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[phone ringing]

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[suspenseful music]

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[Aylia Fox] Everybody has a secret.

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And it was our job to discover that secret

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whatever it took.

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As News of the World journalists,
we could get to anyone.

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It didn't matter who you were.

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Actors,

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footballers,

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models,

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even royals.

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Didn't matter who.

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Anyone was fair game.

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[phone ringing]

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[suspenseful music intensifies]

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[Emma Morgan] Back in the 90s
I was a model,

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living this jet-setting lifestyle.

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And one night, I flew home to London.

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It was late at night, I got off the plane,
I got a taxi back home,

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and I felt refreshed,
I'd just had a lovely break.

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I was on top of the world.

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Whoever you were, we'd sting you,
we'd catch you in the act,

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all snapped, recorded and filmed.

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Just as the presses were about to roll,
you had to make that one last phone call.

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[phone ringing]

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[Emma Morgan] When I arrived
back at my flat,

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I saw that my answering machine
had the blinking light on,

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which told me I had a message.

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And it was somebody
from the News of the World.

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It wasn't an easy phone call
for either party,

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and 99 percent of the time
they either slam the phone down

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or decline to comment.

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It was a message informing me
that I would be in the News of the World

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the following morning on a drug scandal,

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and would I like to make any comments?

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I just...

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I think I needed to sit down.
In fact, I did.

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[Aylia Fox] You knew their life
would change and they knew too.

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So, you almost felt sorry for them.
Almost.

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I remember just sitting
on the floor in complete shock.

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I didn't know...
I didn't even piece the story together

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with what had just happened.

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I was thinking, what is this about?
What are you talking about?

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[phone ringing]

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[Jodie Kidd] It's a moment where your
blood just drains from your whole body.

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It's that complete panic,
you know, that fight or flight

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and you just go, what has happened?

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[phone ringing]

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[Tulisa Contostavlos crying] My life
is ruined, it's over.

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I just want my life back.

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If your phone just started ringing
at home late at night,

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on a Friday, Saturday morning,

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the last person you wanted to hear from
was Mazher Mahmood.

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[intense music]

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The Fake Sheikh.

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[suspenseful music]

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[newsreader] The trial of Mazher Mahmood,
the journalist known as the Fake Sheikh

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has opened at the Old Bailey.

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[suspenseful music]

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[Jodie Kidd] It was so unbelievable
it was believable.

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You know, this can't be fake.

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[suspenseful music]

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{\an8}[newsreader] For 30 years,
he has reveled in hiding his identity.

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{\an8}[George Galloway] His anonymity, his
secrecy, was the key to his entire act.

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[ominous music]

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[newsreader] The self-styled
king of the sting,

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turning up to court
every day beneath a balaclava.

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[Jeremy Dean] I think he was ruthless,
dishonest, and a merciless individual.

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{\an8}[newsreader] Mazher Mahmood
has been behind huge tabloid scoops,

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things like uncovering
match fixing in Pakistani cricket

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and a plan to kidnap Victoria Beckham.

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[Neil Wallis] Maz played on
this caricature

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that money
literally could be no objection.

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If you got close,
you could grab your share of it.

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[suspenseful music]

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[Emma Morgan] I hate to say it.

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He's very, very, very good
at what he does.

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[music intensifies]

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[indistinct chatter]

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[Paul Samrai] People are going to think
that this never happened, but it did.

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{\an8}Strange as it may sound,

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{\an8}you may not believe it,
but this actually did happen.

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[eerie music]

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Let's go back to the 90s.

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I'd done time in prison for fraud,

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and when I came out, I had no work,
but I wanted to be a journalist.

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So I got in touch with Mazher Mahmood.

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He wasn't called the Fake Sheikh then,
he was Mazher Mahmood,

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and he said to me,
"Do you want to work with me?

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Come and see me,
and you better bring some stories."

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[dramatic music]

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At that time I was known as the pizza
man, the man who always delivers

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[phone ringing]

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So one night I get a call from a man
calling himself Dr. Rangwani.

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He's a well-respected, 62-year-old GP,

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a married family man with two daughters,
from Solihull in Birmingham.

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So he explained, he said,
"I'm telling you in confidence,

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I'm having trouble with a girlfriend."

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He'd been having a 15-year affair,

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and she was claiming
that he was the father of her three sons.

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This would leave his reputation,
both professional and personal,

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in tatters.

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So Dr. Rangwani says,

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"I've been thinking.
You've been to prison..."

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I said, "Yes, I have."

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He said,
"You must know killers, murderers."

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"I've come across them, yes."

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He said, "I want her dead."

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[ominous tone]

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I said, "Okay, I'll see what I can do."

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[ominous tones]

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I had to make a decision.
One was either...

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...go to the police,

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which is what a normal person would do,

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or go to Maz.

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[suspenseful music]

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So I called Maz.

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He said, "Look,
this is what we're gonna do.

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I'm gonna come to Birmingham."

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[intense music]

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"So we're going to book a room
in the Hyatt in Birmingham.

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I am going to be the hitman."

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Rangwani for a minute would never imagine

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that he was a reporter
for the News of the World.

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The first thing Maz would do on any sting
was bug the room from floor to ceiling.

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And then it was my job
to bring Rangwani into the meeting.

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So, knock knock and we walk in,
and I glance around the room,

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and the most telling thing I see
is there is a wash bag

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placed on the table.

