Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

New charges for Murdoch empire consigliere Rebekah Brooks, including allegedly bribing a Ministry of Defence official to the tune of over £100k, and PM Spin Doctor Andy Coulson, for allegedly authorising bribes to get hold of confidential Royal family "green book" information.

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson to face fresh charges

Scandal involving alleged criminality at Murdoch's tabloids grows as prosecutors bring the first charges against a Sun journalist

Vikram Dodd and Dominic Rushe
The Guardian, Tuesday 20 November 2012 19.16 GMT

Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have been charged over alleged corrupt payments to officials
Former News International editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks are among five charged over alleged corrupt payments. Photograph: PA

The scandal involving alleged criminality at Rupert Murdoch's British tabloids grew on Tuesday as prosecutors brought the first charges against a journalist employed by the Sun and also brought fresh cases against the media mogul's most senior lieutenants.

Rebekah Brooks was charged over an alleged conspiracy to make illegal payments to a public official while working as editor of The Sun. Also charged was the paper's chief reporter John Kay. Both are alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to pay £100,000 over seven years to a defence ministry official.

Andy Coulson was facing a fresh charge relating to his tenure as editor of the News of the World for allegedly authorising the payment of money, along with the paper's former royal reporter, Clive Goodman to get hold of confidential information about the Royal family.

The Crown Prosecution Service made the announcements of the new charges, meaning prosecutors believe they can prove to a jury the conspiracies to bribe took place.

Any convictions could have consequences for News Corporation in the United States where the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act makes it illegal for officers of a US company to bribe foreign officials.

Brooks and Coulson, both confidants of prime minister David Cameron, now face three separate sets of criminal charges, and the news of the fresh charges and the allegations against the Sun, which joins the defunct News of the World as having its journalists face trial, comes just before Lord Leveson's report on standards and regulation of the press is expected to be published next week.

The announcement came as a result of Operation Elveden, in which the Metropolitan police are investigating claims of unlawful payments by News International staff to police officers and other public officials.

Coulson, former deputy editor and then editor of the now defunct News of the World, and the former royal editor Clive Goodman, are both charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. These relate to payments allegedly made to gain the "green book" which contains confidential royal family and palace phone numbers.

In a statement, Alison Levitt, QC, principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions (DPP), said: "The allegations relate to the request and authorisation of payments to public officials in exchange for information, including a palace phone directory known as the "green book" containing contact details for the royal family and members of the household."

Also charged are Brooks, editor of the Sun between 14 January 2003 and 1 September 2009, the Sun's former chief reporter John Kay, and a Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan-Barber, who is alleged to have been paid £100,000 over a seven-year period.

The CPS said all three "conspired together, and with others, to commit misconduct in public office" between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2012.

Levitt said: "This conspiracy relates to information allegedly provided by Bettina Jordan Barber for payment which formed the basis of a series of news stories published by the Sun. It is alleged that approximately £100,000 was paid to Bettina Jordan Barber between 2004 and 2011."

As part of the investigation into illegal payments, the Met has arrested 52 people, including 21 Sun journalists. The CPS has more decisions to make about whether any more journalists from Britain's best selling newspaper should be charged or not.

Convictions in the UK over illegal payments could affect the Murdoch media empire in the US, said Tom Fox, a Houston-based lawyer and expert in the US's foreign corrupt practices act: "This may be the game changer some had been expecting. As a US firm News Corp is subject to the FCPA, if its executives are proven to have been directly involved in acts of bribery then I would expect there to a settlement with the FCPA.

"The US authorities are likely to step back and let the UK authorities get on with their prosecutions."

The charges are the third set faced by Brooks and Coulson.

David Cameron's former director of communications, was first charged in Scotland over allegations of lying on oath when he gave evidence in court about phone hacking at the News of the World.

He was then charged over phone hacking, which he denies.

Coulson said: "I am extremely disappointed by this latest CPS decision. I deny the allegations made against me and will fight the charges in court."

The criminal cases involving his friends poses potential problems for the prime minister.

During a visit to Northern Ireland, Mr Cameron said he had expressed "regret" on many occasions regarding the issue.

"I have also said very clearly that we should allow the police and the prosecuting authorities to follow the evidence wherever it may lead and I think that is very, very important," he said.

"But I think, particularly as we get to a situation with pending court cases, I think we should probably leave it at that."

Ms Brooks was first charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by allegedly concealing evidence from the police investigating her activities as a News International top executive. Also charged is her husband, Charlie, and both deny the allegations.

Ms Brook's personal assistant and Mark Hanna, head of security at NI, were among four others also charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The former NI boss was then charged in July over phone hacking, which she denies.Brooks and Coulson were among eight people charged with 19 counts of conspiracy over the phone-hacking scandal involving the News of the World.

The other News of the World staff facing phone-hacking-related charges are Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor, Ian Edmondson, former assistant editor (news), Greg Miskiw, a former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and a the private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. Kuttner faces three charges, while Miskiw faces 10 charges. Edmondson faces 12 charges, Thurlbeck eight, and Weatherup eight.

