IN NOVEMBER 2005, three senior aides to Britains royal
family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones. Messages they had
never listened to were somehow appearing in their mailboxes as if heard and
saved. Equally peculiar were stories that began appearing about Prince William in one of the
countrys biggest tabloids, News of the World.
The stories were banal enough (Prince William pulled a tendon in his knee,
one revealed). But the royal aides were puzzled as to how News of the World had
gotten the information, which was known among only a small, discreet circle.
They began to suspect that someone was eavesdropping on their private
conversations.
By early January 2006, Scotland Yard had confirmed their suspicions. An
unambiguous trail led to Clive Goodman, the News of the World reporter who
covered the royal family, and to a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, who
also worked for the paper. The two men had somehow obtained the PIN codes
needed to access the voice mail of the royal aides.
Scotland Yard told the aides to continue operating as usual while it pursued
the investigation, which included surveillance of the suspects phones. A few
months later, the inquiry took a remarkable turn as the reporter and the
private investigator chased a story about Prince Williams younger brother,
Harry, visiting a strip club. Another tabloid, The Sun, had trumpeted its scoop
on the episode with the immortal: Harry Buried Face in Margos Mega-b***s.
Stripper Jiggled . . . Prince Giggled.
As Scotland Yard tracked Goodman and Mulcaire, the two men hacked into Prince Harrys mobile-phone
messages. On April 9, 2006, Goodman produced a follow-up article in News of the
World about the apparent distress of Prince Harrys girlfriend over the matter.
Headlined Chelsy Tears Strip Off Harry! the piece quoted, verbatim, a voice
mail Prince Harry had received from his brother teasing him about his
predicament.
The palace was in an uproar, especially when it suspected that the two men
were also listening to the voice mail of Prince William, the second in line to
the throne. The eavesdropping could not have gone higher inside the royal
family, since Prince Charles and
the queen were hardly regular mobile-phone users. But it seemingly went
everywhere else in British society. Scotland Yard collected evidence indicating
that reporters at News of the World might have hacked the phone messages of
hundreds of celebrities, government officials, soccer stars anyone whose
personal secrets could be tabloid fodder. Only now, more than four years later,
are most of them beginning to find out.
AS OF THIS SUMMER, five people have filed lawsuits accusing
News Group Newspapers, a division of Rupert Murdochs publishing
empire that includes News of the World, of breaking into their voice mail.
Additional cases are being prepared, including one seeking a judicial review of
Scotland Yards handling of the investigation. The litigation is beginning to
expose just how far the hacking went, something that Scotland Yard did not do.
In fact, an examination based on police records, court documents and interviews
with investigators and reporters shows that Britains revered police agency
failed to pursue leads suggesting that one of the countrys most powerful
newspapers was routinely listening in on its citizens.
The police had seized files from Mulcaires home in 2006 that contained
several thousand mobile phone numbers of potential hacking victims and 91
mobile phone PIN codes. Scotland Yard even had a recording of Mulcaire walking
one journalist who may have worked at yet another tabloid step by step
through the hacking of a soccer officials voice mail, according to a copy of
the tape. But Scotland Yard focused almost exclusively on the royals case,
which culminated with the imprisonment of Mulcaire and Goodman. When police
officials presented evidence to prosecutors, they didnt discuss crucial clues
that the two men may not have been alone in hacking the voice mail messages of
story targets.
There was simply no enthusiasm among Scotland Yard to go beyond the cases
involving Mulcaire and Goodman, said John Whittingdale, the chairman of a
parliamentary committee that has twice investigated the phone hacking. To
start exposing widespread tawdry practices in that newsroom was a heavy stone
that they didnt want to try to lift. Several investigators said in interviews
that Scotland Yard was reluctant to conduct a wider inquiry in part because of
its close relationship with News of the World. Police officials have defended
their investigation, noting that their duties did not extend to monitoring the
media. In a statement, the police said they followed the lines of inquiry
likely to produce the best evidence and that the charges that were brought
appropriately represented the criminality uncovered. The statement added,
This was a complex inquiry and led to one of the first prosecutions of its
kind. Officials also have noted that the department had more pressing
priorities at the time, including several terrorism cases.