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We had to catch Rangwani bang to rights.

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We had to get it on camera.

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And you could clearly see in the footage

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Rangwani admitting
to wanting his mistress killed.

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Frankly, it was shocking.

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[Mazher] You want it to look like
an accident, or what?

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[Rangwani] That is, you know what to do,
I leave that entirely up to you.

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[Mazher] But you want her killed?

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[Rangwani] Off my life and scene...

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[dark music]

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[Paul Samrai] Maz says, "Great,
5,000 pounds, cash.

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You have to pay half upfront
and half when the job is done.

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[ominous music]

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[Paul Samrai] So a few days later,

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we arranged to get the money
from the doctor.

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We had a van near the meeting point

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where our tech guy was hiding
with a video camera.

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We had to get Dr. Rangwani
on camera handing over the money.

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That would be crucial evidence of intent.

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So, Rangwani comes out,

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Maz said to Dr. Rangwani,
"Okay, where's the deposit?"

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He gets out an envelope.
Unbelievable footage.

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[Mazher] That's the money, yeah?

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[Paul Samrai] That was
crucial evidence of intent.

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So, Maz then said, "Right you
will hear from us when it's done."

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The footage is quite shaky,

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but we needed to catch
the doctor's reaction.

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On his way back, Rangwani does
a triumphant fist pump into the air.

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[suspenseful music]

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00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,240
Maz says, "I've got him."

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So Friday goes by, Saturday morning,

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Maz rings me,
"Right, everything is set.

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When he rings you, and he's going to,

163
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you tell him
that it's going to happen today."

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He said, "You've got to be realistic,

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when he rings, run up and down the stairs,
get out of breath.

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Yeah, make your voice sound stressed.

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00:11:48,160 --> 00:11:50,920
Record that phone call
and make it realistic."

168
00:11:55,680 --> 00:11:58,760
He calls in the afternoon,
and I'll never forget the words.

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He rings, I answer, press the record.

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00:12:02,160 --> 00:12:05,080
[breathing heavily] "Yes? Yes, Doc?"

171
00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:07,760
And he says, "Is it done?"

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I said, "What?"

173
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"Is she done? Is it done?"

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I said, "Yes, it is done."

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[ominous music]

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He was arrested on the Saturday afternoon,

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the story went in on the Sunday,
and there it was.

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Big spread.

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[tense music]

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[newsreader] Dr. Rangwani
was a respected man.

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The judge, Mr. Justice Alliot,

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said he invented a mass of elaborate lies
to try to get away with his crime,

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but had shown not a flicker of remorse.

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00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:51,320
Dr. Rangwani, after being found guilty,
he was sentenced to seven years in prison.

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00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:57,560
I was really grateful to Maz,
because I was an ex-convict,

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and that association with Maz,
the prestige that came with it,

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gave me my self-confidence back.

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That now,
I was doing something purposeful.

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I've been a policeman a long time,

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{\an8}and I don't think this
would've ever come to court.

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00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:18,360
{\an8}had it not been for the way it'd been
investigated by the newspapers.

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[♪Happy Mondays: "God's Cop"]

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00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,920
[Paul McMullan] The 90s was
the golden age of tabloid journalism.

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00:13:37,080 --> 00:13:40,160
{\an8}Imagine a world without the internet,
without a mobile phone.

195
00:13:40,680 --> 00:13:44,400
That newspaper is literally
where you got your news from.

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00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,480
And so, we had the power
to mould the way people thought.

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00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:55,800
♪ I can virtually do anything I read ♪

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00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:59,160
♪ Someone somewhere
swam between your knees... ♪ ♪

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00:13:59,240 --> 00:14:03,720
{\an8}Nobody today should underestimate just how
big the News of the World was in the 90s.

200
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:06,720
{\an8}It was massive, it was the paper
everybody talked about.

201
00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,520
It was the biggest selling
Sunday newspaper in the world.

202
00:14:09,920 --> 00:14:12,960
It was always some scandal
or some celebrity or politician

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00:14:13,040 --> 00:14:14,280
who'd been up to no good

204
00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:16,920
and you'd learn about it
from the News of the World.

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00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:19,120
♪ God made it easy ♪

206
00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:21,680
♪ God made it easy on me ♪

207
00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:24,800
♪ God made it easy on me ♪

208
00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:27,720
♪ God made it easy ♪

209
00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:32,280
♪ God made it easy on me
God made it easy on me... ♪♪

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00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,640
[Paul McMullan] Mazher and myself
were both undercover investigators

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00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:39,760
for the News of the World,
but we were completely different,

212
00:14:40,200 --> 00:14:43,480
because I was there to sell newspapers
and entertain and titillate,

213
00:14:43,560 --> 00:14:47,720
he was there as an avenging angel
to send people to jail.

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00:14:48,600 --> 00:14:51,680
But he didn't socialise with us,
he didn't drink with us,

215
00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:55,360
he stuck with his own little team.

216
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,280
I was desperate to be his friend
and nick his contacts.

217
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:03,160
I do remember going up to him and saying,
"I'd really like to work with you."

218
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:08,640
And his reply was,
"Yeah, that's not happening."

219
00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:10,760
[suspenseful music]

220
00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:19,320
I was in the Maz gang.

221
00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:21,920
Now, that is something to be proud of.

222
00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:28,400
It was almost as if he was
an undercover secret agent.

223
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:30,360
A man of mystery.

