Room For Debate
Who Will Win the Media Battle of Britain?
A phone hacking scandal provokes a public outcry, a political uproar and a media power struggle.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
#Leveson :The News International 2009 statement denying everything is still up on their site
http://bit.ly/h7SXcE
News International Statement on Guardian Article - 7/10/2009
July 10, 2009 – News International has delayed making this detailed statement until all relevant facts have been analysed and checked internally and externally.
News International has completed a thorough investigation into the various allegations made since the Guardian story broke on Wednesday. This investigation augmented a similar process here following the arrest of private investigator Glen Mulcaire and News of the World journalist Clive Goodman in August 2006.
Perhaps more significantly, the police investigation into Glen Mulcaire and Clive Goodman began in 2005, nine months before the two men were arrested. Prior to arrest the police conducted live monitoring of both men's activities and also kept the News of the World activity in this area under investigation. The raids on Mulcaire's premises, on Goodman's premises and on the News of the World office seized all relevant documents and all available evidence. The police investigation continued after the arrests and all relevant activity was studied and analysed in the context of identifying unlawfulness/criminality. The police investigation was incredibly thorough.
Apart from matters raised in the Mulcaire and Goodman proceedings, the only other evidence connecting News of the World reporters to information gained as a result of accessing a person's voicemail emerged in April 2008, during the course of the Gordon Taylor litigation. Neither this information nor any story arising from it was ever published. Once senior executives became aware of this, immediate steps were taken to resolve Mr Taylor's complaint.
From our own investigation, but more importantly that of the police, we can state with confidence that, apart from the matters referred to above, there is not and never has been evidence to support allegations that:
- News of the World journalists have accessed the voicemails of any individual.
- News of the World or its journalists have instructed private investigators or other third parties to access the voicemails of any individuals.
- There was systemic corporate illegality by News International to suppress evidence.
Based on the above, we can state categorically in relation to the following allegations which have been made primarily by the Guardian and widely reported as fact by Sky News, BBC, ITN and others this week:
- It is untrue that officers found evidence of News Group staff, either themselves or using private investigators, hacking into "thousands" of mobile phones.
- It is untrue that apart from Goodman, officers found evidence that other members of News Group staff hacked into mobile phones or accessed individuals' voicemails.
- It is untrue that there is evidence that News Group reporters, or indeed anyone, hacked into the telephone voicemails of John Prescott.
- It is untrue that “Murdoch journalists” used private investigators to illegally hack into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including: tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills.
- It is untrue that News Group reporters have hacked into telephone voicemail services of various footballers, politicians and celebrities named in reports this week.
- It is untrue that News of the World executives knowingly sanctioned payment for illegal phone intercepts.
The Guardian has been selective and misleading in its coverage of the report and investigation by the Information Commissioner. There has been and is no connection between the Information Commissioner's investigation and the allegation of hacking into telephones or accessing telephone voicemails. The report concerned the activities of a private investigator who, between April 2001 and March 2003, supplied information to 32 newspapers and magazines including, incidentally, the Guardian's sister newspaper, The Observer, which according to the Information Commissioner was ninth worst "offender" out of the 32. The information supplied was deemed to be in breach of the Data Protection Act 1998.
When Les Hinton gave evidence to the Select Committee in March 2007, the evidence which emerged during the Gordon Taylor litigation in April 2008 was not known to Mr Hinton or any other senior executive within News International.
Furthermore, we are inviting the Guardian to supply the Metropolitan Police with any new evidence they claim to have.
Since February 2007, News International has continued to work with its journalists and its industry partners to ensure that its journalists fully comply with both the relevant legislation and the rigorous requirements of the PCC’s Code of Conduct.
Finally, we would like to make it clear that despite the Guardian suggesting otherwise, the departure of Managing Editor Stuart Kuttner has no connection whatsoever with the events referred to above. The Guardian were informed of this position from the outset and chose to mislead the British public.
Notes for editors:
News International Limited publishes The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, News of the World and thelondonpaper. In terms of growth, share, circulation and reader engagement, the Company’s titles are among the world’s most successful. NewsPrinters Ltd prints the national titles and operates as a contract printing subsidiary for the three state of the art printing plants. Further brands which are part of the group include the Times Literary Supplement and milkround.co.uk. The News International group has investments in property search-engine globrix.com and fashion website BrandAlley.co.uk.
