Douglas Wight Pt 1

After explaining to the court that the next witness was being called by the Crown as a courtesy to  Mr Sheridan, and therefore would not be seeking any evidence in chief from the witness, Alex Prentice QC called Douglas Wight as a witness, confirmed his name, his age of 37, occupation as a News Of The World (NoW) journalist and residence as London, then returned to his seat.

Mr Sheridan left the dock and began his cross examination from the lectern next to the jury.

Mr Sheridan began by asking Mr Wight “Would it be fair to describe you as gatekeeper for the dark side?”. Mr Wight disagreed, and asked whether Mr Sheridan mean the question literally, and was enquiring into his status as a Jedi Knight.

Mr Sheridan then asked the witness whether he had ever referred to NoW as the “chancers”, to which Mr Wight agreed, but explained that this was a “quote within a quote” during a conversation with Fiona McGuire where he was suggesting she could regard the NoW as “chancers” if it helped her during the publishing of her story, and suggested this exchange showed how relaxed Ms McGuire was in her dealings with the NoW.  Mr Sheridan questioned how something Mr Wight said could show how relaxed Ms McGuire was.

Mr Sheridan then established some more personal details with the witness – that he had been married since 2002, that his job title is “Books Editor” at the News Of The World, based in the Wapping, London HQ of News International, that he had worked in Scotland at The Sun, then at News of the World from 1998 to June 2006, serving as a reporter until January 2000 when he became News Editor, having been appointed to that post by Phil Hall, Bob Bird's predecessor as editor of the Scottish News of the World. Mr Sheridan queried this, stating that previous witness Bob Bird had testified that he had appointed Mr Wight, to which the witness responded that Mr Bird was within the company at the time and had some input to his appointment as he had been senior to Mr Wight at that time. Mr Sheridan then commented that perhaps Mr Bird had been mistaken.

It was established that Mr Wight had moved to the News of the World in London as News Editor in June 2006, and Mr Sheridan established with the witness that he had nine reporters reporting to him as News Editor, then asked whether Mr Wight's salary was high, to which Mr Wight replied that this was by no means the case.

Mr Sheridan then asked whether it was part of Mr Wight's  job to break the law, with Mr Wight replying that this was “not strictly true”, adding that he did not accept it to be true when Mr Sheridan repeated the question.

Mr Sheridan then asked for production of a police statement of Mr Wight's to DC Aitken & PC Baker, but Mr Prentice objected, and the presiding judge Lord Bracadale stated that evidence should be taken from the witness first before going to any police statement by the witness related to particular points.

Mr Sheridan then asked whether the witness's job was to check out stories to make sure they were true, with which Mr Wight agreed. Mr Sheridan then asked whether the NoW was a competitive environment, and the witness agreed, stating that there was competition for space in the paper.

Mr Sheridan then asked the witness to clarify whether his change of role from News Editor in Wapping to Books Editor had been a demotion, to which the witness replied it had been a sideways move and his salary had not been effected.

Mr Sheridan then asked whether Mr Wight had met anyone from the NoW since he had been back in Glasgow to testify in this case, with the witness responding that he had met Mr Bird, where they had spent an hour in the NoW Glasgow office on Tuesday discussing the background of the case and how it was going, amongst other things, but that there had been nothing discussed regarding his evidence. Mr Sheridan pressed the witness several times on the content of this discussion with Mr Bird, with the witness stating that he could not remember, and when Mr Sheridan asked whether he thought it wise to meet Mr Bird, the witness again stated that  he and Mr Bird knew not to discuss evidence. Mr Sheridan commented that it was strange that the witness could not recall a conversation on Tuesday, with the witness replying that he could not recall anything specifically, and that they had discussed “general specifics”.

Mr Sheridan asked the witness whether he had met Mr Neil Murray, a News of the World lawyer, which the witness denied, then Mr Sheridan asked if he had received legal advice on how to conduct himself in court, which again the witness answered he had not, with Mr Sheridan adding that Mr Bird had done so, and that he testified to that effect earlier in the trial.

