Daily Mail made me feel like a victim again, Baroness Lawrence tells court

The mother of Stephen Lawrence has said she feels like "a victim all over again" after she learned about the alleged hacking of her phone by the Daily Mail, a court has heard.

Baroness Doreen Lawrence, who says her phone was tapped and voicemails hacked, said the alleged actions of the newspaper reminded her of the police handling of the investigation into the racist murder of her son.

She told the High Court the Mail was only "pretending" to support her campaign for justice for the "credibility of supporting a black family".

The peer is among several high-profile figures - including the Duke of Sussex - suing the paper's publisher, Associated Newspapers (ANL). ANL denies her allegations in their "entirety".

The group also includes actresses Liz Hurley and Sadie Frost, singer Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, and former Liberal Democrat MP Sir Simon Hughes. They allege the publisher unlawfully gathered information and committed "grave breaches of privacy" over a 20-year period.

Baroness Lawrence's claims relate to five articles that were published between 1997 and 2007, which she alleges relied on information "stolen" about her and the investigation into Stephen's murder.

In her witness statement, Baroness Lawrence said the Mail had tapped her landline phone, blagged her, hacked into her voicemails, monitored her bank account and phone bills, targeted her with electronic surveillance and made corrupt payments to police officers for information.

Her son Stephen was 18-years-old when he was stabbed by a gang while waiting at a bus stop in Eltham in 1993.

The Metropolitan Police's failures to properly investigate the five prime suspects in the case became notorious and led to the force being branded "institutionally racist" by a landmark public inquiry in 1999. Two of Stephen's murderers were finally convicted in 2012, but the other suspects have never been convicted.

Baroness Lawrence told the court she had been forced to fight for justice with the police, who she said had also invaded her privacy to "try to use information against me".

"I feel like it is history repeating itself with this case against the Mail," she said.

She said she had trusted the newspaper, which campaigned on the Lawrence family's behalf and ran a famous front page in 1997 naming five prime suspects in Stephen's murder.

In her witness statement she said she felt she had been "taken for a fool" by the Mail.

The five articles in question were all written or co-written by journalist Stephen Wright, who Baroness Lawrence said she had thought was "a close ally and even a friend".

"I thought we had a relatively good relationship with him and I have been played for such a long time," she told the court.

"To find out now that after all that time, the level of trust that I had built up, to find that all that time he's been lying to me and pretending that he was supporting my case and supporting getting justice for Stephen."

The first article, from 1997, referred to then-Home Secretary Jack Straw ordering a public inquiry.

Baroness Lawrence said private investigator Christine Hart had since admitted stealing information for the Mail and said that she "blagged me, the mother of 'that black boy'".

She said she had believed other articles were sourced from leaks by police officers or the Crown Prosecution Service, but now thought they had relied on unlawfully gathered information.

Baroness Lawrence said the invasions of privacy had been "another trauma", adding she had been violated and felt "like a victim all over again".

In written submissions Antony White KC, representing ANL, said Baroness Lawrence's allegations were "denied in their entirety" and were "unsupported by the available evidence".

He said the information in each article was obtained by "entirely legitimate reporting" and said ANL is able to call a witness or witnesses to explain how the article was sourced "in relation to almost every article alleged to be the product of phone hacking or phone tapping".

ANL has also argued the complainants brought their case too late after the publishing of the articles.

But Baroness Lawrence said she only considered allegations of hacking after receiving an email from Prince Harry, who put her in touch with lawyer David Sherborne.

The court heard she did not complain about the five articles at the time they were published because it was not something that she was thinking about whole grieving.

"The forefront of my mind is constantly how the police are handling Stephen's case," she said. "I complain to the police, I think they are probably leaking information.

"It didn't occur to me.

"When you're suffering and going through grief, you don't think 'I must make sure that I challenge what is in the newspaper'."

The case continues and is expected to last nine weeks. This is a civil trial, so there is no jury and the judge - Mr Justice Nicklin - will decide the case on his own.