8 h, jun 3, 2020 y - BYLINE INVESTIGATES HACKING CASE: Now Depp, Gascoigne, and the estate of Amy Winehouse sue The Sun over 'medical record blags

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HACKING CASE:
Now Depp, Gascoigne, and the estate of Amy Winehouse sue The Sun over ‘medical record blags’

By Graham Johnson
Editor, Byline Investigates

* FRESH problems for Rupert Murdoch as scores of new claimants join billion-pound ‘unlawful newsgathering’ litigation
* MORE than 120 people are now suing publisher News UK in the fourth wave of legal actions heading to court in October
* THE development over “historical” allegations divert attention from News UK’s announcement of new venture TimesRadio’s programme schedule
* EX-footballers are coming forward following allegations that sports desks illegally hacked and blagged, with snooker and motor racing also allegedly targeted, as;
* NEW hacking claims follow allegations that millions of emails were deleted in a major cover up of wrongdoing

JOHNNY Depp, Paul Gascoigne, and the estate of Amy Winehouse have launched lawsuits against The Sun accusing it of unlawfully obtaining medical records.

All three claimants are also alleged to have been targeted by private investigators specialising in illegally-obtaining medical records.

The alleged crimes were commissioned by both executives and reporters at controversial tabloid, under the editorship of Rebekah Brooks between 2003 and 2009.

In the case of Mr Depp, lawyers claim his daughter was spied on after a hospital visit for medical treatment.

Additionally, The Sun is accused of getting hold of documents about a medical procedure Ms Winehouse underwent.

The paper allegedly employed a notorious private investigator called Christine Hart to target Paul Gascoigne, while the former footballer was receiving addiction treatment at The Priory and other clinics.

The household names are among 80 alleged victims of unlawful information gathering to have join the latest wave of litigation against Rupert Murdoch’s papers, in the last few days, taking the total of live cases to more than 120.

Johnny Depp’s lawyers have claimed that The Sun illegally obtained the medical records of his daughter when she was ill.

A legal document deployed at the High Court last month in Various vs News Group Newspapers Ltd, alleges a Sun freelancer called Sean O’Brien was involved in a story containing “all the hallmarks of a medical blag”.

Depp’s lawyers alleged that they had found a payment of £1,175 to O’Brien from The Sun’s Managing Editor Graham Dudman, which they said was used in part to pay for a “blag” – a term for the act of obtaining private information by deception.

They produced details of this accounting record, which includes a “ZC” internal payment identifier: “ZC50701642 The Sun – 08/03/2007 – JOHNNY DEPP DAUGHTER HOSPITAL DASH 585720 SEAN O’BRIEN GRAHAM DUDMAN 1,175GBP 2E03 SUN NEWS”

Barrister David Sherborne wrote: “It is likely that he [Mr O’Brien] commissioned the blagging, which explains the size of the payment.”

He added that this was an, “Example of a freelance journalist using unlawfully gathered information.”

O’Brien has been named in connection with alleged phone hacking and blagging at the News of the World, The People and the Sunday Mirror, all of which he worked for, or sold stories.

O’Brien now runs a PR agency where, ironically, he represents a number of celebrities who have won pay-outs from his former employers.

The involvement of Prince Harry, and now Johnny Depp, in the court case has propelled the hacking scandal back into the mainstream headlines.

Even though the civil claims have been winding their way through the High Court since 2011 – and have resulted in an avalanche of new evidence alongside several million-pound-plus pay-outs – few Fleet Street papers are prepared to cover it.

But the involvement of the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ star is seen as significant, as he has another dispute going on with The Sun.

In July, Depp is expected to come face-to-face in Court with the paper’s controversial columnist Dan Wootton, at his libel trial against The Sun.

The actor claims Mr Wootton falsely branded him a domestic abuser in a story about his marriage to actress Amber Heard.

The news of fresh claims is more bad news for Rupert Murdoch.

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