A senior former Mail on Sunday journalist has denied commissioning a “blag” of sensitive medical information about Sadie Frost that the actor had not even told her own mother.
At the high court, Katie Nicholl, a former diary editor and royal editor at the paper, was accused of using blagged information from a private investigator to uncover “extraordinarily intrusive” details of Frost’s medical history.
Frost is one of a group of seven people, including Prince Harry, alleging that Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL), which publishes the Mail on Sunday and the Daily Mail, used unlawful information gathering such as blagging, hacking and phone tapping to obtain stories over two decades.
ANL denies all the accusations of wrongdoing, describing them as lurid and preposterous.
Nicholl is a significant figure in the case, as her name appears on many of the stories that Frost, the Duke of Sussex and others have complained about.
David Sherborne, the lead barrister for the claimants, spent a lot of time focusing on a passage in Nicholl’s notebook referring to Frost’s ectopic pregnancy. Nicholl prepared the story in autumn 2003 but it was never published.
Frost’s legal team said she did not tell her sisters or even her own mother about the pregnancy and subsequent termination.
Nicholl wrote in her notebook: “Sadie Frost: Had some note re: Ultrascan. Yes, she is having that kind of treatment. She went for an ultrasound. She is pregnant.”
It also identified Frost’s doctor and said “she was recently treated in March Aug. 6 saw psychologist”.
Sherborne said there was a reference in the margin to “Susie”, which he said was a reference to Susie Mallis from the private investigation firm ELI.
The claimants also point to ELI payment notes days later, labelled “Katie Nicholls Urgent Enq” and “K Nicholl’s Searches”.
Sherborne put it to Nicholl that her notes documented “an obvious medical blag” of Frost’s records. But Nicholl said she had never asked anyone to blag medical records and did not recall using ELI.
She said her notes recorded a conversation with the freelance journalist Sharon Feinstein, whom she said was the source of the tip about Frost’s pregnancy. She said Feinstein had “a very, very good source” within Frost’s inner circle. Feinstein has not given evidence in the case.
Nicholl also said her original note may have referred to “Sadie” rather than “Susie”. “I can’t be 100% sure that it says Susie,” she said.
Sherborne put it to her that she had “lied about this in your witness statement to try to provide some other explanation to the obvious one”, that the information had come from an ELI blag of medical records.
“I have not lied at all,” Nicholl said.
Later in her notebook, Nicholl records Frost “found out about ectopic pregnancy beginning of last week”. Her notes add “she’s very angry with herself” and “they [Frost and her partner] were using condoms”.
Sherborne claimed this information had been obtained by intercepting the voicemails of those involved.
This was vehemently denied by Nicholl, who said it actually came from a second exchange with Feinstein. Nicholl said: “Let me be quite categorical: I have never intercepted voicemails. I have never asked anyone to intercept voicemails … I can’t be any more clear or categorical.”
She said the story had not been published because it had been denied by Frost and because the actor had made a legal threat after being confronted over it.
The case continues.