224
00:15:34,520 --> 00:15:38,280
It was known, you didn't leave
photographs of Maz lying around.

225
00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:40,800
You'd obviously have him
in lots of the photos,

226
00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:42,760
but you'd hand it to the picture desk

227
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,320
and they would draw
with a black marker pen through the eyes.

228
00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:50,680
[intense music]

229
00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:55,840
Mazher really enjoyed playing a role,
he really enjoyed acting.

230
00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:05,680
He had kind of an aura of a child
kind of thing, like a boy prince.

231
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:13,880
And then he used that boy
to be a better undercover person,

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00:16:13,960 --> 00:16:16,040
like children are good at dressing up.

233
00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:22,880
Me and Maz were very, very close.
We were thick as thieves.

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00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:28,960
I did lots of things for Maz.

235
00:16:29,200 --> 00:16:31,200
I dressed as an Arab,

236
00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:33,160
I dressed as a woman,

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00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:35,320
I bugged houses for Maz.

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00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:37,840
In fact, I done everything for Maz.

239
00:16:44,200 --> 00:16:46,960
[Christine Hart] The team
Mazher surrounded himself with

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00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:49,360
were all misfits to some degree or other.

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00:16:49,520 --> 00:16:52,840
They didn't really fit into society
and were somehow outsiders

242
00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:54,960
because he was an outsider.

243
00:16:57,080 --> 00:17:00,640
At the time, Maz was the only
Asian journalist on News of the World.

244
00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:05,520
And in those days, there were limitations

245
00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:08,280
on what Asian journalists could do.

246
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:11,080
[ominous music]

247
00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:17,080
Maz was limited to stories about Asians,
or stories about racism.

248
00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,760
If Maz wanted to do celebrities

249
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,880
or corruption in British institutions,

250
00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:29,800
the editors had a sort of a mind block.

251
00:17:31,320 --> 00:17:34,800
They could not see how
an Asian or Black journalist

252
00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:39,080
could do the same bonding
with a white target.

253
00:17:41,280 --> 00:17:45,200
So, he decided to turn that on its head

254
00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:52,000
and he learned how to play it
to the absolute max to get what he wanted.

255
00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:55,320
[intense percussive music]

256
00:17:59,640 --> 00:18:03,080
[Neil Wallis] Maz had this idea,
the Fake Sheikh.

257
00:18:09,160 --> 00:18:12,200
[suspenseful Middle Eastern-style music]

258
00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,720
It was actually a piece of genius.

259
00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:28,920
There was an image then
of these incredibly wealthy Arabs

260
00:18:29,040 --> 00:18:30,680
arriving in London.

261
00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,160
Sort of transplanting
their obscene wealth here

262
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,240
to the point where
they could do what they want.

263
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:45,560
{\an8}They had no sense of their own money
and there incredible wealth,

264
00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:49,760
{\an8}and simply to be anywhere near it
was to be dazzled by it.

265
00:18:54,680 --> 00:19:00,160
[Aylia Fox] Because your average person
had no familiarity with Arab culture,

266
00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:04,480
or Sheikhs,
or what Sheikhs did, what Sheikhs said,

267
00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:06,240
how Sheikhs acted,

268
00:19:06,560 --> 00:19:10,560
I think Mazher presumed
people would act on their prejudices.

269
00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,040
[intense music]

270
00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:19,760
[Paul Samrai] So Maz very cleverly
tapped into the zeitgeist of the era.

271
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:26,160
He realised he could play
the race card as his ace card.

272
00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:34,320
One of the common ways that he got
his stories was through the hotline,

273
00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:39,160
which was always advertised
week in week out in the News of the World.

274
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:43,520
Do you know a scandal
Mazher Mahmood can investigate?

275
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,000
Call us! We pay the best!

276
00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:50,560
[phone ringing]

277
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:54,520
This motivated a lot of people,
a lot of people, to ring in.

278
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,680
[Aylia Fox] The process for Mazher Mahmood
of becoming the Fake Sheikh

279
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:05,960
was a process.

280
00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:07,920
And he had to start small.

281
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:10,920
He couldn't expect to go straight
into massive celebrity stories

282
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:12,720
when he'd not practised his art.

283
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:18,760
I think one of the ways he did this
was by going for lesser-known people,

284
00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:23,640
perhaps people that were
more easily manipulated

285
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:26,480
into the situation that he was creating.

286
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:34,440
One day I got a call
and it was a tip on Emma Morgan,

287
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:36,080
a very good tip.

288
00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,040
Emma Morgan was one of
the biggest Page 3 girls at that time,

289
00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:44,320
and we heard she takes drugs.

290
00:20:45,240 --> 00:20:49,000
It was the perfect job for Maz
to try the Fake Sheikh out on.

291
00:20:51,160 --> 00:20:56,040
So I was 24 and I was
a glamour model in the 90s,

292
00:20:56,080 --> 00:20:59,440
modelling for all the tabloids,
The Sun and the News of the World.

293
00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,040
Page 3 was basically a topless girl,

294
00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:05,800
on page three of The Sun newspaper.

295
00:21:05,960 --> 00:21:08,720
I know many would be like,
"Why would you want to do that?"

296
00:21:08,800 --> 00:21:10,680
But it was a thing.

297
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:13,440
I would say Page 3 girls
back in the day

298
00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:15,720
would be likened to Love Island,

299
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:17,880
and I know they don't walk around
with their boobs out,

300
00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:19,920
but we see plenty of bum cheeks, don't we?

