Quote:Phone hacking: News International accused of email deletion policy

Court documents filed by claimants allege that senior executive chased up progress on deleting emails as late as 2010

Dan Sabbagh
guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 February 2012 12.03 GMT

Rupert Murdoch's News International took active steps to delete and prepare to delete the publisher's email archives as phone-hacking allegations and lawsuits against the owner of the now-defunct News of the World mounted in 2009 and developed in 2010.

According to court documents filed by victims of hacking, the newspaper publisher allegedly produced an email deletion policy in November 2009 whose aim was to "eliminate in a consistent manner" emails "that could be unhelpful in the context of future litigation".

A unnamed senior executive at News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the Sun and the News of the World, also repeatedly demanded progress on the "email deletion policy" during 2010, asking on 29 July: "How come we still haven't done the email deletion policy discussed and approved six months ago?"

According to the claimants, News International also destroyed "all computers used by its journalists" in about October 2010 including one machine of a reporter named specifically in actor Sienna Miller's action, while in January 2011 all emails on its archive system up to 31 September 2007 were deleted according to a witness statement from NI's recently appointed chief information officer. Hacking is primarily understood to have taken place between 2002 and 2006.

The timing of the alleged deletion activity contained in high court documents underlying celebrity hacking cases and which were released to the Guardian yesterday is significant because it took place as accusations of widespread phone hacking first appeared and subsequently as legal actions against the News of the World developed.

In July 2009 the Guardian published its first exposé of the phone-hacking scandal, which said that thousands of people may have been targeted by the News of the World until the 2006 arrest of Clive Goodman, the newspaper's former royal editor, and its £100,000-a-year private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Phone-hacking civil suits followed, with a case brought by Max Clifford being settled privately in early 2010 following a Mayfair lunch between the PR veteran and News International's then chief executive Rebekah Brooks.

Specific requests for deletions allegedly came after the company received a letter dated 6 September 2010 from Miller's legal team that demanded that all relevant documents and emails be preserved by Murdoch's News Group Newspapers.

Three days later, on 9 September, an employee in the technology department wrote: "If the deletion need [sic] to wait until tomorrow, then that is fine. There is a senior NI management requirement to delete this data as quickly as possible but it need to be done with commercial boundaries."

Last month, the high court heard that News Group Newspapers had agreed for the purposes of resolving hacking settlements with the likes of Jude Law and Ashley Cole that "senior employees and directors" knew about phone hacking and sought to conceal by "destroying evidence of wrongdoing, which evidence included a very substantial number of emails" and the computers of three journalists which had been used when Mulcaire was employed under contract by the News of the World.

Quote:Rebekah Brooks 'was briefed by police on phone-hacking investigation'

Former News International chief executive was allegedly given details of original investigation by senior Met police officer

David Batty
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 25 February 2012 13.40 GMT

Rebekah Brooks allegedly received details of the original failed phone-hacking investigation into the News of the World from a senior Metropolitan police officer.

Brooks, who resigned as News International chief executive last July, is expected to be interviewed by officers as a witness in the coming weeks over the new allegations, the Independent reports. There is no suggestion that she is implicated in the investigation.

The unnamed police officer, who was involved in the first phone-hacking inquiry, has not been suspended while the allegations are investigated.

There is no suggestion that the officer, who works in the Met's specialist operations section, which deals with counter-terrorism, was paid. Nor is he involved in operations Elveden, Weeting or Tuleta, which are investigating inappropriate payments to police officers, phone hacking and computer hacking, according to Scotland Yard.

The latest phone-hacking allegations come the day before the launch of the Sun on Sunday, which was announced by the News Corp boss, Rupert Murdoch, on a visit to his British newspapers last week.

Earlier this week News International was accused in court documents of having taken active steps to delete and prepare to delete its email archives as phone-hacking allegations and lawsuits against the publisher mounted in 2009 and developed in 2010.

According to court documents filed by victims of hacking, the newspaper publisher allegedly produced an email deletion policy in November 2009 the aim of which was to "eliminate in a consistent manner" emails "that could be unhelpful in the context of future litigation".

An unnamed senior executive at News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the Sun and the News of the World, also repeatedly demanded progress on the policy during 2010, asking on 29 July: "How come we still haven't done the email deletion policy discussed and approved six months ago?"

Scotland Yard was heavily criticised for the 2006 inquiry's failure to discover evidence that hacking went beyond a single rogue reporter.

Brooks resigned after the Guardian revealed that the News of the World had hacked the mobile phone of the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Two days later she was arrested on suspicion of phone hacking. She has denied the allegations.

Next week, the Leveson inquiry into press standards will begin to examine the relationship between News International and the Metropolitan police force.

Quote:"There appears to have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments, and systems have been created to facilitate such payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money."

Quote:Police chief tells Leveson the Sun had 'culture of illegal payments' to sources

Sue Akers tells media ethics inquiry of newspaper's payment systems that hid identities of 'network of corrupted officials'

David Leigh
guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 February 2012 14.23 GMT


Hours after Rupert Murdoch's defiant gamble of launching a Sunday edition of the Sun, the head of the police investigations into illegal behaviour by journalists spelled out startling details of what she called a "culture of illegal payments" at the title.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson inquiry that one public official received more than £80,000 in total from the paper, currently edited by Dominic Mohan. Regular "retainers" were apparently being paid to police and others, with one Sun journalist drawing more than £150,000 over the years to pay off his sources.

"The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials," she said. "Instead, these are cases in which arrests have been made involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists."

"A network of corrupted officials" was providing the Sun with stories that were mostly "salacious gossip", she said.

"There appears to have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments, and systems have been created to facilitate such payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money."