#Murdoch & #MET Corruption :Cozy Ties Mark Newspaper’s Dealings With Scotland Yard
Olivia Harris/Reuters
Rebekah Brooks, now News International's chief executive, was reportedly told of the 2003 surveillance but explained it away.
Multimedia
Detective Cook said the police had evidence that one of The News of the World’s senior editors, Alex Marunchak, had ordered the illegal surveillance as a favor to two suspects in the case: Sid Fillery and Jonathan Rees, private investigators whose firm had done work for the paper. The lawyer for Mr. Cook, Mark Lewis, said in an interview that the detective believed that Mr. Fillery and Mr. Rees were seeking help in gathering evidence about Detective Cook to derail the murder inquiry.
What happened at the meeting, a less detailed account of which appeared in The Guardian, provides a window into the extraordinary coziness that long existed between the British police and The News of The World, as well as the relationship between the paper and unsavory characters in the criminal world.
None of the parties to this alliance have escaped the stain. The paper, at the center of a widening scandal over phone hacking and corruption, was shut last week by News International, its parent company, in an effort to limit the already extensive damage done to the reputation and business interests of Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation.
Scotland Yard has admitted that it accepted News International’s explanation that the hacking was the work of one rogue reporter, and that some police officers had accepted substantial payments in exchange for confidential information.
The News of the World remains the target of several criminal investigations. A number of its former editors and reporters have been arrested, including Andy Coulson, who most recently worked as the chief spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron, but no one has yet been formally charged. And Mr. Cameron has announced he will appoint a judge to examine both the tabloid’s hacking and its close relationship with the police.
Also present for the meeting that day in 2003, said a spokesman for Scotland Yard, were Cmdr. Andy Baker, who was Detective Cook’s boss, and Dick Fedorcio, Scotland Yard’s chief public relations officer. According to an account that Detective Cook provided to Mr. Lewis and others, Ms. Wade excused the surveillance by saying that the paper’s action had been “in the public interest” — the argument British newspapers typically make to justify using underhanded or illegal methods to, say, expose affairs by public officials.
Ms. Wade said that the paper was tailing Detective Cook because it suspected him of having an affair with Jackie Haines, host of the Crimewatch television program on which he had recently appeared. In fact, the two were married to each other, as had been mentioned prominently in an article about them in the popular gossip magazine “Hello!”
Scotland Yard seems to have been satisfied with the explanation of Ms. Wade, now Rebekah Brooks and the chief executive of News International. Her paper’s editors and reporters had a long history with the police — paying for tips and sometimes even serving as quasi-police investigators themselves, in return for confidential information (many News of the World stories about criminal matters used to include a reference to the paper’s handing “a dossier” of its findings to Scotland Yard).
It is the closeness between the paper and the police that, it seems, led Scotland Yard to what officials have retrospectively admitted was a major misstep: the decision not to pursue the initial phone-hacking investigation adequately in 2006 and again in 2009. It was in 2006 that members of the royal household notified the police that they believed their cellphone messages were being intercepted by The News of the World.
The subsequent police “raid” at the paper consisted of rummaging through a single reporter’s desk and failing to question any other reporters or editors. Two people were subsequently jailed: Clive Goodman, The News of the World’s royal reporter, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator hired by the paper. Even when The Guardian reported that the hacking had extended far beyond the pair, and that thousands of victims might be involved, the police and the newspaper insisted repeatedly that the wrongdoing had been limited to a single “rogue” reporter.
This weekend, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who was in charge of the initial inquiry and who in 2009 declined to reopen it, said that the police response had been inadequate. “I have regrettably said the initial inquiry was a success,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Clearly, now it looks very different.”
After the meeting at Scotland Yard, Detective Cook left “with the impression that the meeting was arranged to placate him and let him get it off his chest, but that nothing else was going to happen,” Mr. Lewis said. “And nothing did.” .....read more
None of the parties to this alliance have escaped the stain. The paper, at the center of a widening scandal over phone hacking and corruption, was shut last week by News International, its parent company, in an effort to limit the already extensive damage done to the reputation and business interests of Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation.
Scotland Yard has admitted that it accepted News International’s explanation that the hacking was the work of one rogue reporter, and that some police officers had accepted substantial payments in exchange for confidential information.