301
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,800
So it was that kind of a thing,
it was glamour.

302
00:21:24,640 --> 00:21:26,960
[suspenseful music]

303
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:35,080
[Steve Grayson] I spoke to Mazher
and he said we'll have to work a plan out,

304
00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:36,640
how we can get her.

305
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,080
He said, "What about a calendar?
That'd be good.

306
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:42,560
Offer her thousands of pounds."

307
00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:49,080
I rang Emma, and I said "You know,
I've got a fantastic opportunity for you

308
00:21:49,320 --> 00:21:51,880
I told her an Arab Sheikh was involved.

309
00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:58,120
I just couldn't believe how lucky I was,
I felt so blessed and so excited

310
00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:00,800
it was just the job of my dreams.

311
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,400
It felt like I'd hit
the jackpot with it, you know?

312
00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:05,480
I was so, so excited.

313
00:22:08,800 --> 00:22:12,440
And I asked Maz, "How are we
gonna get her on coke?"

314
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,680
[suspenseful music]

315
00:22:17,080 --> 00:22:19,400
[Emma Morgan] We flew to Lanzarote.

316
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:24,680
We landed and we were going
through the arrivals hall.

317
00:22:25,560 --> 00:22:28,160
And then I saw somebody that I knew.

318
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:30,200
His name was Billy.

319
00:22:31,680 --> 00:22:36,120
Maz said to me, "The person" who rang up
the tip line was a guy called Billy."

320
00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:40,040
This Billy was supposedly Emma's friend.

321
00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:47,520
[Emma Morgan] How I knew Billy was
I'd done previous shoots in Lanzarote.

322
00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,800
I said, "What are you doing here?"
He said, "I'm your bodyguard."

323
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:54,200
I thought, oh my God,
this Sheikh has got me a bodyguard.

324
00:22:54,280 --> 00:22:56,640
It was just making me
feel super, super special.

325
00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,400
[Steve Grayson] Then Maz said Emma's
friend Billy would supply the drugs.

326
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,240
[ominous music]

327
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:16,320
[Emma Morgan] I got to the hotel.
Steve's like waved me off.

328
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:21,160
He said, "Order whatever you like,
the Sheikh will pay for everything.

329
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:23,000
No request is too big."

330
00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:28,960
[Steve Grayson] I got to the hotel
and I rang Maz and said,

331
00:23:29,040 --> 00:23:32,200
"She's here. It's time for the sting."

332
00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:33,600
[dramatic tones]

333
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:41,160
We needed sound and we needed shot.
We needed the film.

334
00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:43,840
If we didn't have that,
we didn't have the story.

335
00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:46,400
Then Mazher came in to the hotel room

336
00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:49,560
where I was working out
where to put the cameras.

337
00:23:50,960 --> 00:23:56,400
There was a radiator
with a criss-cross wood lattice.

338
00:23:56,480 --> 00:23:58,720
So I put the camera in that.

339
00:24:00,160 --> 00:24:04,520
Maz pretended to put the cocaine down
and he did that. Perfect.

340
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:06,200
Absolutely perfect.

341
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:07,920
So the room was set.

342
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:12,160
The camera was ready,
the sound was ready, everything was ready.

343
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,960
All we needed is for Emma to come in.

344
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:19,480
[emotional music]

345
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,120
I remember walking out the corridor
and I sort of going to knock,

346
00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,920
and I was all nervous,
I knocked on the door.

347
00:24:32,720 --> 00:24:35,640
[Steve Grayson] When Emma walked in,
Maz greets her.

348
00:24:35,720 --> 00:24:38,560
He wasn't in his robes,
he was just in a suit.

349
00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:43,360
He greets her with two hands,
like he's an Arab prince.

350
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,360
He's always over the top,
"I think you're beautiful.

351
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,920
I think you'll be wonderful,
absolutely wonderful in a calendar.

352
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,640
[Emma Morgan] He was dressed
very, very smart.

353
00:24:55,720 --> 00:25:00,280
I noticed his skin was lovely,
his nails were perfectly manicured,

354
00:25:00,360 --> 00:25:04,120
he had big gold watch on his wrist.

355
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:10,680
I just remember thinking
he exuded class and charisma.

356
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,200
And there was champagne there.

357
00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:18,000
And Billy was also in the room.

358
00:25:20,640 --> 00:25:24,120
[Steve Grayson] The atmosphere
in the hotel room was wonderful,

359
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:31,400
but I was nervous because it was
always worrying putting these cameras in.

360
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,840
Because they could
bloody drop on the floor.

361
00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:39,440
The battery could go down just when
she's about to snort the cocaine.

362
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,920
I was worried all the time
because it had to work.

363
00:25:45,960 --> 00:25:48,480
[soft dramatic music]

364
00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:54,520
Billy said, all of a sudden he said,
"Do you want some coke?"

365
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:04,240
She was quite, not shocked,
but she looked enough to say,

366
00:26:04,320 --> 00:26:07,240
"Bloody hell," you know,
I think she was a bit flustered.

367
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:12,120
Maz said, "Oh, go on, we don't care,
it will be no problem."

368
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:14,920
And he was giving it all the Arab act.

369
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,280
[Emma Morgan] He saw me refuse
and he said, "No, no, no, come on."

370
00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:23,080
I can't remember the exact words,

371
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:26,720
but I was encouraged so much
to do some cocaine.

