Kate McCann was left feeling “mentally raped” after the News of the World published the private diary she had been keeping for her missing daughter, the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard yesterday.  

Kate McCann and her missing daughter Madeleine Photo: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

The journal she kept after three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007 was so confidential that even her husband had not read it. The diary was seized by the Portuguese police as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine, but the inquiry was told that in September 2008 the News of the World published the journal under the headline: “Kate’s Diary: In Her Own Words.”

David Sherborne, the lawyer representing the McCanns along with 50 other victims of alleged press intrusion, said the experience left the family feeling violated.

“How did the News of the World get this from the police? We may never know now,” he said. “The publication of this material with a picture on the front page suggesting she had provided this herself left her feeling mentally raped, her husband says, and is it any wonder?”

On the third day of the public inquiry, Mr Sherborne made a searing attack on the tabloid press in Britain. He told the inquiry that phone hacking at the News of the World was more like an “industrial revolution” than the “cottage industry” that had been suggested previously by Robert Jay QC, counsel for the inquiry.

But he said the hearings were about more than just the illegal interception of voicemails. He said his clients would paint a vivid picture of the “despicable” actions of some tabloid journalists, which led to a breakdown in the trust between the press and the public.

Bob and Sally Dowler

The first witnesses who will appear before the inquiry panel on Monday will be the parents of Milly Dowler, the 13 year-old murder victim.

Mr Sherborne said Bob and Sally Dowler would set out how the “despicable” actions of journalists at the News of the World raised their hopes that their daughter might have still been alive.

They are expected to describe the “euphoria” they felt when, after days of trying, they finally got through to their missing daughter’s voicemail and realised some of her messages had been deleted.

For a brief period they believed Milly, who disappeared in March 2002, was still alive.

But the messages had been deleted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective working for the News of the World. “Perhaps there are no words which can adequately describe how despicable this act was, but the Dowler story is just one of those you will hear,” said Mr Sherborne.

The parents were also subjected to “appalling intrusion” into their grief when they were photographed attempting to trace Milly’s final movements.

“It was a very private moment, something the couple had decided to do between themselves to try to come to terms with their teenage daughter’s disappearance,” said Mr Sherborne.

“But their moment of grief was obviously a photo opportunity too good to resist. Somehow the press found out that they were undertaking that walk on that particular day and that particular time.

“First stolen voicemail messages. Why not then steal these precious moments too? Ethically, what’s the difference?”

Sara Payne

Among the other witnesses the inquiry will hear from will be Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was murdered in 2000.

Mr Sherborne said Ms Payne led the News of the World’s long-running campaign to introduce anti-paedophile legislation known as Sarah’s law, but it emerged that the phone given to her by the newspaper had probably been hacked by Mulcaire.

“This was a sickening postscript, perhaps a new low amongst a wealth of lows, for a newspaper whose former glory has been so fatally befouled by its cultural dependency, it seems, on the dark arts, which sadly give journalism and journalists a bad name,” he said.

Chris Jefferies

The Leveson inquiry will also take submissions from Chris Jefferies, 65, the retired English teacher who was arrested last year after being wrongly suspected of involvement in the murder of his tenant, Joanna Yeates, in Bristol.

“It took the tabloid newspapers only a matter of moments to destroy his reputation,” said Mr Sherborne. “Mr Jefferies is an example to us all that this could happen to any one of us, celebrity or not. It was a devastating destruction of all aspects of Mr Jefferies’s life, from the professional to the most deeply personal.”

JK Rowling

The Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, is expected to describe to the inquiry her battle for privacy.

“The family have still photographers and press camped outside her house. Her young children have had notes placed in their school bag,” said Mr Sherborne.

“Pictures of them have been snatched whilst they’ve been enjoying time on holiday. She will explain the very real corrosive effect that this has had on her children.”

Charlotte Church

Mr Sherborne said Charlotte Church, the singer, would explain how her life had been blighted by the tabloid press and particularly the News of the World.

The inquiry is expected to hear how a story in 2005 detailed an affair her stepfather had been having, which had an “absolutely devastating” effect on her mother, Maria. He said the story had been obtained through phone hacking and shortly before it was published Miss Church’s mother had attempted suicide.

Mr Sherborne went on: “In an act of great sensitivity, as Ms Church will explain, following the article published, the newspaper approached her mother and persuaded her to give them an exclusive, despite her fragile condition, as part of a Faustian pact that in return they would not run a lurid follow-up story about her husband’s affair.”

Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant, the actor, is expected to tell the inquiry how Tinglan Hong, his former girlfriend and the mother of his daughter, has been subjected to harassment from photographers.

Mr Sherborne suggested that the reason was because Mr Grant had been a leading light in the campaign to expose the extent of hacking. She said someone had obtained her number and made a series of phone calls from a withheld number one evening when Mr Grant was on television talking about the closure of the News of the World, Rupert Murdoch and press standards generally.

Mr Sherborne said: “When she finally answered she was threatened in the most menacing terms, which should reverberate around this inquiry: “Tell Hugh Grant he must shut the ---- up.”

The hearing continues.