The News of the World remains the target of several criminal investigations. A number of its former editors and reporters have been arrested, including Andy Coulson, who most recently worked as the chief spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron, but no one has yet been formally charged. And Mr. Cameron has announced he will appoint a judge to examine both the tabloid’s hacking and its close relationship with the police.
Also present for the meeting that day in 2003, said a spokesman for Scotland Yard, were Cmdr. Andy Baker, who was Detective Cook’s boss, and Dick Fedorcio, Scotland Yard’s chief public relations officer. According to an account that Detective Cook provided to Mr. Lewis and others, Ms. Wade excused the surveillance by saying that the paper’s action had been “in the public interest” — the argument British newspapers typically make to justify using underhanded or illegal methods to, say, expose affairs by public officials.
Ms. Wade said that the paper was tailing Detective Cook because it suspected him of having an affair with Jackie Haines, host of the Crimewatch television program on which he had recently appeared. In fact, the two were married to each other, as had been mentioned prominently in an article about them in the popular gossip magazine “Hello!”
Scotland Yard seems to have been satisfied with the explanation of Ms. Wade, now Rebekah Brooks and the chief executive of News International. Her paper’s editors and reporters had a long history with the police — paying for tips and sometimes even serving as quasi-police investigators themselves, in return for confidential information (many News of the World stories about criminal matters used to include a reference to the paper’s handing “a dossier” of its findings to Scotland Yard).
It is the closeness between the paper and the police that, it seems, led Scotland Yard to what officials have retrospectively admitted was a major misstep: the decision not to pursue the initial phone-hacking investigation adequately in 2006 and again in 2009. It was in 2006 that members of the royal household notified the police that they believed their cellphone messages were being intercepted by The News of the World.
The subsequent police “raid” at the paper consisted of rummaging through a single reporter’s desk and failing to question any other reporters or editors. Two people were subsequently jailed: Clive Goodman, The News of the World’s royal reporter, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator hired by the paper. Even when The Guardian reported that the hacking had extended far beyond the pair, and that thousands of victims might be involved, the police and the newspaper insisted repeatedly that the wrongdoing had been limited to a single “rogue” reporter.
This weekend, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who was in charge of the initial inquiry and who in 2009 declined to reopen it, said that the police response had been inadequate. “I have regrettably said the initial inquiry was a success,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “Clearly, now it looks very different.”
After the meeting at Scotland Yard, Detective Cook left “with the impression that the meeting was arranged to placate him and let him get it off his chest, but that nothing else was going to happen,” Mr. Lewis said. “And nothing did.” .....read more
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/world/europe/11britain.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all
Monday, February 27, 2012
#Leveson witnesses halt the tabloid power grab
Akers provided a riposte to the Sun's recent fist-waving, while questions about the police response to phone hacking mount
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers challenged the assumption on which recent attacks on Scotland Yard were founded. Photograph: Guardian
The phone-hacking scandal never was simply a story about journalists behaving badly: it was and is about power.
On Monday, in an outbreak of peculiarly destructive evidence, Lord Justice Leveson's courtroom became a battlefield for two parts of a defining power struggle.
Lawyers, bloggers and tweeters joined in the attack.
Many claimed to know that the police were investigating nothing more than reporters who had paid for a pint for a police officer. Murdoch's Times highlighted claims that the arrested journalists had been acting in the public interest. The Telegraph suggested that police had "overstepped the mark".
Akers took to the Leveson stage and challenged the assumption on which this attack was founded.
She was careful to emphasise that she was still dealing in allegation, not proof.
She was equally clear that this is not about paying for pints but about the alleged illegal payment by Sun journalists of "regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money" to officials in every area of the public life of this country, including the police, military, prisons and health service.
"The current assessment of the evidence is that it reveals a network of corrupted officials," she said. And this was not about stories in the public interest, she added, but about "salacious gossip".
The truth about all this remains to be seen. Police inquiries continue – and that, in itself is what is significant. At another time, in another context, the tabloid fist, with the political muscle that lies behind it, might have succeeded in diverting the investigation.
But yesterday saw a rare moment, when the power of a cynical press to distort public debate was openly challenged and stopped in its tracks.
Beyond this short-term skirmish, there is a larger and longer-term struggle of power.
This is not about the conduct of reporters but about the power of the press in relation to the state, specifically about whether the Murdoch papers had reached a point where the police and the political apparatus had become compliant.
Here again, Monday's evidence was peculiarly destructive.