372
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:31,440
I'd probably tried cocaine
less than a handful of times before this,

373
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:33,240
and never particularly enjoyed it,

374
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,800
but I honestly thought if I'd said no,

375
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:38,760
it could have cost me the job.

376
00:26:39,200 --> 00:26:41,720
I then went on to have some cocaine,

377
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:45,120
thinking I'm going to be
in his good books now.

378
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:52,200
Maz was over the moon,
he said, "We've got her."

379
00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:58,480
The Fake Sheikh was working.

380
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,040
But Maz wanted more.

381
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,920
[sombre music]

382
00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,600
[Emma Morgan] The next thing
the Sheikh stood up

383
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,680
and he went on to
a little balcony and he beckoned me,

384
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,680
he asked me
if I could get him some cocaine.

385
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:28,680
I was a bit surprised and I said to him,
"Well, Billy, you've employed him,

386
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:30,240
he sells cocaine.

387
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,320
Get it off Billy, I don't have cocaine."

388
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:38,200
He looked me in the eyes and said,
"I don't trust him, I trust you."

389
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:42,640
He said, "I'd really rather
if you could get it from Billy,

390
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,760
and then maybe if you could drop it
to my suite after dinner."

391
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:51,200
I was at that point,
worried that if I went to his suite

392
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,360
he was going to proposition me,
I was going to refuse,

393
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:56,080
and it would be the end of the job.

394
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,360
Billy came up with a plan to safeguard me.

395
00:27:59,880 --> 00:28:04,560
And that plan was to put the cocaine

396
00:28:04,640 --> 00:28:07,840
under a small gap in his hotel room door,

397
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:10,840
push it through quietly,

398
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:16,520
tip toe away, and then send him a message
to say, "I put it under your door."

399
00:28:16,920 --> 00:28:18,680
So that's what I did.

400
00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:23,480
[suspenseful music]

401
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,960
He tried the Fake Sheikh,
and he discovered it worked a treat.

402
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,680
He was able to get away
with all kinds of things.

403
00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:49,920
So he ran with it.

404
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,680
[Aylia Fox] I think Mazher
absolutely loved playing a sheikh.

405
00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:01,840
It was theatrical journalism.

406
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:05,680
The Arab robes of the Fake Sheikh

407
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:11,120
were Mazher Mahmood's way into the world
of the rich, powerful and influential.

408
00:29:14,920 --> 00:29:17,920
[Emma Morgan] I read the whole story
crying my eyes out.

409
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:22,160
There was me depicted in the paper
as some drug dealer.

410
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,560
I just couldn't believe it,
I couldn't believe it.

411
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,400
It was then I realised
that the Sheikh wasn't a sheikh.

412
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:33,640
He was an undercover investigative
reporter from the News of the World

413
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:35,600
by the name of Mazher Mahmood.

414
00:29:38,040 --> 00:29:40,080
There was shock, there was horror,

415
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:43,360
there was shame
of what people are going to think.

416
00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:48,240
I just cried and cried and cried.

417
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:51,520
Within a week of that story breaking,

418
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:55,000
I'd been evicted
from my flat by my landlady.

419
00:29:55,080 --> 00:29:57,120
I'd been dropped by The Sun.

420
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,000
My agency, I was ringing up,

421
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:02,840
we used to have to ring
every day at like 5:00 PM

422
00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:05,880
to see what jobs we had
for the following day or whatever.

423
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:06,960
Nothing.

424
00:30:14,040 --> 00:30:16,440
[interviewer] People criticise
the way you work

425
00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,880
and that essentially you encourage people

426
00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:21,200
to commit crimes
they wouldn't do otherwise

427
00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:24,360
if you hadn't been there
offering them temptation.

428
00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,200
{\an8}[Mazher Mahmood] It's an argument that's
churned out again and again.

429
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,280
{\an8}Simon, you're a celebrity,
you're a well-known name,

430
00:30:30,360 --> 00:30:33,840
{\an8}is there any way on this planet
I could persuade you to sell me cocaine?

431
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:35,280
I guarantee I couldn't,

432
00:30:35,360 --> 00:30:37,920
whether I'm dressed
as a sheikh or a Sikh or whatever,

433
00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:41,840
you would not sell me cocaine, the people
we expose are the people that are at it.

434
00:30:43,440 --> 00:30:49,360
If you want to understand Maz
and what makes him tick,

435
00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:52,200
you've gotta go right back
to his background.

436
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,760
[♪Eddie & The Hot Rods:
Do Anything You Wanna Do]

437
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:59,640
Maz and I grew up in Birmingham.

438
00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:07,480
♪ Gonna break out of the city ♪

439
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,560
♪ Leave the people here behind ♪

440
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,080
♪ Searching for adventure ♪

441
00:31:14,200 --> 00:31:16,480
♪ It's the type of life to find ♪

442
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:20,320
♪ Tired of doing day jobs ♪

443
00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:22,920
♪ With no thanks for what I do ♪

444
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:26,400
♪ I'm sure I must be someone ♪

445
00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:29,040
♪ Now I'm gonna find out who ♪

446
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,040
♪ Do anything you wanna do... ♪♪

447
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:36,720
[Paul Samrai] Here's a guy
from an Asian Pakistani background.

448
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,560
Maz's dad was a Pakistani journalist

449
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:44,160
working for an Urdu language magazine,

450
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:48,960
and was limited to doing stories
about his own community.