Brooks, Coulson and Kay will appear at at Westminster Magistrates' Court on November 29 over the allegations of illegal payments.

Operation Elveden is also looking at payments at the Mirror and Express newspapers.

The Met has said the investigations triggered by the phone-hacking scandal may last another three years and cost £40m.

The force has 185 officers and civilian staff working on all the related investigations 96 on Operation Weeting, looking at phone hacking, 70 on Elveden and 19 on Tuleta, which covers computer hacking.

[Lauren Johnson]

Do the Metropolitan Police conclude they caught the rascals -- leet's move on? Or do the push Brooks et.al. and go for bigger fry or do they resist any pressure and take the fall?

EDIT: There are many ways to make prosecutions go away. The prosecution can "flub" the case, etc. Jail sentences if any will by light.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Also charged are Brooks, editor of the Sun between 14 January 2003 and 1 September 2009, the Sun's former chief reporter John Kay, and a Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan-Barber, who is alleged to have been paid £100,000 over a seven-year period.

The CPS said all three "conspired together, and with others, to commit misconduct in public office" between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2012.

Levitt said: "This conspiracy relates to information allegedly provided by Bettina Jordan Barber for payment which formed the basis of a series of news stories published by the Sun. It is alleged that approximately £100,000 was paid to Bettina Jordan Barber between 2004 and 2011."

There may well be a financial trail that BJB cannot account for £100k she received between 2004-11. This would be suggestive of wrong doing, but can it be proved that this money came from News Int? We don't know.

There may well be news stories published in The Sun whose source the prosecution will argue is BJB. The articles will exist, but can the prosecution prove beyond reasonable doubt that they were based on info leaked by BJB? Again, we don't know.

We do know that Murdoch appears to have been paying the legal fees of his hacks and former hacks.

See here:

Arrested Sun journalists are between a rock and a hard place

Why they don't feel able to help police with their inquiries

The Guardian

Arrested Sun journalists are finding themselves caught between a rock and hard place as they contemplate their dilemma while on police bail. Photograph: David Levene

Arrested Sun journalists are finding themselves caught between a rock and hard place as they contemplate their dilemma while on police bail.

Some of them would like to help Scotland Yard police who are investigating the alleged paying of public officials but feel constrained from doing so because of the unique situation in which they find themselves.

They say they have refused to answer questions because they fear News International might react by refusing to go on paying their wages and also by cutting off the funding for the lawyers hired to act for them.

Two of the arrested Sun journalists, speaking independently, have told me that they see themselves as being trapped in the middle of a struggle between their employer and the Metropolitan police.

They suspect that officers working for Operation Elveden, the team investigating corrupt payments to public officials, believed that the pressure of being under investigation would cause them to provide information that will lead to the arrests of more senior executives.

And one of the arrested journalists is even convinced that the police are seeking to bring a corporate corruption charge against News International.

During questioning by police, both journalists say officers are clearly seeking to identify any staff higher up the News International chain of command who were responsible for sanctioning payments to their sources.

But the journalists feel inhibited from giving any such evidence to the police because the company has provided them with lawyers, is funding their legal fees and also continuing to pay their wages.

They fear that if they speak out they will lose their legal representation and face being fired. "We are in a Kafkaesque situation," said one of the journalists. "We are just pawns in a bigger game."

Twenty-one Sun journalists are currently on police bail and all but three have returned to work. One reporter has been on bail since November last year. Most were detained in January and February, including five senior executives.

Two of the bailed journalists say that during their interrogations by police they have opted under legal advice to say "no comment" to every question.

One of them said: "I do trust my lawyer, and I understand that it's normal practice not to answer questions. On the other hand, I don't see why I should be in this position when other people in the office knew all about the money I paid and why I paid it.

"It all went through normal channels. There were signed dockets and invoices. There is a paper trail, surely. It was known what I was doing. I couldn't spend that kind of money without it being approved from above."

The second person, speaking separately and unaware of the other source's statement, also said he accepted legal advice not to answer questions.

He said he did not believe his lawyer had a conflict of interest and accepted his advice. Nevertheless, he is anxious to give his side of the story and is aware that this would involve the naming of names.

According to him, police have not so far made an offer of immunity from prosecution should he speak out. This was confirmed by the other journalist. Hopes that the police might offer a deal were crushed when an officer told him that he did not expect that to happen.

He said: "Consider how weird our situation is. The evidence against us that led to our arrests and possible prosecution was provided by News International through its management and standards committee (MSC).

"Now News International are paying for our defence, and even for psychological counselling if we require it. They are also paying our wages. We are are in an intolerable situation because we are advised to say nothing."

A police source has indicated that the MSC changed its terms of reference after initial attempts were made to establish how high up the tree the knowledge of wrongdoing went. This inquiry appears to have been discontinued.