If the priority was to protect human life, it is not clear why – as was suggested on Monday – Scotland Yard failed to take any action at all in November 2006 when it found evidence that the News of the World's investigator Glenn Mulcaire had penetrated some of the secrets of the witness protection programme, exposing the new identities of people who were being protected precisely because they were vulnerable to attack.
Equally, it is not clear how Scotland Yard saved resources by writing multiple letters to both Paddick and Prescott, denying that it held any evidence to suggest they had been victims of the hacking, when it could have sent a single letter to each man admitting that both of them were clearly named in Mulcaire's notes – something which, we now know, police had first discovered, in Prescott's case, right back on 8 August 2006, the day they arrested Mulcaire and seized his paperwork.
It is not clear how police saved resources by failing to show prosecutors the now famous "email for Neville", containing the transcripts of 35 voicemail messages, which was the clearest available evidence of Mulcaire's guilt in one of the very few cases which they chose to take to trial, concerning Gordon Taylor of the Professional Footballers Association.
Nor is it clear how they saved resources by telling Mulcaire's trial in January 2007 that he had earned only £12,300 from crime when, according to Monday's evidence, they believed he had earned more than £1m from the News of the World and hacked hundreds of victims.
Nor is there any clear explanation of why the former assistant commissioner John Yates spent two years insisting to press, public and parliament that the scandal had only a small number of victims, all of whom had been contacted by police.
Monday's evidence suggested that the original inquiry compiled a "blue book", listing hundreds of victims over 24 pages, almost none of whom was approached by police.
Now the balance of power has changed.
Leveson and Akers have their own power.
The FBI may take the inquiry to News Corp headquarters in New York.
Murdoch and his allies still control tens of thousands of words of news coverage every day, but they have lost control of events – for now, at least.
Source : The Guardian
On Monday, in an outbreak of peculiarly destructive evidence, Lord Justice Leveson's courtroom became a battlefield for two parts of a defining power struggle.
The first was short term. In the past few weeks, those who lost some of their power last summer, when the facts of the scandal finally erupted, have been trying to reclaim it. In 20 minutes of deftly understated evidence, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers sent them packing.
Rupert Murdoch's Sun had led the attempted coup with an outburst of the kind of tabloid fist-waving which has itself been part of the distortion of power.
The paper's associate editor, Trevor Kavanagh, reacted to the arrest of 10 of his colleagues by launching a ferocious attack on Scotland Yard. It was full of the rhetorical flourish of great reporting but almost devoid of facts.
Crucially, Kavanagh's claim that the Yard was engaged in a witch-hunt against legitimate journalism was based on a bold assumption that, in the Sun's history of paying sources for stories, "there is nothing disreputable and, as far as we know at this point, nothing illegal".
Never pausing to question that assumption, the Daily Mail joined in, reporting the arrests under the headline "Operation Overkill" and running a column by Richard Littlejohn which compared the police to the Stasi engaging in "a sinister assault on a free press".
Many claimed to know that the police were investigating nothing more than reporters who had paid for a pint for a police officer. Murdoch's Times highlighted claims that the arrested journalists had been acting in the public interest. The Telegraph suggested that police had "overstepped the mark".
Akers took to the Leveson stage and challenged the assumption on which this attack was founded.
She was careful to emphasise that she was still dealing in allegation, not proof.
She was equally clear that this is not about paying for pints but about the alleged illegal payment by Sun journalists of "regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money" to officials in every area of the public life of this country, including the police, military, prisons and health service.
"The current assessment of the evidence is that it reveals a network of corrupted officials," she said. And this was not about stories in the public interest, she added, but about "salacious gossip".
The truth about all this remains to be seen. Police inquiries continue – and that, in itself is what is significant. At another time, in another context, the tabloid fist, with the political muscle that lies behind it, might have succeeded in diverting the investigation.
But yesterday saw a rare moment, when the power of a cynical press to distort public debate was openly challenged and stopped in its tracks.
Beyond this short-term skirmish, there is a larger and longer-term struggle of power.
This is not about the conduct of reporters but about the power of the press in relation to the state, specifically about whether the Murdoch papers had reached a point where the police and the political apparatus had become compliant.
Here again, Monday's evidence was peculiarly destructive.
The immediate question is whether to accept Scotland Yard's claim that police failed to expose the truth about crime at the News of the World simply because they had to focus their limited resources on counter-terrorist work where human life was at stake.