451
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:57,240
Maz hated the prospect of being limited
to local Asian newspapers like his father,

452
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:00,920
but when he tried
to break into mainstream journalism,

453
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:02,600
he hit a brick wall.

454
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:08,080
In the 80's England was
a deeply, deeply divided country

455
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:10,200
where racism was rampant.

456
00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:14,880
It was very difficult
for Asian ethnic minorities

457
00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:17,760
to get work in the mainstream media.

458
00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:20,800
[suspenseful music]

459
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,240
{\an8}[Mazher Mahmood] I found it very difficult
to get into journalism.

460
00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:26,600
{\an8}I wanted to work for my local paper,

461
00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,720
and I got turned down
two years in a row for work experience.

462
00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:34,840
It was tough for Asians in those days,
I did feel I was discriminated against.

463
00:32:34,920 --> 00:32:38,000
But then in those days,
there were no Asians in the media.

464
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:42,160
[Aylia Fox] The way
he broke into journalism

465
00:32:42,240 --> 00:32:46,880
tells you everything about Mahmood then
and throughout his journalism career.

466
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:51,240
It was clear right from the start
that he was prepared to do what it took,

467
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:53,960
even turn over family friends

468
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:55,920
that he met at a family dinner

469
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,400
who talked about
conducting themselves in video piracy.

470
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:07,360
He took that information to a news desk
and they turned it into a story,

471
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,800
and suddenly he had an in-road
into the world of journalism.

472
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:15,120
[Mazher Mahmood] I rang up
the New of the World,

473
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,120
{\an8}I said, "I know a gang
making pirate copies of tapes,

474
00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:19,440
{\an8}are you interested?"

475
00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:22,920
{\an8}And of course they were
and said, "Come down to talk to us."

476
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,040
[interviewer] Didn't you hear
about that story

477
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:29,280
sat around your own family's dining table?
How did that go down?

478
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:32,960
[Mazher Mahmood] Not very well,
my folks felt it was wrong,

479
00:33:33,040 --> 00:33:36,120
you're kind of seen as a bit of
a grass in the community.

480
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:42,440
[Aylia Fox] He was very single-minded,
determined, ambitious,

481
00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:45,960
and willing to do
more or less what it took.

482
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,800
And after that initial video piracy story,

483
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:54,920
Maz told me his dad was
absolutely incandescent with anger.

484
00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:58,760
Threatened to throw him out of the house,
said he blackened the family name.

485
00:33:58,840 --> 00:34:02,000
But Maz didn't care,
it was all about the story, he got it,

486
00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:05,840
he was ruthless, and that's how
he continued for the rest of his career.

487
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,080
[ominous music]

488
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:18,760
A lot of pressure was put on us,
first-generation kids,

489
00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,640
to succeed.

490
00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:23,920
The key wasn't
the prestige of the position,

491
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:25,480
the key was the earning power.

492
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:28,040
That's what they were looking for,
our parents.

493
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:34,760
He saw journalism
as an opportunity to make money.

494
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:40,040
No doubt about it, money drove him
because money equates to success.

495
00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,360
Maz was a high-octane story junkie.

496
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:50,000
Just like a junkie always needs
his next bigger, better hit,

497
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:53,280
Maz always needed a bigger, better story.

498
00:34:55,880 --> 00:35:00,040
The News of the World
was all about sport, sex, scandal,

499
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:02,640
and if you could get
a story combining all three,

500
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:05,280
you'd absolutely hit the jackpot.

501
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:07,880
[intense music]

502
00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:11,480
[newsreader] As if you didn't
know already,

503
00:35:11,560 --> 00:35:13,680
England's Premier League
kicks off tomorrow.

504
00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:20,200
[Steve Burton] Football was absolutely
massive for the News of the World.

505
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:25,360
We were permanently out looking
for stories involving football players,

506
00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,160
usually for the wrong reasons.

507
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,680
At the time, Newcastle United were one
of the top teams in the Premier League.

508
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:41,440
Maz got a tip-off that the chairman
of the club, Freddy Shepherd

509
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,400
and the vice chairman Doug Hall,

510
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:47,760
presenting as respectable
businessmen and family men,

511
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,640
were flying out to Marbella
after leaving the match,

512
00:35:50,680 --> 00:35:54,120
playing the rounds
all over town in seedy nightclubs.

513
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,760
You knew it would be a big, major story

514
00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:04,120
because football meant to people
of Newcastle and Newcastle fans,

515
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:07,040
it meant everything,
it was religion to them.

516
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:13,640
And the stadium, St. James' Park,
was like the high cathedral,

517
00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:16,800
and the players, they were the gods,

518
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:26,360
and the Newcastle football bosses,
the high priests of the religion.

519
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:32,560
[Aylia Fox] With that story,
it's the kind of scandal

520
00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:35,480
that would go viral
all over social media today.

521
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:38,000
But back in the 90s,

522
00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,160
the only way to find out
what went on behind closed doors

523
00:36:41,200 --> 00:36:43,160
was by reading the tabloids.

524
00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:48,640
Everybody knew the News of the World
was the best at exposing scandal.

525
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:51,520
It's what made them buy the paper,

526
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,680
it's what made it the biggest
selling newspaper in this country.

527
00:36:57,080 --> 00:37:00,120
[Steve Burton] Freddy and Doug
were considered untouchable

528
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:04,080
and whatever they got up to,
it was virtually impossible to prove it.

