Piers Morgan was in charge of News of the World when it was bribing competitors for information. Photo / AP
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Piers Morgan was in charge of News of the World when it was bribing competitors for information. Photo / AP

Efficient, well-dressed and well-liked, Sue Harris was at the heart of the Sunday People, the smallest of Britain's weekly tabloids.

She booked flights, reserved accommodation, and tallied expenses for the populist paper's dozen or so reporters.

These journalists implicitly trusted the petite, 40-something south Londoner. Maybe they shouldn't have.

In 1995 Harris was dismissed over an allegation that she'd been feeding her paper's juiciest scoops to the Piers Morgan-edited News of the World, betraying her co-workers for a weekly payoff of £250 (then worth about $480).

"Everybody knew there was a mole," said a former senior journalist with the People. "We never thought the person we were looking for was her."

The journalist, who was there when Harris was fired, was among three former colleagues who recounted their stories on condition of anonymity...read more