brother some years earlier.

But Mr Dacre said: “To my mind this is a story and a feature handled with superb sensitivity.”

He also defended Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir for a controversial opinion piece she wrote following the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately in 2009, which prompted thousands of complaints to the PCC.

Mr Dacre said: “My view is that when the furore broke, perhaps the timing was a little regrettable. I think the piece, the column, could have benefited from a little judicious sub-editing.”

He was keen to stress, however, his opinion that “there is not a homophobic bone in Jan Moir’s body”.