The evidence disclosed by the former deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick and by the former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott keeps alive the alternative theory, that this was an act of favouritism.
Equally, it is not clear how Scotland Yard saved resources by writing multiple letters to both Paddick and Prescott, denying that it held any evidence to suggest they had been victims of the hacking, when it could have sent a single letter to each man admitting that both of them were clearly named in Mulcaire's notes – something which, we now know, police had first discovered, in Prescott's case, right back on 8 August 2006, the day they arrested Mulcaire and seized his paperwork.
It is not clear how police saved resources by failing to show prosecutors the now famous "email for Neville", containing the transcripts of 35 voicemail messages, which was the clearest available evidence of Mulcaire's guilt in one of the very few cases which they chose to take to trial, concerning Gordon Taylor of the Professional Footballers Association.
Nor is it clear how they saved resources by telling Mulcaire's trial in January 2007 that he had earned only £12,300 from crime when, according to Monday's evidence, they believed he had earned more than £1m from the News of the World and hacked hundreds of victims.
Nor is there any clear explanation of why the former assistant commissioner John Yates spent two years insisting to press, public and parliament that the scandal had only a small number of victims, all of whom had been contacted by police.
Monday's evidence suggested that the original inquiry compiled a "blue book", listing hundreds of victims over 24 pages, almost none of whom was approached by police.
On the question of alleged favouritism, the Leveson inquiry will surely be interested in the evidence disclosed by Paddick that when police in August 2006 went to search the News of the World, they were physically stopped from entering the accounts department and denied access to the computer and safe of the royal reporter Clive Goodman; and that the police responded by drafting a production order and then failing to use it. Paddick said: "It is not usual that a suspect would be permitted to fob the police off in this way."
Leveson and Akers have their own power.
The FBI may take the inquiry to News Corp headquarters in New York.
Murdoch and his allies still control tens of thousands of words of news coverage every day, but they have lost control of events – for now, at least.
Source : The Guardian
Rupert Murdoch Runs Organized Crime From Deep Within Scotland Yard !
'Culture of illegal payments': Sun journalist 'was given £150,000 to pay public officials in just two years', police chief tells Leveson Inquiry
- Payments to public officials were part of a 'trade craft' within the Sun
- One public employee 'received £80,000 in return for stories'
- Member of the MOD and another from the armed forces have been arrested
- U.S. investigators could look at News Corporation activities in America
- 'Revolving door' between the Metropolitan Police and News International
- Lord Prescott says the police were 'hiding things, not telling me the truth'
- Inquiry will become a 'bloodbath' as officers battle to defend their actions
- Sir Ian Blair defends decision not to expand original hacking probe
The police chief leading the investigation into phone hacking said today there was a 'culture of illegal payments' at The Sun - with one journalist given £150,000 to pay to public officials.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) Sue Akers, who is leading the Metropolitan Police's latest inquiries into allegations of phone hacking, email hacking and corrupt payments, said investigations pointed to payments being made to officials in 'all areas of public life'.
The Met boss said that illegal payments from the Sun to public officials were part of a 'trade craft' within the newspaper. In one example, she claimed that one journalist had been given £150,000 in cash over a number of years for him to pay public officials and sources.
The claims will be of intense interest to investigators at the U.S. Department of Justice who are looking at whether the American company could face charges there under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The claims are also a devastating blow to News International a day after they launched a PR fightback by publishing the Sun on Sunday.
Investigation: Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sue Akers gives evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today
Key witness: Lord John Prescott arrives at The High Court in London today, followed by Former Met boss turned Lib Dem MP Brian Paddick, right
DAC Akers said a number of Sun employees and police officers - plus a member of the Ministry of Defence and a member of the armed forces - had been arrested and she gave an update on the investigation.
She said: 'It (the investigation) suggests payments were being made to public officials in all areas of public life.
'There also appears to have been a culture at The Sun of illegal payments and systems created to facilitate those payments.'
She suggested that journalists appeared to have been 'well aware' that 'what they were doing was unlawful'. Payments did not amount to an 'odd drink or meal' but to 'regular, frequent and sometimes significant amounts of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists.'
She told the inquiry that there was evidence of 'multiple payments amounting to thousands of pounds'. DAC Akers said one public official had 'over a period of several years (received) amounts in excess of £80,000'.
