Charlotte Church and TV presenter in hacking inquiry plea

In a preliminary hearing for the Leveson Inquiry yesterday, David Sherborne, who represents a group of victims, asked for the two celebrities to be added to the list of core participants in the first stage of the inquiry.

He told the hearing, held at the High Court, that both had been victims of hacking by News Group Newspapers and other “media wrongdoing”.

If the applications are successful, the total group of victims who are core participants in the inquiry will be 48.

The group, represented by Mr Sherborne, already includes actress Sienna Miller, PR guru Max Clifford, serving MPs, and Christopher Shipman, son of mass murderer Harold Shipman.

The first part of the inquiry will examine the culture, ethics and practices of the press and its relationship with the police and politicians.

Core participants for this part also include former MPs such as Lord Prescott and Mark Oaten, as well as football agent Sky Andrew and Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati.

But Rebekah Brooks, former editor of The Sun and The News of the World and chief executive officer of News International, was refused the status previously.

Oral evidence for the first part, to be televised live, could start as early as next month. It aims to produce a report within a year.

Lord Justice Leveson said he was keen to “keep the focus” because the findings of the inquiry were likely to generate debate.

The inquiry was different from others generated by specific events such as the Hillsborough disaster, he said.

“The first problem is that a lot of precise detail which is normally the starting point for an inquiry is, or may be, tied up in the investigation being undertaken by police.Therefore to some extent, the inquiry puts the cart before the horse because if I were to wait for the police investigation it would not start in a time to be measured in not weeks, and not months, I don’t know.”

He said he would take advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions over how far he could go.

Actor Hugh Grant yesterday appealed to the “tradition of bravery” within the Tory party as he met Prime Minister David Cameron to talk about phone hacking. He said the Tories had reason to fear the findings of the Leveson Inquiry, but he wanted to discover if Mr Cameron was a “man of principle” who would stand up to Rupert Murdoch.

He said he found it “hard to believe” that Mr Cameron did not know what was going on at News International when he appointed his ex-communications chief, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

“There are after all many reasons why the Conservative party in particular might not have the appetite for the kind of media reform that we think is necessary,” he said.

“They have been very much in bed with the Murdoch empire in particular for quite a long time and some of the stuff that will come out is not very flattering to them. The majority of the press in this country are right-leaning so why would the Conservative Government want to rock the boat with them?”