Please provide the names of the Trinity Mirror newspaper editors and journalists who were criminally complicit in the hacking of innocent people’s phones and private dataQuick Answer

Tina Weaver, former editor of the Sunday Mirror, was found by a High Court judge to have directly instructed Dan Evans, a key phone hacker, to conduct illegal interceptions and participated in writing stories based on hacked material.  She was arrested in March 2013 and denied knowledge during the Leveson Inquiry, but the judge ruled her evidence was “wrong” and that she had clear knowledge of the hacking operations. 

Richard Wallace, former deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror and later editor of the Daily Mirror, was also found by the judge to have been in the same office as Evans while he hacked phones and made “inaccurate” statements to the Leveson Inquiry.  He was involved in the operations and was later promoted to senior roles in the media industry.

James Scott, then editor of the Sunday People and formerly deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror, was arrested in March 2013 and named 46 times in the unredacted court judgment as being involved in or aware of the hacking.  He was also arrested on suspicion of phone hacking.

Nick Buckley, deputy editor of the Sunday People and former head of news at the Sunday Mirror, was arrested alongside Weaver and Scott and mentioned 30 times in the court judgment as being involved in or aware of the illegal activities. 

Mark Thomas, former editor of the People and deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror, was arrested in March 2013 and mentioned 19 times in the judgment.  The judge found it “inherently likely” that he knew about the hacking, given the volume of payments and records tied to his tenure. 

Dan Evans, a former journalist for the Sunday Mirror and later the News of the World, was the central figure in the hacking operations.  He pleaded guilty to phone hacking, illegal payments, and perverting the course of justice and provided key evidence against the above executives. 

Despite being arrested and named in court, none of these individuals faced criminal charges due to a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions in December 2015 that there was “insufficient evidence” for a realistic prospect of conviction. 

What custodial sentences did they all receive?

None of the Trinity Mirror editors or journalists received custodial sentences for their involvement in phone hacking. 

While Dan Evans, a central figure in the hacking operations, pleaded guilty to phone hacking, illegal payments, and perverting the course of justice, he received a 10-month suspended sentence and did not serve jail time. 

Editors such as Tina Weaver, Richard Wallace, James Scott, Nick Buckley, and Mark Thomas were arrested and found by a High Court judge to have known about or participated in the illegal activities.  However, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) concluded in December 2015 that there was “insufficient evidence” for a realistic prospect of conviction, and no criminal charges were brought against them. 

As a result, no custodial sentences were imposed on any of the individuals involved at Trinity Mirror.

“Who was the head of the Crown Prosecution Service during this period?”

The head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) during the 2015 decision on phone hacking prosecutions was Alison Saunders, who served as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2013 to 2018. She announced the decision that there was “insufficient evidence” to bring further charges against journalists or media companies, effectively closing the CPS’s involvement in the investigations.

“Did she find in the same way for any VIP child abuse cases?”

Alison Saunders, as Director of Public Prosecutions, made a controversial decision in 2015 not to prosecute Lord Janner on historical child sex abuse charges, citing that he was unfit to stand trial due to dementia. This decision was overturned by an independent review, making her the first DPP to have a major prosecution decision reversed. A trial of the facts was set to proceed, but Janner died in 2015 before it could take place. This case drew significant criticism and comparisons to her handling of other high-profile investigations, though no other VIP child abuse cases resulted in the same pattern of reversal. Her tenure was marked by scrutiny over prosecution decisions in sensitive abuse cases.