She added: 'One arrested journalist has over several years received over £150,000 in cash to pay his sources.' Many officials were kept on 'retainers', she added.
Ms Akers told Lord Justice Leveson that most 'disclosures' led to 'gossip' stories.
'The vast majority of the disclosures that have been made have led to stories which I would describe as ''salacious gossip'',' she said. 'Not what I would describe as being remotely in the public interest.'
Criticised: Former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Andy Hayman was leading the original hacking inquiry that failed to uncover the extent of the illegal activity. He will be grilled this week
DAC Akers said that a number of senior ex-managers at News International had been identified and arrested for authorising or facilitating payments to police.
There was also said to have been a 'trade craft' of hiding payments to sources by making them to a friend or relative of the source. It was authorised at 'very senior level' within the newspaper, she added.
Sir Iain Blair defended the decision not to expand the original hacking investigation in a statement today
Ms Akers said because of the nature of the investigation it was 'easier' to identify journalists than public officials. But she said police hoped that more investigation would reveal the identities of public officials.
The payments were made to officials within the police military, health, government, prison service and other areas of public service.
Lord Justice Leveson asked to be kept informed of the progress of police inquiries and said he did not intend to allow his inquiry to prejudice any criminal investigations.
The inquiry began hearing evidence today about the relationship between journalists and the police.
Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, said the public was concerned that relations between officers and the media, in particular News International, were 'at best inappropriately close, and if not actually corrupt was very close to it'.
Lord Blair, who was Scotland Yard commissioner from 2005 to 2008, said in a statement to the inquiry: 'I believe that where the problem may have become significant is that a very small number of relatively senior officers increasingly became too close to journalists.
'Not, I believe, for financial gain, but for the enhancement of their reputation and for the sheer enjoyment of being in a position to share and divulge confidences.
'It is a siren song. I also believe that they based their behaviour on how they saw politicians behave, and that they lost sight of their professional obligations.'
Neil Garnham QC, counsel for the Metropolitan Police, defended Scotland Yard's decision not to widen the scope of the phone-hacking investigation in 2006.
He pointed out that the original inquiry, called Operation Caryatid, had only six officers and staff, while the new investigation, named Operation Weeting, has 90 people working on it.
He said: 'It was and remains our contention that the decision in 2006, 2009 and thereafter not to expend on phone-hacking the sort of substantial resources which are now devoted to Operation Weeting was reasonable.
'It was reasonable because, as serious as interception of telephone calls is, it's not a matter of life and limb.
'With the greatest of respect to those who undoubtedly suffered distress when they discovered that their phone messages had been intercepted, their cases are simply not comparable for example with the serious terrorist threats that were facing Britain in 2006 and the years thereafter.'
Former Scotland Yard deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick alleged that there was a 'revolving door' between the Metropolitan Police and News International.
Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, left, and former Chief Executive of News International Rebekah Brooks were mentioned in an email shown the Inquiry suggesting they knew the extent of phone hacking
Pressure: News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch leaves his house in London earlier this month. The phone hacking investigation is beginning to cast a light over the Sun newspaper
Mr Paddick noted that Lord Stevens had a 'very good relationship' with the media, in contrast to his successor Lord Blair, about whom the 'overwhelming majority' of publicity was negative.
PRIVATE DETECTIVE LINKED TO NOTW HACKING SCANDAL JAILED FOR 'BLAGGING'
A private detective who has been linked to News of the World hacking scandal was jailed today for illegal ‘blagging’.
Philip Campbell Smith was one of four investigators who today became the first to be jailed for accessing private information for cash.
Along with Daniel Summers, Graham Freeman and Adam Spears were all involved in a blagging conspiracy where they accessed confidential information at the behest of wealthy clients.
Former Army officer Smith, who further admitted possessing three rounds of ammunition in a separate case, is currently under investigation over allegations he hacked the computer of an ex British army intelligence officer for the now defunct tabloid in 2006.
Some of the hacked information allegedly related to two IRA informants who were both high profile assassination targets including Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife.
He is alleged to have passed on the information to the News of the World, though these accusations are unrelated to him being jailed today.
Sentencing Summers to 12 months, Spears and Smith to eight months and Freeman to six months behind bars, Judge Andrew Campbell said: 'You knew it [the information] would be obtained by using criminal deception.
'The fact is you were all charging for your services and in some cases charging very considerable sums.
