Six Degrees of Separation: How to Link Piers Morgan to Latest Hacking Arrestee

Here is how James Desborough, the News of the World's former Los Angeles editor who became the 13th person arrested in the police investigation of phone hacking at News Corp. (NWS) tabloids, is linked to CNN host Piers Morgan. Morgan has consistently denied that he ever published a story based on hacking. Fair enough. It's just that he seems to have worked with a lot of people who have been accused of just that.

The Morgan-Desborough link is tenuous, to be sure, but it illustrates how small a universe both men moved in:

1. Desborough joined the News of the World in 2005 where he covered stories including Beatles star Paul McCartney's divorce.
2. Prior to the NOTW, Desborough worked at The People, a Sunday tabloid owned by Trinity Mirror.
3. Piers Morgan was editor of The Mirror, also owned by Trinity Mirror, from 1994 to 2004.
4. Morgan also worked on the McCartney divorce story. He claimed to have introduced the couple in 1999, and heard a tape of voicemails McCartney left for ex-wife Heather Mills "soon" after the introduction.
5. Mills claims The Mirror hacked her voicemail in 2001, during Morgan's tenure as editor.
6. The arrest of Desborough came on the same day that actress Leslie Ash and husband Lee Chapman settled a phone hacking lawsuit against News, and promised more lawsuits to come. Hacking was widespread among London tabloids, Ash said. The year her phone was hacked: 2004.

Related:

• The Wild Card That May Force Piers Morgan to Answer Phone Hacking Questions
• CNN's Piers Morgan Problem: Here's One Solution -- Rachel Maddow
• Maybe Piers Morgan Isn?t Guilty of Phone Hacking, Just Phenomenal Stupidity
• Naomi Campbell, the BBC -- Is There Anyone Piers Morgan Didn?t Tell About Hacking?