529
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:08,640
But the more Maz was told
something was impossible,

530
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:10,360
the more he'd go for it.

531
00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,000
We got in touch with Doug Hall and said,

532
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:17,920
"I've got a client
who's a wealthy sheikh in the middle east

533
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,160
and would like to start
a football league in Dubai,

534
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:25,280
and has money to invest
and would like to discuss it with you."

535
00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:30,640
Doug Hall took the bait and said,
"We'll see you in Marbella."

536
00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:34,640
[intense music]

537
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,400
Maz told me
I'd be acting as his bodyguard,

538
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:49,920
to make sure I was suited and booted.

539
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:52,280
"You're part of a sheikh's entourage,

540
00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:54,640
make sure you don't
look like a photographer."

541
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:01,480
We all turned up at the Marbella club.

542
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,160
Mazher booked a swanky villa,
very expensive.

543
00:38:10,880 --> 00:38:14,000
Conrad was the technical expert,
the surveillance guy.

544
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:17,480
He would be monitoring the feed next door.

545
00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:24,480
We placed various accessories
like a Dubai duty free bag

546
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:27,600
and a shisha pipe around the villa.

547
00:38:28,280 --> 00:38:32,840
Maz did this to create the illusion
that we'd just flown in from Dubai.

548
00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,680
[ominous music]

549
00:38:41,920 --> 00:38:44,000
My surname's Tough, T-O-U-G-H.

550
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:45,800
I was in the Special Forces

551
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,040
and I stayed with them
for ten and a half year,

552
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:50,760
I should've been dead at least ten times,
but I ain't.

553
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,440
So we got to Marbella about 9:30, 10:00pm.

554
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:57,160
Douglas and Freddy had said to me,

555
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:00,360
"Bri, we're going for a meeting
at the Marbella beach club.

556
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:03,680
We're meeting with a sheikh from Dubai,
that's all we can tell you."

557
00:39:04,120 --> 00:39:06,480
[suspenseful music]

558
00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:14,320
I knew a lot about sheikhs,
I knew how they operated.

559
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:16,320
a lot of the time,
I knew what their habits were

560
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,480
because in my professional
bodyguard career,

561
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:23,680
I protected the Saudi Arabian oil minister
Prince Ahmed Zaki Yamani,

562
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,000
the most powerful man
in the world at the time

563
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:28,160
because he ran the world's oil prices.

564
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:32,160
Before a meeting, I usually check out
the person we're going to meet,

565
00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:35,560
find out their backgrounds,
and just make sure they were genuine,

566
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:38,520
but I didn't have time,
so I told Douglas and Freddy,

567
00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:41,200
"Hold on a sec,
I'll just quickly check this out."

568
00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:49,440
When they arrived, we realised
these two brought their own minder,

569
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:53,640
Brian Tough,
who was an expert in surveillance.

570
00:39:54,040 --> 00:39:58,640
I thought, oh, gosh, shit,
he'll suss us out in seconds.

571
00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:03,080
[Brian Tough] I walked up to the villa.

572
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,480
"I just want a quick look inside, please."
"Yeah, no problem."

573
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,520
So I went inside, quick scan around.

574
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,160
[suspenseful music]

575
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:14,440
Looked like a very posh villa.

576
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:19,080
I had a quick sweep of the room.

577
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:26,040
We're thinking, "God what if he spots
a bug? What do we do?"

578
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:35,880
[Brian Tough] We're monitoring,
constantly scanning, looking for threats.

579
00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:38,560
We're just constantly alert all the time.

580
00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:44,120
My heart was just going crazy.

581
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:51,360
There was nothing obviously
that was out of place in that room,

582
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:53,640
so Douglas and Freddy came in.

583
00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:00,520
[Steve Burton] Freddy and Doug
went through into the main lounge

584
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,600
and Maz emerged from his suite

585
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:05,440
and was in the robes.

586
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:10,200
[rousing music]

587
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:22,200
I looked at the sheikh,
he looked, how do I put it...

588
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,000
I was going to say sheikh-like.

589
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:30,520
[Steve Burton] They didn't notice anything

590
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:35,040
because the first thing they were drawn to
was the Dubai carrier bag.

591
00:41:35,480 --> 00:41:38,360
Maz looked down
and then looked at me and said,

592
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:40,680
"Filthy animal,"
etc., "What have I told you?"

593
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:44,040
And then looked at
Hall and Shepherd and said,

594
00:41:44,120 --> 00:41:46,040
"Staff, staff, fuck."

595
00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:50,160
They're laughing and I'm looking chastised
and picked up the bag.

596
00:41:56,440 --> 00:41:59,880
[suspenseful music]

597
00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:09,280
Freddy and Doug were sitting down
and just starting the drinks.

598
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:14,800
Maz was getting more and more into it,

599
00:42:14,880 --> 00:42:16,960
he was snapping his fingers,

600
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:21,480
he ordered this very expensive bottle
of cognac to be brought to the room.

601
00:42:24,560 --> 00:42:27,040
They were drinking champagne and brandy.

602
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,320
They were just caning it.

603
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:34,800
Freddy Shepherd and Doug Hall
are believing everything they're seeing.

604
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:38,600
They slagged off the players

605
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:43,360
and started the talk about girls.

606
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:45,280
We couldn't believe what they said.

607
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:51,000
Freddy said all Newcastle girls are dogs
and slagging their own fans off.

