Phone hacking scandal engulfs Sunday Mirror

The Trinity Mirror newspaper group has become embroiled in the phone hacking saga after evidence uncovered by BBC's Newsnight revealed that Sunday Mirror journalists listened to the voicemail messages of celebrities in order to find stories.

Alleged victims of the incidents include actresses Liz Hurley and Leslie Ash and footballer Rio Ferdinand.

Newsnight spoke to an ex-Sunday Mirror journalist who said that phone hacking occurred on a daily basis, and that one reporter who was particularly proficient was nicknamed "master of the dark arts".

"One afternoon in the newsroom I saw Liz Hurley's phone being hacked and a reporter listen to her mobile phone messages and take a note of what was said," he told the programme.

"It was a Thursday and I was told that there wasn't much on there - just something about lunch from another woman - so they would keep trying before the weekend to see what they could find."

Trinity Mirror denied the allegations, saying in a statement that its journalists "work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct".

If true, the news will blow the phone hacking scandal wide open, after it was initially assumed that only News International titles owned by Rupert Murdoch were the culprits.

Journalists working for News of the World, The Sun and The Sunday Times had been accused of hacking the voicemail accounts of war widows and murdered schoolchildren, among others, leading to widespread public condemnation, Rupert Murdoch's failure to take over BSkyB and targeted reprisal attacks from Anonymous and LulzSec.

The groups hacked a News International server posting a fake Sun story claiming that Murdoch had died, while also claiming to have obtained a huge dump of emails.

If Trinity Mirror has engaged in similar murky practices, the company may be in for the same treatment from the hacktivists.