On the second and third days of evidence at the Inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson has continued to hear evidence from victims of press misconduct.  This included powerful evidence on Wednesday afternoon from Kate and Gerry McCann.  This was the main front page story in the “Guardian” under the headline “‘Lives are being harmed by these stories’, say McCanns” – which describes it as “damning two hour testimony”.

On Tuesday morning he heard from Mary-Ellen Field (the former personal assistant to Elle McPherson and phone hacking victim), Garry Flitcroft (the footballer who was the subject of the case of A v B plc ([2002] EWCA Civ 337) and Margaret Watson (who has been campaigning to change the law in Scotland as a result of press misreporting concerning her murdered daughter).  Mary-Ellen Field gave evidence that phone hacking had resulted in her losing her job.  Mrs Watson’s evidence was reported by BBC News under the headline “Scots mother critical of the press” and by the Scotsman.

On Tuesday afternoon evidence was heard from Steve Coogan – who described himself as the victim of “several” kiss and tell stories.  He complained about being the victim of a “News of the World” sting. He told the Inquiry:

‘There is some brilliant journalism in this country. There needs to be a privacy law so that genuine public-interest journalism is not besmirched by this tawdry muck-raking.’

On Wednesday morning the Inquiry heard evidence from Mark Lewis (a lawyer representing a number of phone hacking victims), from Tom Rowland (a journalist who is a phone hacking victim), and Sheryl Gascoigne (the former wife of the footballer, Paul Gascoigne)

On Wednesday afternoon evidence was given by Kate McCann and Gerry McCann.  Gerry McCann’s 20 page witness statement sets out the full background to their treatment by the press following the abduction of their daughter.  In oral evidence Kate McCann said she felt “totally violated” after the publication by the News of the World of her personal diaries in which she recorded her thoughts about her missing daughter.  The “Times” headline was “I felt violated”

Today the Inquiry will hear evidence in private from anonymised phone hacking victim, HJK and then from Sienna Miller, Max Mosley, JK Rowling and Mark Thomson.