Scotland Yards narrow focus has allowed News of the World and its parent
company, News International, to continue to assert that the hacking was limited
to one reporter. During testimony before the parliamentary committee in
September 2009, Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International
who now heads Dow Jones, said, There was never any evidence delivered to me
suggesting that the conduct of Clive Goodman spread beyond him.
But interviews with more than a dozen former reporters and editors at News
of the World present a different picture of the newsroom. They described a
frantic, sometimes degrading atmosphere in which some reporters openly pursued
hacking or other improper tactics to satisfy demanding editors. Andy Coulson,
the top editor at the time, had imposed a hypercompetitive ethos, even by
tabloid standards. One former reporter called it a do whatever it takes
mentality. The reporter was one of two people who said Coulson was present
during discussions about phone hacking. Coulson ultimately resigned but denied
any knowledge of hacking.
News of the World was hardly alone in accessing messages to obtain salacious
gossip. It was an industrywide thing, said Sharon Marshall, who witnessed
hacking while working at News of the World and other tabloids. Talk to any
tabloid journalist in the United Kingdom, and they can tell you each phone
companys four-digit codes. Every hack on every newspaper knew this was done.
Bill Akass, the managing editor of News of the World, dismissed
unsubstantiated claims that misconduct at the paper was widespread and said
that rigorous safeguards had been adopted to prevent unethical reporting
tactics. We reject absolutely any suggestion or assertion that the activities
of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, at the time of their arrest, were part of
a culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World and were specifically
sanctioned or accepted at senior level in the newspaper, Akass wrote in an
e-mail.
He accused The New York Times of writing about the case because of a rivalry
with a competing media company.
In February, the parliamentary committee issued a scathing report that
accused News of the World executives of deliberate obfuscation. The report
created a stir yet did not lead to a judicial inquiry. And Scotland Yard had
chosen to notify only a fraction of the hundreds of people whose messages may
have been illegally accessed effectively shielding News of the World from a barrage
of civil lawsuits. The scandal appeared to be over, especially for Coulson, who
had been hired by the Conservative Party to help shape its message in the
run-up to the general election. In May, when David Cameron became prime
minister, he rewarded Coulson with the top communications post at 10 Downing
Street.
But the hacking case wouldnt go away. Two victims notified by Scotland Yard
sued the paper and negotiated agreements, one for a million pounds. Emboldened,
lawyers began rounding up clients and forcing the Metropolitan Police (known as
Scotland Yard) to reveal whether their names were in Mulcaires files. Cases
are being brought by a member of Parliament, a woman who was sexually assaulted
when she was 19 and a prominent soccer commentator who happens to work for one
of Murdochs companies. Getting a letter from Scotland Yard that your phone
has been hacked is rather like getting a Willy Wonka golden ticket, declared
Mark Lewis, a lawyer who won the first settlement. Time to queue up at Murdoch
Towers to get paid.
FOR DECADES, London tabloids have merrily delivered stories
about politicians having affairs, celebrities taking drugs and royals shaming
themselves. Gossip could end careers, giving the tabloids enormous power. There
seemed to be an inverse relationship between Britains strict privacy laws and
the publics desire to peer into every corner of other peoples lives. To feed
this appetite, papers hired private investigators and others who helped obtain
confidential information, whether by legal or illegal means. The illicit
methods became known as the dark arts. One subspecialty involved blagging
getting information by conning phone companies, government agencies and
hospitals, among others. What was shocking to me was that they used these
tactics for celebrity tittle-tattle, said Brendan Montague, a freelance
journalist. It wasnt finding out wrongdoing. It was finding out a bit of
gossip.