Akers's reference to the systematic nature of alleged corruption, and its endorsement by senior executives, will be a clear signal to the US department of justice that her allegations, if proved, fall squarely within the ambit of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Rupert Murdoch's US parent company, News Corporation, could face fines of hundreds of millions of dollars unless it can show it has co-operated vigorously with the authorities in rooting out malpractice.

Akers insisted in her testimony that, although she was dependent on News Corporation's management and standards committee (MSC) to turn over incriminating emails, she was confident the co-operation was working well and the MSC was independent of News International.

She said the investigation into bribery, Operation Elveden, was following Crown Prosecution Service advice to focus on cash payments and not on "more general hospitality, such as meals or drinks". These were specifically excluded from Elveden's terms of reference.

Her testimony contradicts claims by some Sun staff that the paper's journalists 10 of whom have been arrested over corruption allegations are being persecuted merely for buying lunch for contacts. After the arrests Mohan published a lengthy anti-police column in the Sun. Written by Murdoch veteran Trevor Kavanagh, it complained of a Soviet-style witch-hunt, and claimed vital press freedoms were under threat by the police raids.

Others claimed the MSC was endangering the sanctity of journalists' sources by turning over information to the police.

Akers told the inquiry that the MSC was handling police requests for information "in a manner that seeks to protect legitimate journalist sources at all times. Our aim is to uncover criminality. It is not to uncover legitimate sources."

The MSC was redacting information about sources before handing it over unless there was an "evidential base" to justify attempts to identify the public official concerned.

She said one police officer from the specialist operations division had been identified "who was seeking payments from journalists with the NoW". He had been arrested last December. But the investigation of two NoW journalists suspected of bribery had so far failed to identify any police they may have paid.

Akers said the move to investigate the Sun as well as the NoW was the MSC's idea. "This review had not been requested by the [Metropolitan police]."

Far from wanting to put the Sun out of business, she said, police had agreed to carry out arrests on a Saturday, when no daily journalists were working.

The emails turned over by the MSC had led to the arrest so far of 10 Sun journalists, two police officers, a member of the Ministry of Defence, an army officer and the relative of a public official "acting as a conduit to hide a cheque payment".

Akers said the 61-strong Elveden investigation was still at a relatively early stage in trying to identify the recipients of illicit cash: "The emails indicate that payments to 'sources' were openly referred to within the Sun … there is a recognition by the journalists that this behaviour is illegal, reference being made to staff 'risking losing their pension or job', to the need for 'care' and to the need for 'cash payments'. There is also an indication of 'tradecraft', ie hiding cash payments to 'sources' by making them to a friend or relative of the source."

Murdoch gave a statement after Akers's evidence saying: "She [Akers] said the evidence suggested such payments were authorised by senior staff at the Sun.

"As I've made very clear, we have vowed to do everything we can to get to the bottom of prior wrongdoings in order to set us on the right path for the future. That process is well under way.

"The practices Sue Akers described at the Leveson inquiry are ones of the past, and no longer exist at the Sun. We have already emerged a stronger company."

Quote:News of the World accused over murder investigation

Tuesday 28 February 2012
Channel 4 News

Former Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames tells the Leveson inquiry the News of the World was involved in an attempt to "subvert" a murder investigation.

The former Scotland Yard detective fought back tears as she claimed she had been put under surveillance by the newspaper because of its links to suspects in a notorious murder case.

The inquiry into press standards was told that she and ex-husband Dave Cook, who was also a former Metropolitan Police detective, had been followed by private investigators.

Ms Hames said this followed an appeal Mr Cook had made on Crimewatch in 2002 asking for information about the 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.

She alleged that Mr Morgan's firm, Southern Investigations, whose members included suspects in the killing, had "close links" to senior News of the World news editor Alex Marunchak.

'Subvert'

She said in a statement to the inquiry: "I believe that the real reason for the News of the World placing us under surveillance was that suspects in the Daniel Morgan murder inquiry were using their association with a powerful and well-resourced newspaper to try to intimidate us and so attempt to subvert the investigation.

"These events left me distressed, anxious and needing counselling, and contributed to the breakdown of my marriage to David in 2010. Given the impact of these events, I would like to know why the police did not investigate why we came to be placed under surveillance by a newspaper like this."

Shortly after the Crimewatch appeal, police colleagues are said to have informed Mr Cook he was being targeted by journalists at the News of the World.

Affair

When Mr Cook met the News of the World's then editor Rebekah Brooks she suggested the surveillance was carried out because the tabloid suspected that they were having an affair with each other.

But Ms Hames told the inquiry that this was "absolutely pathetic" because she and Mr Cook were well known as a couple within the force and had appeared in Hello magazine together.

'Very painful'

Ms Hames told Channel 4 News in July 2011 that she felt "hunted" by private investigators alleged to be working for the News of the World.

At the time she said she was "convinced" that her confidential police personnel file was sold to private investigator Mulcaire, who worked for the News of the World.

Ms Hames told the inquiry she was "extremely proud" to have served in the Metropolitan Police. But she was overcome by emotion as she added: "When someone in your family or the police service has sold you down the line it is very hurtful, very painful."

Quote:The News Of The World's former editor, Rebekah Brooks, was loaned a police horse by Scotland Yard, it has emerged.

The retired horse was fostered by the ex-News International chief executive in 2008.

The 43-year-old is said to be a keen rider and her husband is former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police (MPS) said: "Retired police horses are not sold on and can be returned to the care of the MPS at any time.

"In 2008, a retired MPS horse was loaned to Rebekah Brooks.

"The horse was subsequently re-housed with a police officer in 2010."

The animal cared for by Mrs Brooks was one of 12 retired by the force in 2008.

A further 29 had their duties ended between 2009 and 2011.