A member of Sadie Frost’s “inner circle” regularly sold stories about her to newspapers, the High Court has heard.
Nicole Lampert, 52, a former showbusiness editor at the Daily Mail, said the suggestion that those stories were obtained through phone-hacking was “in the realm of fantasy”.
She revealed there was “a very strong source in Sadie Frost’s social circle or family” who provided reliable information but who was “always asking for more money”.
Lampert gave evidence on Tuesday in defence of claims brought by Frost, the Duke of Sussex and five others against Associated Newspapers Limited, publisher of the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday.
She wrote four of the 11 articles comprising Frost’s legal claim, which were published between 2003 and 2005 and largely concerned the breakdown of her marriage to Jude Law.
One of them, titled “Jude gives Sadie £10m divorce deal” was the subject of a complaint by Law, who said the deal had not yet been agreed, prompting a printed apology.
But David Sherborne, for the claimants, accused Lampert of making up the fact that the deal had been done to “disguise” the “obvious” fact that the story had been obtained illegally “via conversations between lawyers”.
He said: “A true human source would not have got it wrong.”
An incredulous Lampert disagreed, asking: “Do you think humans are infallible, Mr Sherborne?”
Lampert also told the court that the secret £10,000 cost of policing Sir Elton John’s wedding probably came from his own publicist, Gary Farrow, with whom she was good friends.
Mr Sherborne alleged that the figure, which was “bang on” as opposed to being a “lucky guesstimate”, must have been “blagged” from Thames Valley Police. The journalist called the suggestion “insane”.
The celebrity claimants allege that Ms Lampert was an “extensive” user of search agency ELI (Express Locate International), which is said to have sourced information through “blagging” and hacking.
But Mr Sherborne was unable to pinpoint which of the payments made to ELI in the specific time period – all around the £200 mark – related directly to the wedding story.
The court heard that an article published in September 2002 described how a “lonely” Elizabeth Hurley had struggled to meet a new partner since the birth of her son, Damian, and suggested she wished she had stayed with her former boyfriend, Hugh Grant, as life would have been so much easier.
Mr Sherborne said the “deeply intimate” information would have been “mortifying” and “highly embarrassing” for Hurley.
“This is from voicemail messages,” he told Lampert.
The journalist again refuted the suggestion, saying that it probably came from a US magazine and a confidential source who “moved in the same circles” as Hurley.
She revealed she was introduced to ELI when she worked on The Sun’s Bizarre column by Emma Jones, then deputy Bizarre editor.
Ms Jones is now a director of the campaign group Hacked Off and has regularly been in court throughout the privacy trial.
She is the partner of Graham Johnson, the convicted phone-hacker who is a member of the claimants’ “legal research team” and for years sought to “target” the Mail.
He was the key liaison for Gavin Burrows, the private investigator who has disowned a pivotal witness statement in which he appeared to admit to a raft of nefarious deeds conducted on behalf of Associated.
Mr Burrows has said the statement was “completely false” and his signature forged. The statement was compiled in close collaboration with Johnson and was based partly on his notes.
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Five of the seven claimants have identified the disputed evidence as the basis for their claims. Lampert said she had never heard of Mr Burrows.
Richard Simpson, who succeeded Lampert as showbusiness editor at the Daily Mail, also suggested that stories Sir Elton complained about probably came from Mr Farrow.
Sir Elton told the court last month that Mr Farrow provided incorrect information to the press.
Associated is a subsidiary of Daily Mail and General Trust, Lord Rothermere’s holding company, which has agreed to acquire The Telegraph for £500m. The proposed takeover will be subjected to a four-month investigation by regulators on public interest and competition grounds.
The hearing continues.
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