Steve Whittamore, a private investigator who worked for numerous tabloids,
himself became the subject of headlines in 2005, after the authorities seized
records from his home that revealed requests by hundreds of journalists for
private information. There was never an instance of me doing anything other
than what I was asked, said Whittamore, who now runs a Web site that tracks local crime.
He eventually pleaded guilty, though no journalists were ever charged. Among
Whittamores clients was News of the World, where he worked for 19 reporters
and editors.
Rupert Murdoch purchased the once-sleepy Sunday tabloid in 1969. Although
the paper was not immune to the industrys decline its circulation is now 2.9
million, down from 4 million a decade ago it remains a powerful presence. Sex
scandals aside, the paper has exposed wrongdoing resulting in dozens of
criminal convictions.
Murdoch unabashedly uses his London papers which also include The Sun, The
Times of London and The Sunday Times to advance a generally conservative,
pro-business line. Beginning in the late 1970s, his papers supported Margaret Thatcher and the
Conservative Party, attacking her Labour Party rivals in editorials and news
articles. Years later, Labours Tony Blair assiduously courted and
won Murdochs backing for his more-centrist politics. You had huge influence
as editor, said Phil Hall, who ran News of the World from 1995 to 2000.
One standout at News International was Andy Coulson, who made his name as a
young reporter in the early 1990s writing for The Suns s****.
of blue-collar Essex in southern England, Coulson had a sharp instinct for what
readers wanted. He famously once asked Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife,
Cherie, whether they were members of the mile-high club. In 2000, Coulson moved
to News of the World as second in command under the editor, Rebekah Brooks.
When she left three years later, Coulson, only 34 at the time, was the obvious
choice to succeed her.
WHEN A BOTTLENOSE whale became stranded in the Thames River
in January 2006, the London tabloids raced to put reporters and photographers
on boats. One News of the World reporter watched in horror as a wet-suit-clad
rival from The Sunday Mirror jumped into the freezing water while a colleague
snapped pictures. Back at News of the World, editors were not happy.
If he doesnt get into that river and get a picture of us saving the whale
by pushing it out to sea, one journalist recalled Coulson saying of his
reporter, he doesnt need to bother coming back. Not to be outdone, Coulson
dispatched another reporter to the North Sea to find the whales family.
The episode was vintage Coulson, who ruled the newsroom with single-minded
imperiousness: get the story, no matter what. Reporters donned lingerie to
infiltrate suburban swinger parties. Others were deployed within the papers
headquarters, on the sprawling News International campus in East London,
seemingly for the amusement of editors. One reporter was ordered to spend 24
hours inside a plastic box, in the newsroom, to emulate a stunt by the magician
David Blaine.
Despite the earlier arrest of the private investigator Steve Whittamore, the
dark arts were still widely in use. Former reporters said both the news and
features desks employed their own investigators to uncover medical records,
unlisted addresses, phone bills and so on. Matt Driscoll, a former sports
reporter, recalled chasing a story about the soccer star Rio Ferdinand.
Ferdinand claimed he had inadvertently turned off his phone and missed a
message alerting him to a drug test. Driscoll had hit a dead end, he said, when
an editor showed up at his desk with the players private phone records. They
showed Ferdinand had made numerous calls during the time his phone was
supposedly off. Driscoll was disciplined for supposed inaccuracies and later
dismissed; he proceeded to win 800,000 pounds in court, which found he had been
bullied by Coulson and other editors.
Around the newsroom, some reporters were getting stories by surreptitiously
accessing phone messages, according to former editors and reporters. Often, all
it took was a standard four-digit security code, like 1111 or 4444, which many
users did not bother to change after buying their mobile phones. If they did,
the papers private investigators found ways to trick phone companies into
revealing personal codes. Reporters called one method of hacking double
screwing because it required two simultaneous calls to the same number. The
first would engage the phone line, forcing the second call into voice mail. A
reporter then punched in the code to hear messages, often deleting them to
prevent access by rival papers. A dozen former reporters said in interviews
that hacking was pervasive at News of the World. Everyone knew, one longtime
reporter said. The office cat knew.
