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."

Baroness Lawrence alleges the Daily Mail tapped her landline, hacked voicemails, blagged her, monitored bank and phone bills, conducted electronic surveillance, and made corrupt payments to police for information. Associated Newspapers denies the allegations in their entirety. The legal action includes several high-profile claimants and accuses the publisher of unlawful information gathering and "grave breaches of privacy" spanning two decades. The claims concern five articles published between 1997 and 2007 that allegedly relied on "stolen" information about her and the Stephen Lawrence investigation. Stephen Lawrence was murdered in 1993; police failures led to an "institutionally racist" finding and partial convictions only in 2012.

Read at www.bbc.com