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| The ex-wife and daughter of prominent phone-hacking lawyer Mark Lewis came under surveillance |
The News of
the World hired a former police officer early last year to carry out
surveillance on two prominent lawyers representing victims of phone hacking,
BBC Newsnight has learned.
Derek Webb,
who ran a private investigations firm called Silent Shadow, covertly followed
lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris.
Mr Webb
also filmed members of Mr Lewis's family on a shopping trip.
Both
lawyers have been involved in cases against News International.
The
surveillance was part of an attempt by the now-closed newspaper The News of the
World, which was owned by News International, to demonstrate that Mr Lewis was
having a relationship with Ms Harris and was sharing confidential information
with her - a false allegation.
Speaking
exclusively to Newsnight's Richard Watson, Mr Webb said that he had been
commissioned by the News of the World to carry out surveillance on Mr Lewis and
his former assistant Ms Harris in early 2010.
'Serious
threat'
He was paid
to go to Manchester, where the two solicitors were based.
On one
occasion during the surveillance, Mr Webb followed Mr Lewis's former wife and
his daughter, filming them as they visited shops and a garden centre before
trailing them in a car as they returned home.
At the time
Mr Lewis was proving a serious threat to News of the World by taking civil
proceedings on behalf of phone hacking victims.
He had
successfully won a payout of more than £500,000 for one of his clients, the
chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association Gordon Taylor.
Other
sources have told the BBC that advisers to News of the World were interested in
the information as part of an attempt to discredit Mr Lewis and stop him from
taking on other phone hacking cases.
A
spokeswoman for News Group Newspapers declined to make any comment.
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