One former editor said Coulson talked freely with colleagues about the dark
arts, including hacking. Ive been to dozens if not hundreds of meetings with
Andy when the subject came up, said the former editor, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. The editor added that when Coulson would ask where a story came
from, editors would reply, Weve pulled the phone records or Ive listened
to the phone messages.
Sean Hoare, a former reporter and onetime close friend of Coulsons, also
recalled discussing hacking. The two men first worked together at The Sun,
where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At
News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his pursuits.
Coulson actively encouraged me to do it, Hoare said.
Hoare said he was fired during a period when he was struggling with drugs
and alcohol. He said he was now revealing his own use of the dark arts which
included breaking into the messages of celebrities like David and Victoria Beckham because it
was unfair for the paper to pin the blame solely on Goodman. Coulson declined
to comment for this article but has maintained that he was unaware of the
hacking.
Reporters knew they would be rewarded or ostracized based on their ability
to beat the competition. It made for an unusual pecking order. On top was
Neville Thurlbeck, whose fervor for scoops was legend. He was acquitted of
bribing a police officer for information. But in another case, the paper was
found to have violated the privacy of the subject of his front-page story
headlined Sick n**i Orgy. The papers parent company paid a 60,000 pound
settlement, and Thurlbeck retained his title as chief reporter.
Clive Goodman, the veteran royals reporter, seemed to be on the opposite
trajectory. In the 1990s, Goodman crushed competitors with exclusives on Princess Diana. Now,
clad in a waistcoat and wearing a pocket watch, he cut the figure of an
old-school Fleet Street character whose best stories were behind him. If Glenn
Mulcaire, the papers top investigator, could help him break stories by hacking
into the messages of the royal household, Goodman could revive his career.
ON THE MORNING of Aug. 8, 2006, Scotland Yard detectives
arrived with a search warrant at News of the World. For six months, officials
had tracked Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire as they hacked into the voice mail
of the royal household, according to people with knowledge of the
investigation. One royal aides voice mail was called 433 times, records show.
In the newspapers lobby, detectives faced resistance from executives and
lawyers for the paper over searching the newsroom, former police officials
said. As word of the detectives arrival ricocheted around the office, two
veteran reporters stuffed reams of documents into trash bags, one reporter recalled,
and hauled them away. The precaution proved unnecessary. Detectives limited
their search to Goodmans desk. We only had authority to do that desk, a
senior Metropolitan Police official said. We were nervous about doing any
extra search.
At the same time, other detectives descended on Mulcaires modest home in
Cheam, a southwestern suburb of London. Inside, the police found what one
investigator called a massive amount of evidence dozens of notebooks and
two computers containing 2,978 complete or partial mobile phone numbers and 91
PIN codes; at least three names of other News of the World journalists; and 30
tape recordings made by Mulcaire. Both Mulcaire and Goodman were arrested that
day, charged with conspiracy to intercept communications without lawful
authority. News of the World editors said they were stunned by the arrests and
vowed to conduct an internal investigation.
At Scotland Yard, the task of investigating the case fell to the counterterrorism
branch, which was responsible for the security of the royal family. It was an
extraordinarily busy time for the unit, which was dealing with the aftermath of
the 2005 London transit bombings and was now involved in a complex surveillance
operation of two dozen men believed to be plotting to bomb transoceanic
airliners. Several former senior investigators said the department was dubious
about diverting resources. We were distracted, obviously, one former senior
Scotland Yard investigator said. Scotland Yard also had a symbiotic relationship
with News of the World. The police sometimes built high-profile cases out of
the papers exclusives, and News of the World reciprocated with fawning stories
of arrests.
