Morgan Hits Back For Tabloids At Inquiry

The legal team leading the inquiry in media ethics has indicated it may call the ex-wife of Sir Paul McCartney, Heather Mills, to testify on phone hacking.

It follows the testimony of the ex-tabloid editor Piers Morgan, who refused to discuss who played him an audio recording of a voicemail message left on her mobile phone by the ex-Beatle.

Mr Morgan, who is now a talk show host for the US network CNN, gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry via a video link from New York.

The former editor of the News of the World and the Daily Mirror told the hearing it was he who first introduced Sir Paul McCartney to Heather Mills.

He was asked by Robert Jay QC for the inquiry about the audio recording he said was played to him in his office around the time the couple was encountering problems with their marriage.

Mr Morgan refused to tell the inquiry about the details of when he heard the message for fear of revealing his source.

"I'm not going to discuss where I heard it, or who played it to me," he said.

Mr Jay pressed Mr Morgan on the matter: "But it was a voicemail message, wasn't it?"

He replied: "I believe it was, yes." But he continued to refuse to discuss the source.

Lord Justice Leveson said the only person who could have lawfully given Mr Morgan permission for that voicemail to be listened to was Heather Mills and he said he was quite prepared to call her to testify.

In an online news report Mr Morgan's current US employers described their star presenter's evidence as being "at times clipped and at times testy".

Mr Morgan became the youngest editor of a tabloid newspaper in the UK when he took over the helm at the News of the World in 1994, aged just 28.

He went on to edit the Daily Mirror, but was sacked in 2004 after the paper published fake photographs purporting to show British soldiers abusing Iraqi detainees.

Mr Morgan told the Leveson inquiry he was unaware of any phone hacking when he was at the Daily Mirror.

He was asked by Mr Jay whether phone hacking had taken place at the Daily Mirror, prior to 2004. He replied, "To the best of my recollection, I do not believe so."

He said he had not been directly involved in the use of private investigators at the newspaper.

He said: "This was dealt with through the news desk or the features desk so, like most other editors, you just would not get directly involved."

Asked about comments he made to GQ magazine in 2007 where he was quoted as saying phone hacking was well known about in Fleet Street, the witness said that was talk from those who worked in the industry.

Mr Morgan had also claimed in the same article that News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, who was jailed for hacking in 2007, was a scapegoat.

When asked about that at the inquiry, Mr Morgan said this had been borne out by subsequent events.

Mr Jay also hinted that Rupert Murdoch and his son James will be called to give evidence before Lord Justice Leveson, but did not give any further details about when that might happen.