THE solicitor who took on the News of the World studied law in Chester.
Mark Lewis, who attended Christleton College of Law in the late 80s, recently helped secure a £2m pay-out from News Corporation for the family of murder victim Milly Dowler.
This was after a News of the World (NoW) investigator allegedly hacked into Milly’s mobile phone and deleted some messages giving her parents false hope she was still alive.
Mark, who this week addressed the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on press standards, said: “Milly’s family thought wrongly that she was still alive.
“That might not have been an intended consequence by the New of the World but they were so callous they didn’t really care whose lives they ruined.”
Mark, who also acted for Professional Footballers’ Association boss Gordon Taylor when he sued the NoW for breaching his privacy, added: “The Dowler case stopped the press from being able to ignore what had happened.”
Mark studied for his Law Society Final Exam at Christleton when he was in his 20s but says his memories of the place are not great because he was ‘very lazy’ and the course ‘tough’ so he vowed never to return.
He also recalled tangling with police who stopped him in his car on the A56 near Chester and charged him with an ‘obscure’ offence following an argument with a police officer earlier that day.
His solicitor advised he admit the charge but he pleaded not guilty and won.
Mark, 46, who lives in London, says this was the start for him of ‘taking on authority and winning’.
His decision not to return to Chester was confirmed some years later when he attended a veteran car rally at Wrexham in a 1901 model and broke down.
“When I looked at the sign it said ‘Christleton’!”
