Leveson inquiry: NoW's Neville Thurlbeck to give evidence

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/07/leveson-inquiry-neville-thurlbeck?CMP=twt_gu

Former News of the World chief reporter to appear next week, as will journalist who wrote Kate McCann private diaries story

Neville Thurlbeck, the former News of the World chief reporter, is to appear before the Leveson inquiry next week.

Also lined up to give evidence is the News of the World reporter whose name appeared on the Kate McCann private diaries story.

Daniel Sanderson, who now works as a PR, is expected to be asked by Leveson how the newspaper obtained McCann's diaries which had been seized by Portuguese police and then appeared in the Sunday tabloid.

Former News of the World editor Colin Myler and legal boss Tom Crone are also expected to appear next week alongside the paper's former undercover reporter, Mazher Mahmood. Gordon Smart, the Sun's showbiz editor, is also understood to have been asked to appear.

Two weeks ago Kate McCann told Leveson she felt like "climbing into a hole and not coming out" after they published the diaries which detailed her private conversations with the missing daughter Madeleine.

"I felt violated. I'd written these words at the most desperate time of my life, and it was my only way of communicating with Madeleine," she told Leveson.

How the News International title obtained and published the diary without permission was something that "can be dealt with very quickly by someone … because it's pointless in denying it really" Robert Jay, counsel to the inquiry, told Leveson.

Kate McCann told Leveson she believed that the diary was taken from her by Portuguese police and was later returned. However, she said that someone must have photocopied the private diary and given it to the press.

She said there were minor differences in her own diaries and those that were published by the NoW, leading her to believe that they had been translated from Portuguese and back again.

Myler is also expected to be quizzed about his relationship with the McCanns, who criticised him for allegedly berating them on the phone after they had agreed to do an interview with Hello! magazine.

Thurlbeck is scheduled to appear on Monday. He is likely to be quizzed about a Max Mosley story that resulted in a £60,000 pay out to the former Formula One motor sport boss after he sued the NoW for breach of privacy over the expose of his private life.

Smart is also understood to have been asked to appear before the inquiry. However, it is not known whether he has accepted.

Smart was accused of using fabricating quotes in a fictitious story about Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud planted by the undercover filmmaker Chris Atkins, who gave evidence to the inquiry on Tuesday. The Sun denied that the quotes were made up, but Atkins called it a "remarkable coincidence" as they were similar, if not identical, to the ones he had invented.

Crone is also understood to be on the list of witnesses for the week that Leveson has already flagged as "News International week".

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Wow Daniel Sanderson that is a testimony NOT to be missed. What is he going to say about how he got Kate McCann's diary. As I recall they said they had it with consent (and only printed the nice bits unlike Portuguese media-where it still is).

Also lined up to give evidence is the News of the World reporter whose name appeared on the Kate McCann private diaries story.

I wonder if he'll say where he got the diary notes from.