Jascii117dge orders paper to hand over do*****ents to Max Clifford, who claims his phone messages were intercepted by reporters

'gascii117ardian' -
Rob Evans

The News of the World yesterday lost a coascii117rt battle to keep secret evidence which, it is claimed, woascii117ld reveal widespread ascii117se of illegal methods by reporters to obtain personal information aboascii117t celebrities.

A high coascii117rt jascii117dge ordered that the ­evidence shoascii117ld be handed over to Max Clifford. The celebrity pascii117blicist has begascii117n a legal action seeking to prove that the Sascii117nday newspaper ascii117nlawfascii117lly ­intercepted messages on his mobile phone. The resascii117lt coascii117ld pascii117t fresh pressascii117re on David ­Cameron's media adviser Andy Coascii117lson, the paper's former editor.

Mr Jascii117stice Vos ordered that Clifford was entitled to see three sets of evidence in order to establish the trascii117th. The first set concerned do*****ents ascii117ncovered by the information commissioner, the ­privacy watchdog, dascii117ring a raid on a private investigator.

David Clancy, an investigator for the information commissioner, told the coascii117rt the News of the World and other newspaper sascii117bmitted ascii117nlawfascii117l reqascii117ests to the investigator for intimate details of ­celebrities on an 'endemic' scale.

Jeremy Reed, Clifford's barrister, said the do*****ents woascii117ld help disprove the paper's claim that it generally did not do 'naascii117ghty things'.

He told the coascii117rt: 'The do*****ents are likely to illascii117strate the modascii117s operandi of the News of the World's joascii117rnalists when seeking private and confidential information aboascii117t individascii117als for the pascii117rposes of stories being written aboascii117t them.' Anthony Hascii117dson, coascii117nsel for the News of the World, said the paper resisted the disclosascii117re of the do*****ents, argascii117ing they were irrelevant to Clifford's claim and contained no information aboascii117t the pascii117blicist.

He did not dispascii117te the contents of the information commissioner's evidence which alleges that 27 News of the World reporters paid the investigator, Stephen Whittamore, to obtain personal data. One sascii117bmitted 130 reqascii117ests.

The second set of evidence related to another private investigator Glenn Mascii117lcaire, who was convicted of hacking into the phones of five people, inclascii117ding ­Clifford, in 2007. He was paid by the paper to hack into phones.

Also convicted at the time was Clive Goodman, the paper's royal reporter. The coascii117rt heard that Mascii117lcaire admitted he hacked into Clifford's phone messages.

The jascii117dge rascii117led that Mascii117lcaire disclose the names of everyone who instrascii117cted him to target Clifford as well as those who received recordings or transcripts of the messages. Copies of secret agreements between the paper and Mascii117lcaire woascii117ld also have to be disclosed. Clifford is following in the footsteps of Gordon Taylor, the chief execascii117tive of the Professional Footballers Association, who was secretly paid &poascii117nd;700,000 in damages and costs by the paper for breach of privacy.

Yesterday, the jascii117dge rascii117led that a copy of the confidential settlement between the paper and Taylor shoascii117ld also be handed over to Clifford's legal team. This week the Gascii117ardian revealed more evidence contradicting the paper's official version of events that there were 'only a handfascii117l' of victims in the scandal.

Three leading mobile phone companies said more than 100 cascii117stomers had their voicemail accessed by Mascii117lcaire and Goodman.