David Allen Green

A critical and liberal look at law and policy

How widespread was phone hacking in high-profile investigations?

When ex-News of the World journalist Paul McMullan discussed the Milly Dowler case with Hugh Grant.

By David Allen Green Published 04 July 2011 22:04

The following one exchange in the conversation which Hugh Grant recorded with Paul McMullan for the New Statesman now looks very interesting:

Me Ah . . . I think that was one of the questions asked last week at one of the parliamentary committees. They asked Yates [John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police] if it was true that he thought that the NoW had been hacking the phones of friends and family of those girls who were murdered . . . the Soham murder and the Milly girl [Milly Dowler].
Him Yeah. Yeah. It's more than likely. Yeah . . . It was quite routine. Yeah - friends and family is something that's not as easy to justify as the other things.

Was phone hacking in high-profile police investigations really "quite routine"?

It would seem so. According to Channel 4 News Tom Watson MP has now raised serious concerns:

[Watson] said there was "a lot more to come out", including, he believed, allegations involving phone-hacking in the case of the Soham murders of schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
"Since I have been involved in this inquiry, there are a number of whistleblowers that I have spoken to and I believe there is a strong suspicion that one of the Soham parents was targeted by Glenn Mulcaire," he added.

When it first became clear that the Royal Household phones had been hacked, there was no logical reason why the phones of other public figures had not also been hacked. And so it turned out.

Similarly, if the tabloids could hack phones in the investigation into the disappearance of Milly Dowler, there is no logical reason why they were not routinely hacking the phones of victims and their friends and families during other high-profile investigations.

Someone should now look at tabloid reportage of all recent murder investigations for stories which could only be from phone hacking. It was probably a commonplace.

Indeed, it would be very interesting to see if any coverage of past murder investigations quietly disappears off tabloid websites tonight.

David Allen Green is legal correspondent of the New Statesman

Tags: Metgate Phone hacking scandal News of the World

More from David Allen Green

12 comments

Tue, 2011-07-05 13:30 — rob (not verified)

Whilst I can see that there is a possible gain from Newspapers and police co-operating on criminal investigations there comes a point when it becomes unhealthy especially when the law custodians turn a blind eye to law breaking. Law breaking starts to become a habit and a difficult cycle to break out of. I suspect that phone hacking originated to pick up the scandal stories and gradually escalated into a machinery to gain leverage on people in power, hence the reluctance of politicians with a few notable exceptions, to get involved.

Tue, 2011-07-05 14:45 — Marcusbailius (not verified)

It is perhaps sadly not surprising that phone hacking had entered the toolkit of the tabloid journalist, and so widely that senior executives at the NoW (and others?) must have known (it is seriously implausible that they did not), and were happy provided they had some presumably plausible deniability. (Perhaps this begs the question of whether other non-tabloid journalists might also have used the trick.) The plausibility of the denials is now perhaps becoming rather thin.
The question should perhaps be put to the Government again, as to whether they seriously think Murdoch's is a fit and proper pair of hands into the care of which the whole of BSkyB should be placed...

Tue, 2011-07-05 15:59 — Arthur O'Connor

Murdoch is a scumbag - thanks to the Tories/Coalition his family will soon be the only voice available to the UK public. Our country is being debased. Nobody seems able to do anything about it. Self regulation in banking and the fourth estate requires an honourable motivation not available to Britons.

Tue, 2011-07-05 16:40 — Vivien Jones (not verified)

Perhaps it's time for Vince Cable to resurrect his principles (and save the Lib Dems) by leading the opposition to Murdoch's dirty empire. Where's Ed Milliband when you need him ?

Mon, 2011-07-04 22:21 — alistair (not verified)

boycott murdoch.

Tue, 2011-07-05 00:17 — alex (not verified)

cancel your sky subscriptions, stop buying the sun, the times, NoW, stop watching FOX. Its obvious our politicians are toothless, its time to take things in to our own hands!

Tue, 2011-07-05 00:41 — RJD

They - the men in white coats - claim that the average human being has 50,000 thoughts per day. What intrigues me is how do they count thoughts? Is it done with sophisticated thought counting equipment built in a Nasa lab or do they just ask individuals to sit there and count their own thoughts as they pop into their heads. If the latter, then surely the interruption of thoughts to count them interferes with the true number of thoughts being experienced. Or does the counting of a thought count as a thought? I really don't think it should but I'm not sure.

And if my level of numeracy is that of say Mary Dejevsky and I don't own a calculator, has the NS created an artificial barrier to entry vis a vis comments on blogs and articles. Can the NS claim to uphold the right of all to have their say if the requirement is a maths test, albeit a simple one?

Tue, 2011-07-05 02:30 — Ivan Miletitch

The "Gutter Press" is so called for a reason! I just find it offensive to real journalists that the s**t diggers working for the Sun/N.O.T.W &co dare call themselves "journalist", or the piece of rubbish they produce a "NEWSpaper"!

Tue, 2011-07-05 07:14 — Simon (not verified)

Were they routinely deleting messages too?

Tue, 2011-07-05 09:48 — sketchley

It would be worth while investigating whether they hacked `police phones too...no one has even touched on this possibility.

Tue, 2011-07-05 10:12 — Dave C (not verified)

sketchley,

"At the time, Surrey police suspected that phones belonging to detectives and to Milly's parents also were being targeted.

"One of those who was involved in the original inquiry said: "We'd arrange landline calls. We didn't trust our mobiles."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/04/milly-dowler-voicemail-hacked-n...

Wed, 2011-07-06 10:21 — Arthur O'Connor

Now is the time for Clegg to desert Cameron and to call for the resignation of Rebekah Wade/Brooks who is lying through her teeth. She has admitted abetting police corruption with money for information which in itself calls for a public enquiry; she has refused to give evidence on oath. There is no way that an institution such as the Murdoch empire's News International should belong to a self regulating press. The press must be subject to the law of the land like every other institution. It must be licensed and if it breaks the law its license should be suspended during investigation.That would put the Murdoch's of this world back in their place.