Sly Bailey and Paul Vickers: Former Mirror executives under fire in Harry hacking case
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Sly Bailey, the former chief executive of Trinity Mirror, applied to give evidence remotely from Spain in the Duke of Sussex’s legal battle with Mirror Group Newspapers, but Mr Justice Fancourt refused her application.
Born Sylvia Grice, the 61-year-old began her career as a make-up artist for Revlon before joining The Guardian to work in advertising sales in 1984 and then moving to The Independent as advertising manager in 1987.
For years, she was regarded as one of the most powerful women in British media, working her way up through a number of senior commercial roles with IPC media, the publisher of Marie Claire, Loaded and Country Life. In 1994, she became the youngest appointee to the IPC board at 31.
She was chief executive officer of Trinity Mirror from February 2003 to June 2012, when she stepped down six months earlier than planned as the group overhauled its senior management.
In May, she denied “categorically” that she was involved in any cover-up of unlawful activity at the Mirror or other titles, also denying accusations that she gave “misleading evidence” to the 2012 Leveson Inquiry.
Ms Bailey, now living in Spain, was described as a “reluctant witness and evasive” by Mr Justice Fancourt, who said he was “not satisfied that she did her best to assist [him] from the witness box.
In his ruling, he said: “She sheltered far too frequently behind a claimed inability to remember events, some of which were really important matters during her tenure as CEO; some, indeed, presented existential threats to the business of TM plc.”
Criticising Ms Bailey alongside Paul Vickers, the former Mirror Group Newspapers legal director, he said the pair “did not report what they knew, or suspected, to the board”.
He added: “The likelihood of extensive illegal activity should have been investigated properly by Ms Bailey and Mr Vickers, at the latest in early 2007, but it never was.”
Mr Vickers was found to have known, or suspected, that phone hacking was taking place but did not report it to the firm’s board.
The group’s most senior lawyer up until late 2014 previously told the hearing that he did not know of “voicemail interception” at the newspapers until December 2013, when the Metropolitan Police launched a criminal investigation into phone hacking and “provided the key that unlocked the door”.
He claimed a picture of organised criminal activities had emerged over time. However, Mr Justice Fancourt did not accept this claim.
The judge recounted how after the arrest of hacker Glenn Mulcaire, Mr Vickers claimed he “did not believe that phone hacking was happening at MGN because of the ‘one rogue reporter’ lie of the News of the World”.
Addressing this claim, Justice Fancourt said: “I think that was a lie. Mr Vickers had been in a senior position in Fleet Street for 14 years by this time, and the idea that someone in his position, an insider, was taken in by a lie of that kind told by another newspaper is fanciful.”
Mr Vickers qualified as a barrister and went on to become company secretary and group legal director of MGN in 1992. He held the same positions at Trinity Mirror from 1999 to 2014.
He was an architect of the Independent Press Standards Organisation before stepping down as chairman of the watchdog’s funding body in 2015, leaving MGN following a 22-year career there with a pay-off of more than £400,000.
He was editorial legal director at Telegraph Media Group, the parent company of The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, for just under two years. He is currently working as a consultant.
