Daily Mail bribed police officers

On Monday the 23rd July, a headline was published, titled "Armed guard on Briton who led rioters" and was written by staff journalist Lucy Morris. The subject of the story was Mark Covell, an Indymedia journalist who was lying badly injured in San Martino Hospital under arrest for serious charges stemming from the Diaz raid. Members of his family were also interviewed for the story by other Daily Mail journalists.

Whilst the article led to an extra half million copies of the newspaper being sold, Lucy Morris was never questioned by her employers or by the Press Complaints Commission.

In the months and years after the article, Mr Covell successfully argued that, apart from the libel issue of accusing him of 'co-ordinating computer systems and riots during the Summit', his privacy had been invaded at San Martino Hospital.

Mr Covell could not challenge the Libel issue due to no legal aid being available and also the statute of limitations on Libel by the Press Complaints Commission being only one year.

Being one of the first in the country to use the European Human Rights Act in a privacy action, Mr Covell won an out of court settlement with the newspaper in late 2004. £5,000 in compensation was paid and so was an apology forthcoming from Paul Dacre.

Details of the story thus far are written in an article by Roy Greenslade

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/jan/24/mondaymediasection6

However, Genoa prosecutors kept the file on the Mark Covell/ Daily Mail case under investigation until last year when Mr Covell learned of their conclusions.

One of the main issues was that since Mr Covell was under armed arrest, no family or lawyers were allowed to see him, let alone journalists. The only people authorised to see him would of been members of the Italian Parliament.

However, witnesses in the hospital have stated that Lucy Morris arrived on the 10th floor of San Martino Hospital in the company of three italian police officers. She approached the doctor who was looking after Mr Covell and claimed she was British Embassy Staff but she had left he ID in the hotel. The doctor, assuming Miss Morris just wanted to check whether Mr Covell was still alive and not wishing to block the path of a British embassy official who was with three Italian police officers, allowed entry.

Morris (along with a photographer) rushed in, invaded his privacy and woke him from a coma to ask certain questions. This angered the doctor but it was not after several questions had been asked, Morris then revealed that she was a Daily Mail Journalist.

Whilst the investigation in 2002-2003 had uncovered Morris's method of entry into the hospital, Genova prosecutors were concerned about the fact Lucy Morris has broken italian law in gaining entry and that she had had three Italian police officers with her.

Morris was contacted in early 2010 and asked whether she would travel to Genoa to be interviewed by Genova prosecutors but she refused. She has consistently refused to co-operate with anyone since the day the article was published.

Despite the three policemen having never been identified, Genova prosecutors have now concluded that when she approached the police cordon outside San Martino Hospital (which was in place to keep all journalist away from the injured Diaz victims), Morris did bribe these three Italian state policemen to gain access. She knew that she would never gain access without them and thus bribed them.

So Mr Paul Dacre, what have you got to say for your journalists bribing police officers? and where were the Press Complaints Commission on this story?