Within days of the raids, several senior detectives said they began feeling
internal pressure. One senior investigator said he was approached by Chris
Webb, from the departments press office, who was waving his arms up in the
air, saying, Wait a minute lets talk about this. The investigator, who
has since left Scotland Yard, added that Webb stressed the departments
long-term relationship with News International. The investigator recalled
becoming furious at the suggestion, responding, Theres illegality here, and
well pursue it like we do any other case. In a statement, Webb said: I
cannot recall these events. Police officers make operational decisions, not
press officers. That is the policy of the Metropolitan Police Service and the
policy that I and all police press officers follow.
That fall, Andy Hayman, the head of the counterterrorism branch, was in his
office when a senior investigator brought him 8 to 10 pages of a single-spaced
target list of names and mobile phone numbers taken from Mulcaires home. It
read like a British society directory. Scotland Yard officials consulted with
the Crown Prosecution Service on how broadly to investigate. But the officials
didnt discuss certain evidence with senior prosecutors, including the notes
suggesting the involvement of other reporters, according to a senior prosecutor
on the case. The prosecutor was stunned to discover later that the police had
not shared everything. I would have said we need to see how far this goes and
whether we have a serious problem of criminality on this news desk, said the
former prosecutor, who declined to speak on the record.
Scotland Yard officials ultimately decided the inquiry would stop with
Mulcaire and Goodman. We were not going to set off on a cleanup of the British
media, a senior investigator said. In fact, investigators never questioned any
other reporters or editors at News of the World about the hacking, interviews
and records show. A police spokesman rejected assertions that officials failed
to fully investigate. He said the department had worked closely with
prosecutors, who had full access to all the evidence. A former senior
Scotland Yard official also denied that the department was influenced by any
alliance with News of the World. I dont think there was any love lost between
people inside the investigation and people in the press, the former official
said.
In addition to the royal household, Scotland Yard alerted five other victims
whose names would appear in the indictment of Mulcaire. Of the remaining
hundreds who potentially had their phones broken into, the police said they
notified only select individuals with national-security concerns: members of
the government, the police and the military.
On Aug. 24, 2006, George Galloway, a member of Parliament, was alerted by a
detective that his messages had been hacked. Galloway said the detective urged
him to change his PIN code. But when Galloway asked who had accessed his phone,
the man from Scotland Yard refused to tell me anything.
WITH THEIR HEADS bowed, the private investigator Glenn
Mulcaire and the reporter Clive Goodman stood in a London courtroom on Jan. 26,
2007, and apologized to the princes and their aides for the gross invasion of
privacy. The men were awaiting sentencing after having each pleaded guilty to
one count of conspiracy to intercept communications of the royal aides. But
there was no pretense that the abuse was confined to that single count.
Mulcaire admitted to hacking the messages of the five other victims: Gordon
Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association; Simon Hughes,
a member of Parliament; the model Elle Macpherson; Max Clifford, a powerful
public-relations agent; and Sky Andrew, who represented some of Englands
biggest soccer stars.
The judge concluded from this that Mulcaire had not just worked with Goodman,
who wrote exclusively about the royal family, but also with others at News
International. In Mulcaires defense, his lawyer told the judge that his
client thought others were hacking, which for him was one of the reasons why
he did not believe it was illegal. Goodmans lawyer noted that his client,
too, lived his life in a world where ethical lines are not always so clearly
defined or at least observed. Both men were sentenced to several months in
prison and were dismissed by News of the World. Andy Coulson resigned,
accepting ultimate responsibility for the hacking during his watch.
Not long after, the parliamentary committee opened hearings on the matter.
On March 6, Les Hinton, then the executive chairman of News International, told
members that as far as he was aware, Goodman was the only person at the paper
who knew about the hacking. I believe absolutely that Andy did not have
knowledge of what was going on, Hinton said. Goodman and Mulcaire proceeded to
sue the paper for wrongful dismissal. Court records show that News
International paid 80,000 pounds to Mulcaire. Goodman received an undisclosed
amount. Both men, who signed confidentiality agreements, declined to be
interviewed for this article.