Mr Sheridan then asked whether the NoW was a newspaper that regarded itself as being above the law and that could make make payments to people to remain quiet about illegal activities. The witness replied he was not aware of any payment for illegal activities.

Mr Sheridan then asked about Mr Wight's major role in the “Sheridan Story”, with Mr Wight clarifying that the Fiona McGuire story was the only one he worked on, then describing getting a tip from freelancer Ken Adams in around April 2004 that Fiona McGuire was claiming to have had a relationship with Mr Sheridan, the NoW making first contact with Ms McGuire in August 2004, then publishing the story in November 2004, agreeing with Mr Sheridan that over this timeframe he had done everything he could to “check out the story”.

Mr Sheridan asked the witness about Greg Miskiw (NoW North-East England Editor), whom Mr Wight remembered as having various roles at the paper and had had some contact with. Mr Sheridan then asked about the NoW's use of Private Investigators, with the witness describing how they were used for tracing people, occupancy, accessing company records, but that in the case of Tommy Sheridan had only ever used one to trace Duncan Rowan. Mr Sheridan then asked specifically about Stephen Whittamore, whom the witnessed admitted using as he provided info that could help move stories on. Mr Sheridan queried why Mr Whittamore should be used by NoW Scotland when he was based in London (with the witness stating that Mr Whittamore lived in Hampshire), with the witness stating that Mr Whittamore was a resource used in general by the paper, but that he could not recall who had originally passed him the name of Mr Whittamore, but denied that it was Andy Coulson as he was not at the NoW at the time, and that it probably wasn't Greg Miskiw either. Mr Sheridan finally asked what the witness knew of Mr Whittamore now, with the witness stating that he knew Mr Whittamore had been prosecuted for accessing data in breach of the data protection act.

Mr Sheridan then asked the witness about the "blue book:" which, according to him was found in a raid on Steve Whittamore's home by the police. This book  listed requests for "illegal services" by various journalists Mr Sheridan put it to Mr Wight that his name is there listed seventy times.  Mr Wight  insisted that the true figure was  seventeen  times, and argued that Mr Sheridan had mistaken 70 for 17. Mr Wight added that all invoices to his office would be in his name, whatever journalist had asked for them. The witness also told the court  that only 10 of these were "actioned" and paid for and in his dealings with Mr Whittamore he had only "gave him information we had and asked him to help us" Mr Sheridan asked if this involved tracing addresses from telephone numbers to which the witness replied he
did not recall", but that he knew  that were 305 journalists in blue book, a  figure he had read in the the Guardian newspaper (which he described as not the NoW's "biggest cheerleader"  and the NoW was "not the biggest user" listed in the book.

Mr Sheridan then asked Mr Wight about a "league table" of users of Mr Whittamore's services. Mr Wight stated that the News of the World was  not at top" Mr Sheridan  asked if the witness himself was  "high on league table, to which Mr Wight replied that he was "convinced I'm at the  lower end of scale" Mr Sheridan then put it to the witness that in fact he was "third" on the list of journalists who used Mr Whittamore. Mr Wight called this statement  "preposterous" as he had checked with the newspaper accounts department last year and there had only been 17 requests of which only 10 were paid.

Mr Sheridan  then asked Mr Wight  how the paper had traced Anne Colvin, as she had phoned the NoW under a false name and given an anonymous tip off but then one week later Mr Wight had arrived at her home address, supposedly telling her "believe me if we want you we can find you" Mr Wight denied he had used Mr Whittamore's services  after 2002  and claimed he had found Ms Colvin's address by searching  the internet,  found that the mobile number he had was associated with a garage and that the garage had only one female director. He had then went to the premises, got Ms Colvin's address and then went to her home.


Testimony then moved on to the issue of Fiona McGuire which we will deal with in a separate post later this evening.


Whatsy