'I am satisfied that each of you knew that if you were caught you were likely to face a charge that carried imprisonment. Indeed Mr Freeman wrote an email advising a client of that very fact.'
Sandip Patel, prosecuting, said Summers, a self-confessed blagger, was the lynchpin of the conspiracy using his skills to divulge confidential information from banks, holders of medical records, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the DVLA, Criminal Records Bureau and Interpol, among others by pretending to be the individuals themselves or duping them into thinking he was from a bank or legitimate institution and simply asking for the information.
Operating from his flat in Teddington, Surrey, the 32-year-old, who describes himself as an 'information broker,' was subcontracted to get the details by Smith, 53, and Freeman, 51, who ran private investigation firm Brookmans International.
Freeman, who lives in Spain, would email or phone Smith about the work and investigators believe Smith would then pass the work on to Summers charging clients up to £5,000 a time.
In an email to a client about why their charges may seem high, Freeman wrote that police and Interpol databases that may be accessed were 'not open to the general public and are tightly regulated', meaning that 'should we be apprehended a custodial sentence' may be handed out.
Summers was also asked to extract information by retired Metropolitan Police detective inspector Spears, 72, for his consultancy firm Global Intelligence Services Ltd.
The quartet were caught out when an undercover police officer bought Summers laptop from him for £590 in October 2008 and a forensic examination retrieved evidence of his activities, which Summers thought he had deleted.
Along with Daniel Summers, Graham Freeman and Adam Spears were all involved in a blagging conspiracy where they accessed confidential information at the behest of wealthy clients.
Former Army officer Smith, who further admitted possessing three rounds of ammunition in a separate case, is currently under investigation over allegations he hacked the computer of an ex British army intelligence officer for the now defunct tabloid in 2006.
Some of the hacked information allegedly related to two IRA informants who were both high profile assassination targets including Freddie Scappaticci, codenamed Stakeknife.
He is alleged to have passed on the information to the News of the World, though these accusations are unrelated to him being jailed today.
Sentencing Summers to 12 months, Spears and Smith to eight months and Freeman to six months behind bars, Judge Andrew Campbell said: 'You knew it [the information] would be obtained by using criminal deception.
'The fact is you were all charging for your services and in some cases charging very considerable sums.
'I am satisfied that each of you knew that if you were caught you were likely to face a charge that carried imprisonment. Indeed Mr Freeman wrote an email advising a client of that very fact.'
Sandip Patel, prosecuting, said Summers, a self-confessed blagger, was the lynchpin of the conspiracy using his skills to divulge confidential information from banks, holders of medical records, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the DVLA, Criminal Records Bureau and Interpol, among others by pretending to be the individuals themselves or duping them into thinking he was from a bank or legitimate institution and simply asking for the information.
Operating from his flat in Teddington, Surrey, the 32-year-old, who describes himself as an 'information broker,' was subcontracted to get the details by Smith, 53, and Freeman, 51, who ran private investigation firm Brookmans International.
Freeman, who lives in Spain, would email or phone Smith about the work and investigators believe Smith would then pass the work on to Summers charging clients up to £5,000 a time.
In an email to a client about why their charges may seem high, Freeman wrote that police and Interpol databases that may be accessed were 'not open to the general public and are tightly regulated', meaning that 'should we be apprehended a custodial sentence' may be handed out.
Summers was also asked to extract information by retired Metropolitan Police detective inspector Spears, 72, for his consultancy firm Global Intelligence Services Ltd.
The quartet were caught out when an undercover police officer bought Summers laptop from him for £590 in October 2008 and a forensic examination retrieved evidence of his activities, which Summers thought he had deleted.
The inquiry heard that Scotland Yard assured Ms Brooks in 2006 that it was not planning to extend its phone-hacking inquiry to include News of the World staff other than Clive Goodman, who was jailed for the practice.
Police briefed Ms Brooks, then editor of The Sun, about their investigation into the illegal interception of voicemails within weeks of the arrest of royal editor Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire.
She was told detectives were confident Goodman and Mulcaire were 'bang to rights' but would only widen the case to include other News of the World employees if they found 'direct evidence' of wrongdoing.
The press standards inquiry heard that police also told Ms Brooks they uncovered evidence of more than £1 million in payments by News of the World publisher News International during the phone-hacking investigation.