That May, Coulson was hired to head the communications team of the
Conservative Party. The position was colloquially known as chief spin doctor,
and filling it with a tabloid editor was not without precedent. Years before,
Tony Blair had chosen a former political editor at The Mirror to perform the
job for the Labour Party. In Coulson, the Tories also got someone with inside
connections to Rupert Murdochs influential media empire, whose support the
Tories were trying to wrest from Labour and Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
FOR NEWS OF THE WORLD, the events that summer seemed
auspicious. Goodman and Mulcaire were no longer at the paper, evidence remained
filed away at Scotland Yard and countless people had no idea their phone
messages might have been hacked. But like the many secrets News of the World
famously exposed, the papers own would not stay hidden. Less than six months
later, in early 2008, trouble was reignited by a lawyer for Gordon Taylor, the
soccer association executive whose phone Mulcaire had admitted to hacking. The
lawyer, Mark Lewis, said he believed that he could explicitly link the
eavesdropping to an article the paper had prepared a year earlier alleging an
affair between Taylor and his assistant. Both Taylor and the woman had
adamantly denied the affair, but News of the World claimed it obtained the
story through proper journalistic inquiry. Lewis ultimately persuaded the paper
to kill the story, but the phrase stuck with him. He now suspected improper
was a more fitting description.
In the spring, Lewis met with Tom Crone, the chief legal counsel for News
International, to try to settle the matter without going to court. We thought
it had all gone away, Crone said, according to three people with knowledge of
the meeting.
I want 250,000 pounds, Lewis told Crone.
Crone laughed and walked out. (Crone declined to discuss details of the
meeting but disputed that Lewis asked for that amount.)
Lewis, who is 45, hardly fit the profile of a high-powered London lawyer
with the resources and gumption to take on News International. He worked in the
more proletarian city of Manchester, where he sometimes showed up at the office
wearing black jeans and a punk T-shirt, his hair a spiky peroxide blond.
Nonetheless, shortly after the meeting, he filed a lawsuit on Taylors behalf
against News International and Mulcaire. Lewiss suspicions on the
eavesdropping were confirmed later that year, when Scotland Yard was compelled
to produce the relevant evidence it had collected at Mulcaires home. A draft
of the papers unpublished article about Taylors alleged affair indicated it
was based on a voice mail message he had received from his assistant. Lewis
said the message went: Thank you for yesterday. You were great. The paper
assumed she was talking about shagging, Lewis explained. In reality, she was
referring to a speech Taylor gave at her fathers funeral. The story had been
made up, Lewis said.
Other items turned over by Scotland Yard pointed to additional journalists
at News of the World. One was an e-mail containing the transcript of hacked
messages that had been sent by a reporter at the paper. The e-mail opened,
This is the transcript for Neville. There was only one Neville on staff:
Neville Thurlbeck, the papers chief reporter, who helped write the original
story on Prince Harrys strip-club escapades. (The paper has said Thurlbeck had
no knowledge of the e-mail.) Another item was a contract signed by an editor
for Mulcaire to work on a story about Taylor. Also turned over was the
audiotape that Mulcaire made instructing a journalist on how to access Taylors
voice mail. (Its unclear whether investigators tried to figure out his
identity. Dialing the phone number deduced by listening to the tape led The
Times to a reporter, but one who may not have worked at News of the World.)
On June 27, 2008, the judge in the case ordered Mulcaire to identify the journalist
and release other information. Within 24 hours, the papers lawyers called
Lewis to settle. Taylor received a 700,000-pound settlement, which included
legal expenses. Two of Taylors associates whose phones were also hacked
received additional money. The package approached one million pounds. The
settlement remained under wraps until July 9, 2009, when The Guardian broke the
story. Within the week, Max Clifford, the public-relations chief who had also
been named as a victim in the Mulcaire indictment, announced on the BBC that he was going to sue.