608
00:42:52,480 --> 00:42:57,000
At the same time, Conrad was in the room
next door monitoring the feed.

609
00:42:59,520 --> 00:43:03,320
The footage is a bit blurry,
cameras weren't great back then.

610
00:43:03,680 --> 00:43:06,360
They were talking about
all sorts of sordid things.

611
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:08,160
It was unbelievable to hear.

612
00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:11,520
[Doug Hall] You walk in
and there's 50 girls there.

613
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:15,840
[Freddy Shepherd] You go in,
have a drink, the girls are there

614
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:18,120
and you decide if you want a girl or not.

615
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:22,960
[Steve Burton] Maz was just being
his regal self

616
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:25,920
and convinced Doug and Freddy.

617
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:29,160
They just condemned themselves
with every word uttered.

618
00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:31,200
We couldn't believe it.

619
00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:34,800
[suspenseful music]

620
00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:39,160
Freddy and Doug said,
"Let's go out and have a good time."

621
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,360
[intense music]

622
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,320
We set off for somewhere
called Milady Palace,

623
00:43:46,440 --> 00:43:48,160
lap dancing night club.

624
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:53,800
It was just full of girls
and they were just lapping it up.

625
00:43:56,520 --> 00:43:59,320
Freddy Shepherd even said to Maz,
the Fake Sheikh,

626
00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:03,160
that they had to be careful
about what they did in the UK

627
00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:05,280
because of the British tabloids.

628
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:06,720
[laughs]

629
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:14,000
[suspenseful music]

630
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:19,320
[newsreader] There's turmoil
at Newcastle United tonight

631
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:22,120
after its bosses were caught
in a tabloid sting,

632
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:24,480
set up by News of the World's
Mazher Mahmood,

633
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:27,360
otherwise known as the Fake Sheikh.

634
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:33,120
[newsreader] The allegations
against the two men

635
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:35,040
were splashed across News of the World

636
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,640
after an undercover reporter
caught them in a Spanish brothel.

637
00:44:38,720 --> 00:44:42,400
[newsreader] It reported they regularly
went womanising on business trips.

638
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,720
It claimed they mocked fans,
describing Tyneside women as dogs...

639
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,400
[newsreader] Revelations
have appalled supporters.

640
00:44:48,480 --> 00:44:50,080
I think they should resign.

641
00:44:51,120 --> 00:44:54,480
After what they said about
northeastern women, they've got a cheek.

642
00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:56,880
What they've done is unforgivable.

643
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:01,720
It's the fans that make this club,
not the directors.

644
00:45:06,400 --> 00:45:11,040
[Paul McMullan] Just phenomenal
the way he got directors from Newcastle

645
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:14,800
slagging off,
all Newcastle girls are dogs.

646
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:19,640
The world's press would follow
what Mazher did on the Sunday.

647
00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:25,640
[newsreader] And fans
at last night's home game

648
00:45:25,720 --> 00:45:27,880
made it clear they felt
betrayed by the two men,

649
00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:29,440
shouting, "Judas."

650
00:45:29,720 --> 00:45:31,440
Judas! Judas!

651
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:34,160
[newsreader] They repeated
calls for them to resign,

652
00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:35,680
shouting, "Sack the board."

653
00:45:36,520 --> 00:45:38,520
[crowd jeering]

654
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:42,960
[sombre music]

655
00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,000
[crowd cheering]

656
00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:52,880
[Paul McMullan] After the story came out,
Mazher won reporter of the year at 1999,

657
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:59,040
which is amazing, it was just top notch
undercover investigative journalism

658
00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:00,400
that I couldn't match,

659
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:02,880
I mean, I could never have done
something as good as that.

660
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:09,800
I was absolutely proud,
it's a huge deal, it's the Oscars.

661
00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:12,480
It's the Oscars for our profession.

662
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:15,120
[epic music]

663
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:20,560
[Neil Wallis] There is no greater buzz
than seeing a great story you discovered

664
00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:22,560
all over over your front page,

665
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:26,880
and you know the rest of Fleet Street
is looking and going, "Wow."

666
00:46:31,000 --> 00:46:34,080
By then, Mazher was
the best paid reporter at the paper,

667
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:35,760
and quite right too.

668
00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:42,360
[Aylia Fox] I most definitely admired Maz,
he had what other people wanted,

669
00:46:42,880 --> 00:46:46,440
the adulation
of people who read the newspaper,

670
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:48,840
the adulation of the powers that be.

671
00:46:48,920 --> 00:46:51,960
If he clicked his fingers,
he basically got money for a story,

672
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:54,280
whereas the rest of us had to beg for it.

673
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:58,600
It was a game to him,
and he won the game every time.

674
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,240
[Steve Grayson] I remember seeing him
in a beautiful car,

675
00:47:04,320 --> 00:47:08,240
going to lovely restaurants,
the jewellery,

676
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:10,240
his watch, he had a Rolex,

677
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:14,320
the four-bedroom,
massive great flat in Kensington.

678
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:21,160
He was an excellent journalist, he was.

679
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:29,160
But I'll tell you, he was ruthless.

680
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:31,920
Just totally ruthless.

681
00:47:34,040 --> 00:47:36,320
And nothing would stop him.

682
00:47:36,800 --> 00:47:38,800
Absolutely nothing would stop him.

683
00:47:41,560 --> 00:47:44,280
[intense music]