TV presenter says she faced vendetta after she asked mogul how he slept at night knowing his papers ruined people's lives
The former TV-am presenter told Lord Justice Leveson that the Sun ran an article headlined "Anne Diamond killed my father", offered her nanny £30,000 for a story and infiltrated the hospital where she was giving birth by impersonating a doctor.
She also spoke at the Royal Courts of Justice in London of her distress when the paper published a front-page picture of her and her husband carrying the coffin of their baby son Sebastian at his funeral in 1991.
Diamond told the inquiry she put tough questions to Murdoch when she interviewed him in the 1980s. "I did put the point to Mr Murdoch that his newspapers were intent, or seemed to be intent on ruining some people's lives and how did he feel about that, and how could he sleep at night knowing that that was going on," she said.
"I seem to remember Mr Murdoch brushing it off completely and I remember after that incident, being a bit frustrated that I didn't feel that I had got my point over to him at all."
She said she learned earlier this year while taking part in a Channel 4 documentary that Murdoch's former butler, Philip Townsend, recalled that the News Corporation founder, chairman and chief executive had "indicated to his editors" that she was "a person from that point onwards to be targeted".
In 1987, the Sun ran a front-page story with the headline "Anne Diamond killed my father"" about a road traffic accident in Birmingham seven years earlier in which a man had died, the inquiry heard.
Diamond said she was driving the car but stressed that at the inquest the coroner went to "great lengths" to point out that it was not her fault.
At the time she was on maternity leave having just had her first baby and she felt "terrified", the inquiry heard. "It made it look like I was a calculated, cold-blooded murderer, and I know I wasn't," she said.
"I was sitting at home nursing my baby and I knew I was a good person. And I was frightened to go out from that moment onwards."
Diamond complained to the Press Council, the forerunner of the Press Complaints Commission, and won a ruling in her favour which criticised the Sun for intruding into grief.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/28/leveson-inquiry-anne-diamond-murdoch-press?intcmp=239
Broadcaster Anne Diamond has claimed at the Leveson inquiry that Rupert Murdoch's editors waged a vendetta against her after she asked the media mogul how he slept at night knowing his newspapers ruined people's lives.
She also spoke at the Royal Courts of Justice in London of her distress when the paper published a front-page picture of her and her husband carrying the coffin of their baby son Sebastian at his funeral in 1991.
Diamond told the inquiry she put tough questions to Murdoch when she interviewed him in the 1980s. "I did put the point to Mr Murdoch that his newspapers were intent, or seemed to be intent on ruining some people's lives and how did he feel about that, and how could he sleep at night knowing that that was going on," she said.
"I seem to remember Mr Murdoch brushing it off completely and I remember after that incident, being a bit frustrated that I didn't feel that I had got my point over to him at all."
She said she learned earlier this year while taking part in a Channel 4 documentary that Murdoch's former butler, Philip Townsend, recalled that the News Corporation founder, chairman and chief executive had "indicated to his editors" that she was "a person from that point onwards to be targeted".
In 1987, the Sun ran a front-page story with the headline "Anne Diamond killed my father"" about a road traffic accident in Birmingham seven years earlier in which a man had died, the inquiry heard.
Diamond said she was driving the car but stressed that at the inquest the coroner went to "great lengths" to point out that it was not her fault.
At the time she was on maternity leave having just had her first baby and she felt "terrified", the inquiry heard. "It made it look like I was a calculated, cold-blooded murderer, and I know I wasn't," she said.
"I was sitting at home nursing my baby and I knew I was a good person. And I was frightened to go out from that moment onwards."
Diamond complained to the Press Council, the forerunner of the Press Complaints Commission, and won a ruling in her favour which criticised the Sun for intruding into grief.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/28/leveson-inquiry-anne-diamond-murdoch-press?intcmp=239
