*Baroness Doreen Lawrence feels a “deep sense of betrayal” over Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) allegedly hiring private investigators to “unlawfully or illegally” obtain her private information, her lawyers said.
She now wonders whether trusting the Daily Mail over its “entirely false” support for her fight for justice “caused her to have failed her murdered son”, the court was told.
In her High Court breach of privacy claim against ANL, brought alongside other high-profile individuals, she claims there was “illegal interception” of her voicemail messages and that her phone was tapped between 1993 and 2007.
She also alleges her bank accounts and phone bills were monitored, that she was subject to “covert electronic surveillance” and that “corrupt payments” were made to serving police officers for confidential information, including to those investigating her son’s killing.
ANL says it firmly denies that unlawful information gathering took place at its newspapers, and the legal claims against it are being brought too late.
Baroness Lawrence joined Sir Elton John and the Duke of Sussex for the first of a four-day preliminary hearing in their cases at the High Court in London on Monday.
Barrister David Sherborne, representing Baroness Lawrence, said in written submissions that she and her family were targeted “both before and during” the Daily Mail’s Justice for Stephen Lawrence Campaign.
Alleged unlawful activity included a private investigator monitoring her bank accounts “specifically to check whether (she) was receiving ‘buy up’ money from and/or working with other newspapers” during the campaign.
Mr Sherborne said Baroness Lawrence “never once suspected” ANL of the allegations because it had “professed to help her”, but she believed information in some of the newspaper’s articles came from “those nearest and dearest to her” or police sources.
“The impact of this belief was profound, damaging professional and personal relationships that could have been genuine and could have helped to bring her son’s killers to account,” Mr Sherborne said.
He added that Baroness Lawrence feels “haunted by the fact that she will never know the true impact of the Daily Mail’s unlawful acts and unlawful articles on her fight for justice for Stephen”.
“She wonders whether trusting the Daily Mail as she did caused her to have delayed or have failed her murdered son.”
Baroness Lawrence “feels anger, shock and upset” at the newspaper’s alleged actions which were “deliberately concealed” from her, Mr Sherborne added.*
Note, Mr Sherborne representing her, as he is Harry.