Veteran Daily Mail chief Paul Dacre tells UK privacy trial of anger at allegations

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin

LONDON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Paul Dacre, the Daily Mail's long-serving former editor and one of Britain's most powerful press figures, told London's High Court on Tuesday he was upset and angry at allegations from Prince Harry and others about unlawful behaviour at the paper.

Harry, 41, and six other claimants are suing Associated Newspapers, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, for damages over claims its papers violated their privacy by phone hacking, obtaining personal information such as medical records by deception and bugging landlines from 1993 until 2011.

Associated rejects their assertions, saying none of the information for the stories they complained about was unlawfully obtained.

"I'm very angry and upset on behalf of my staff," he told the court, saying that, more than his own legacy, he was concerned about the impact of the case on the name of the Daily Mail and the honesty of its staff.

CLAIMANTS' TEARFUL EVIDENCE

The trial to determine the lawsuits began a month ago, and the seven litigants – Harry, singer Elton John, John's husband David Furnish, actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, anti-racism campaigner Doreen Lawrence and ex-lawmaker Simon Hughes – have all since appeared to give evidence, some of them in tears as they did so.

The publishers' lawyers repeatedly suggested to the claimants that the details had either appeared in other media previously, come from the individuals' own representatives, or from sources within the celebrities' "leaky" social circles.

Associated has also cast the case as manufactured and funded by opponents of the press including actor Hugh Grant and the late motor racing boss Max Mosley, accusing a "research team" assisting the claimants' lawyers and some lawyers themselves of being part of a conspiracy, which they reject.

Dacre, who edited the Daily Mail for more than 25 years and is currently the editor-in-chief of Associated's holding company dmg media, was the publisher's initial witness after its legal team said it would send senior figures "over the top" first.

DACRE SAYS LAWRENCE CLAIMS 'WOUNDING'

Under Dacre, the Daily Mail became hugely influential, with politicians, including prime ministers, saying they were very conscious of its power.

In his witness statement, he said he had "captained a tough ship which employed some of Fleet Street's best writers".

"The grave and sometimes preposterous allegations made in these proceedings have astonished, appalled and – in the small hours of the night – reduced me to rage," he wrote.

In sometimes tetchy exchanges with the claimants' lawyer David Sherborne, he said journalists had only used private investigators to obtain information such as phone numbers which were already in the public domain.

"It's not landline bugging, it's not bugging cars ...," he said.

Asked about the effect of the stories on the claimants, Dacre said: "My heart bleeds for Doreen Lawrence."

Lawrence's 18-year-old son Stephen was murdered in 1993 by a gang of white men in southeast London, and the Mail titles were significant supporters of her family's campaign for justice. She has told the court the papers used her to gain credibility.

Her claims were "especially bewildering and bitterly wounding to me personally", his witness statement said.

Dacre will return on Wednesday.