Paul Dacre says claims Mail broke law to target Doreen Lawrence ‘bitterly wounding’

Tue, 10 Feb 2026

Ex-editor of Daily Mail tells high court he is appalled by allegations about its journalists by Stephen Lawrence’s mother and others

Paul Dacre, the longtime editor of the Daily Mail, has said it was “bitterly wounding” to face allegations that his journalists used criminal tactics to target the mother of a murdered teenager whose case he had championed.

Giving evidence in the high court, Dacre, who edited the paper from 1992 to 2018, said the “grave and sometimes preposterous” claims from Doreen Lawrence and six other claimants had “astonished, appalled and – in the small hours of the night – reduced me to rage”.