WHILE OCCASIONAL articles appeared about the various
goings-on at News of the World, the scandal was somewhat of a nonscandal in the
other tabloids. But The Guardian, a Labour-oriented paper with an undisguised
disdain for Murdochs publications, aggressively pursued the hacking episode.
Its exclusive on the Taylor settlement prompted the parliamentary committee to
convene new hearings. John Whittingdale, the committees chairman and a Tory,
said he felt misled by News International executives who testified two years
before that Goodman and Mulcaire acted alone. At the new hearings that July,
Coulson maintained he had been unaware of the illegal activities. I have never
condoned the use of phone hacking, and nor do I have any recollection of
incidences where phone hacking took place, he said.
As television cameras rolled, Adam Price, a committee member, pointed to the
papers story about the lap-dancing message Prince William had left on his
brothers phone. As editor, Price asked Coulson, you would not have checked
the provenance of that story?
Not necessarily, no, Coulson replied, and I do not remember the story.
Two months later, his former boss, Les Hinton, who was now running Dow
Jones, testified by video-conference from New York. Hinton rejected suggestions
by committee members that the payments made to Goodman and Mulcaire after their
dismissals were intended to buy their silence. I cannot actually see what
silence there was left after months of police investigation, said Hinton, who
declined to comment for this article.
During a recent interview, the committee chairman reread portions of that
testimony, pausing to laugh at Hintons repeated I do not recall or I do not
know responses. This was just a masterful performance by Les Hinton,
Whittingdale said. We all sat in awe.
When the committee released its findings this past February, it criticized
the police, saying Scotland Yard officials had evidence that merited a wider
investigation. The committee reserved its harshest words for News International
executives, whom it assailed for collective amnesia. Tom Watson, a committee
member, later said that the eavesdropping went to the heart of the British
establishment, in which police, military, royals and government ministers were
hacked on a near industrial scale.
THAT SAME MONTH, a judge hearing the lawsuit by the
public-relations executive Max Clifford ordered Mulcaire to name any journalist
for whom he hacked into Cliffords phone. The names discovered in Mulcaires
files had been redacted by the police. The lawsuit was something of a
professional twist for Clifford, who often brokered stories between the
tabloids and people looking to capitalize on their exploits with celebrities,
earning him a reputation as the master of the kiss and tell. He had a
particularly productive relationship with News of the World until 2005, he
said, when he had a falling out with Coulson over a story about a client using
cocaine. Not long after, Cliffords phone was hacked by Mulcaire. I was the
source of many of their biggest stories, and suddenly that source was gone,
Clifford said. So I was a prime candidate. Its common sense. Night follows
day. But before Mulcaire could obey the order to testify, Clifford dropped his
lawsuit. Clifford declined to comment on details of his decision, except to say
that his feelings changed after a meeting with Rebekah Brooks, the former News
of the World editor who became chief executive of News International. We sat
down and we had lunch, Clifford said, and it took us no time to sort it all
out.
News International agreed to pay Clifford one million pounds in exchange for
feeding the paper exclusive stories over the next several years.