Tom Crone, the News of the World's head of legal, summarised Scotland Yard's briefing in an email headed 'strictly private and confidential' to the paper's then-editor Andy Coulson on September 15 2006.
He began his memo: 'Here is what Rebekah told me about info relayed to her by the cops.'
It went on: 'They suggested that they were not widening the case to include other NoW people, but would do so if they got direct evidence, say NoW journos directly accessing the voicemails (this is what did for Clive).'
The email also noted: 'The only payment records they found were from News International, ie the NoW retainer and other invoices, they said that over the period they looked at (going way back) there seemed to be over £1 million of payments.'
Mr Crone's message concluded: 'They're going to contact RW (Rebekah Wade, Ms Brooks's maiden name) today to see if she wishes to take it further.'
Goodman and Mulcaire were arrested on August 8 2006. They pleaded guilty to intercepting voicemail messages left on royal aides' phones on November 29 2006 and were jailed on January 26 2007.
The Met has been heavily criticised for limiting the scope of its investigation despite evidence from Mulcaire's notebooks that there could be thousands of hacking victims.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission announced on Friday that it is investigating a senior Scotland Yard officer for allegedly inappropriately passing information about the 2006 phone-hacking inquiry to a News International executive.
The Leveson inquiry is expected to hear more explosive new evidence this week as it starts to examine relationships between the police and the Press.
Serving and former senior police officers and politicians are due to testify about the original failure of the phone hacking investigation and allegations of bribing public officials for stories.
It is also expected to hear claims of an overly-close relationship between Met top brass and executives at News International newspaper group.
Legal sources have suggested the evidence will lead to the most sensational developments of the inquiry yet and could descend into a ‘bloodbath’ as officers battle to defend their actions.
Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, will began today's hearing with an opening statement setting out the broad picture of criticism about relations between police and the press.
Former Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, who was heavily criticised after leading the original hacking inquiry, is scheduled to take the stand on Thursday.
The inquiry is also due to hear from former Metropolitan Police commissioners Sir Ian Blair and Sir Paul Stephenson, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick and former Assistant Commissioner John Yates.
Hearing: Lord Justice Leveson is overseeing the Inquiry into press standards
Mr Paddick, who is the Liberal Democrat candidate in this year's London mayoral election, claimed last July that some police officers had received tens of thousands of pounds for providing reporters with tip-offs.
He told the BBC: 'I met a journalist who said he was paying sometimes £20,000 to £30,000 to police officers for information.
'All of this is done in a very clandestine way. You know the stories about a drive-through fast food restaurant near the News International headquarters, that's where police officers used to go to collect envelopes. It was all done very discreetly. I personally never came across it during my career.'
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott, who claims his phone was hacked by the News of the World, will also give evidence today.
Earlier this month Lord Prescott and Mr Paddick settled a claim against the Metropolitan Police for failing to warn phone hacking victims at the time of its original investigation into the News of the World (NotW) in 2006.
Scotland Yard's original phone hacking inquiry resulted in the jailing of NotW royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on royal aides' phones.
However the Met was heavily criticised for limiting the scope of the investigation despite evidence from Mulcaire's notebooks that there could be thousands of hacking victims.
It was also reported yesterday that senior Met Police officers will be named in a Commons debate this week on how police corruption undermined an unsolved murder of a private detective Daniel Morgan a quarter of a century ago.
The 37-year-old, who was killed in a pub car park, is believed to have been poised to expose a circle of corrupt police officers in southeast London working with underworld figures in the drugs business.
Morgan’s business partner went on to work for the News of The World while remaining the prime suspect for the murder.
The 30-minute adjournment debate has been tabled by Labour MP Tom Watson, who has been a lead figure in attacking the police’s handling of the phone hacking investigation.
The fifth and last investigation into the Morgan case collapsed in March 2011 because of police misconduct in the handling of supergrass witnesses.
Prime Minister David Cameron set up the Leveson Inquiry last July in response to revelations that the NotW hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone after she disappeared in 2002.
The first part of the inquiry, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, is looking at the culture, practices and ethics of the press in general and is due to produce a report by September.
The second part, examining the extent of unlawful activities by journalists, will not begin until detectives have completed their investigation into alleged phone hacking and corrupt payments to police, and any prosecutions have been concluded.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106980/Leveson-inquiry-Sun-journalist-given-150k-pay-public-officials-just-2-years.html#ixzz1nbxducWl
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