‘News International sought to destroy my life, and very nearly succeeded’ lawyer tells panel

Mark Lewis, a lawyer for several high-profile hacking victims, yesterday described his shock at learning that he and his family had been put under surveillance by a private investigator working for News International.

The surveillance, apparently in search of material to discredit him, included following and filming his 14-year-old daughter.

“News International sought to destroy my life, and very nearly succeeded,” Lewis told the Leveson Inquiry.

News International has acknowledged it spied on Lewis and another lawyer and apologised.

On 4 November, detectives at a police station in Putney, west London, showed Mr Lewis surveillance video of his ex-wife and teenage daughter.

The solicitor told the inquiry that his three other daughters asked him whether they had also been watched by the investigator, who was later identified as former policeman Derek Webb.

He said: “That was truly horrific, that my daughter was videoed, was followed by a detective with a camera … That shouldn’t happen to anybody’s child.”

Mr Lewis was also shown a report prepared by a private investigator commissioned by Julian Pike, a partner with law firm Farrer & Co, the inquiry heard.

Mr Pike suggested Mr Lewis had leaked confidential information about Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor’s settlement with News Group Newspapers over the hacking of his phone.

But Mr Lewis told the inquiry: “I was not the source of that story, I never gave information out. It was complete arrogance and idiocy by Julian Pike at Farrers and [News International lawyer] Tom Crone.

“They were so busy navel-gazing that they had not realised there were so many possible sources of this story. The story was open, the court file was open for anyone to look at.”

The inquiry was shown documents recording the suggestion that Mr Taylor could be persuaded to take action against Mr Lewis, who represented him in his phone hacking claim against the News of the World.

Mr Lewis said: “News Group Newspapers wanted to persuade one of my clients, someone I had got a lot of money for, to sue me, even though he had not threatened to sue me, had no wish to sue me as far as I knew, and did not sue me.”