The company had been able to prevent Mulcaires testimony. But when The
Guardian published details of Cliffords lucrative deal, the litigation
floodgates opened. More than three years after Scotland Yard closed the
official investigation, solicitors and barristers now scrambled to bring new
cases against News International and the police. Charlotte Harris, who represented
Clifford, said that because of the way Scotland Yard handled the cases, it has
fallen upon the potential victims to make their own inquiries. As a first
step, potential plaintiffs needed to get confirmation from Scotland Yard on
whether their names or phone numbers were found among the evidence. Scotland
Yard initially promised prosecutors it would alert everyone named in the files,
but it didnt. One of Harriss other clients, the victim in a high-profile
sexual-assault investigation seven years ago, wrote to the police in January to
see if her name was in the files. The woman suspected her phone may have been
hacked because details about her life appeared in News of the World and other
tabloids during coverage of her ordeal. She had been convinced the police or
her friends were selling the information. Two months after writing to the
police, she received a letter confirming that her number had been found among
Mulcaires records. The letter said the evidence did not necessarily mean her
messages had been accessed and suggested she contact her phone-service
provider, who may be able to assist further. The woman and other potential
hacking victims said that by sitting on the evidence for so long, the police
have made it impossible to get information from phone companies, which do not
permanently keep records. It was disingenuous, to say the least, for Scotland
Yard to say that, the woman said. The police recently confirmed that the phone
numbers of two friends were also found in Mulcaires records, she added. I
think I could have been spared a lot of angst about who I could trust and who I
couldnt trust had they told me, she said.
Three plaintiffs are jointly seeking a judicial inquiry into Scotland Yards
handling of the hacking case. The plaintiffs, who include a former deputy
assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, say their rights were
violated when the police failed to inform them that their names were found in
Mulcaires documents. The former official, Brian Paddick, scoffed at Scotland
Yards explanation that the appearance of his name didnt necessarily mean that
he was hacked. Its a mealy-mouthed way of saying, Were not telling you any
more, that maybe something happened but we cant be bothered to investigate,
he said. A police spokesman said the department has been as open as possible
whilst maintaining and protecting individuals personal information and
respecting privacy.Andy Hayman, who ran the case for Scotland Yard, has since
retired. He declined to comment for this article. He is currently a columnist
for The Times of London, where he has written in defense of the police
investigation and maintained there were perhaps a handful of hacking victims.
The paper is owned by News International.
BY THE SPRING of this year, News Internationals papers had
firmly switched their support from Labour to the Tories. An avalanche of
unforgiving coverage culminated on April 8, one month before the general
election, in a Sun story headlined Browns a Clown. Browns strategists
assumed that Murdochs motives were not purely ideological. They drew up a
campaign document conjuring Murdochs wish list should David Cameron become
prime minister. Among the top items they identified was the weakening of the
government-financed BBC, one of Murdochs biggest competitors and long a target
of criticism from News International executives. On May 11, David Cameron
officially assumed the position and elevated Coulson to the head of
communications. Within the week, Rupert Murdoch arrived at 10 Downing Street
for a private meeting with the new prime minister. Camerons administration
criticized the BBC in July for extraordinary and outrageous waste during
difficult financial times and proposed cutting its budget.
At News of the World, editors said they had imposed a policy of zero
tolerance of hacking. Whittingdale, the head of the select committee, said he
was also assured by News International executives that hacking would not be
permitted. We have seen no evidence to suggest that it is still continuing,
he said. But in recent months, News of the World executives were notified of
another suspicious episode. A phone company had alerted a television
personality that someone called her mobile phone in a possible unauthorized
attempt to access her voice mail, according to two people with knowledge of the
incident. A court order ensued, compelling the phone company to divulge the
source of the call. The number was traced to a reporter at News of the World.
The paper said the journalist has been suspended from reporting duties while
it conducts an investigation.
Don Van Natta Jr., Jo Becker and Graham Bowley are reporters at The New York
Times.
Karl
Highlands Ranch,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, August 16, 2011
can still be 'Googled'.
Anyone can 'Google' this- RUPERT MURDOCH IS A LIAR AND A COWARD, and read the related articles on the web.
Thank You
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Karl
Highlands Ranch,#3Consumer Comment
Fri, August 12, 2011
is available at this website!
Just type in- BANK OF AMERICA, and it appears in the consumer comments section at Ripoff Report #546579.
Thank You
Karl
Highlands Ranch,#4Consumer Comment
Fri, February 04, 2011
is available at this site!
*Just type in 608350 and it appears as 'Consumer Comment #21' at Ripoff Report #608350.
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