The two arrested journalists are both convinced that News International's former chairman, James Murdoch, and his senior executive advisers set up the MSC out of panic.

"They really didn't expect to unleash a monster," said one of them who believes that James's father, Rupert, would have foreseen the mess and therefore would have avoided creating the MSC in order to assist the police.

NB: Neither journalist was in the least critical of their legal advisers. They understand that a lawyer's responsibility is to represent the client (and not the paymaster).

Rebekah Brooks will have very expensive lawyers. The prosecution will probably need a smoking gun or two.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Leveson Inquiry has proven to be a whitewash, failing to protect victims of crime and aggressively attacking genuine investigative journalism.

Its recommendations, if implemented in full, will greatly restrict the core rationale of the Fourth Estate: to speak Truth to Power.

The debate about "statutory regulation of the press" is all theatre, and diverts away from Leveson's pernicious attack on investigative journalism.

The phone hacking scandal was, essentially, about a culture - primarily fostered by the Murdoch Empire - of using illegal means to obtain celebrity gossip.

Hacking a phone may be justifiable if it is the means by which key evidence necessary to expose a huge scandal, such as a rogue arms deal or a corrupt drugs trial, is gathered. In such cases, a public interest defence would apply.

Hacking a phone to learn some salacious celebrity secret, such as who Mr X or Ms Y is shagging, will rarely justify a public interest defence - unless for instance, Mr X is a politician who boasts of being a family man whilst secretly enjoying illicit liaisons with an orangutan, a labrador and his secretary. These random celebrity hacks should have been subject to prosecution by the police under existing law. Why these crimes were not prosecuted is something that Leveson chooses largely to ignore.

Instead, Leveson proposes draconian changes to long established rules, seeking effectively to end whistleblower protection, to make it almost impossible for journalists to protect sources, and to enable police and other organisations to march into newsrooms and seize evidence without having to get a warrant from a judge.

The Daily Mail piece below outlines some of these scenarios:

CENSORED: The Mail On Sunday stories Leveson's Law would have barred

By Mick Hume

PUBLISHED: 02:04, 2 December 2012 | UPDATED: 02:04, 2 December 2012

The debate around the Leveson Report has focused on Lord Justice Leveson's controversial proposal for a new regulator backed by law.

But as Prime Minister David Cameron said in rejecting the idea of statutory-backed regulation, there is a key principle at stake about state interference in the affairs of a free press.

Yet the potential problems with Leveson's proposals do not end there.
Reforms: Lord Justice Leveson (pictured delivering his verdict) called for sweeping changes in the law to regulate the 'outrageous' behaviour of the press

Reforms: Lord Justice Leveson (pictured delivering his verdict) called for sweeping changes in the law to regulate the 'outrageous' behaviour of the press

The report is peppered with recommendations which would fundamentally restrict the ability of the press to report what is happening and your freedom to learn what our political leaders, police and others are up to.

Leveson talks of the need to defend ethical journalism that serves the public interest' and to crack down on those journalistic practices which do not.

Yet his report would deny the press the freedom enjoyed by the explosion of publishing on the internet which barely figures in his recommendations.
Landmark: After 16 months of hearings and evidence Lord Justice Leveson poses with his final report

Landmark: After 16 months of hearings and evidence Lord Justice Leveson poses with his final report

Here are just some of the hidden dangers in the Leveson Report, quoting what Lord Leveson has to say, and what it would mean in reality:

Exposing sources: Volume 4, Chapter 2, 9.11: In the circumstances without pre-judging any conclusion I recommend that the Home office should consider and, if necessary, consult upon (a) whether paragraph 2 (b) of Schedule 1 to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 should be repealed [overturning, in some circumstances, the long-held right of journalists to protect sources].

IN REALITY: Protecting a journalist's sources is a fundamental principle of investigative reporting. Yet Leveson wants to remove the journalistic exemption' for material which might be considered stolen' which would include most leaked information and let the police or Financial Services Authority seize it. The irony is that Leveson praises the Daily Telegraph's exposure of the MPs' expenses scandal yet under his proposal, they would have had to hand over the leaked/stolen material and turn in the mole.
Censored:
Censored:

The secret' police: Volume 2, chapter 4, 4.5: I recommend that the term off-the-record briefing' should be discontinued. The term non-reportable briefing' should be used to cover a background briefing which is not to be reported.

IN REALITY: Leveson wants an end to off-the-record briefings between the police and the press. He wants information to come only through formal police channels. The proposals, influenced by police chiefs, are supposed to increase transparency'. Yet they are likely to leave the public more in the dark about what the police are doing. Off-the-record briefings are a key tool for both reporters and the police. Making them non-reportable will not mean more police information coming out, but far less a step towards a secret state.

Silencing the whistleblowers: Volume 2, chapter 8, 8.9: .  .  . a series of pragmatic solutions need to be devised to maximise the chance that genuine whistleblowers will use confidential avenues in which they may have faith, rather than feel it necessary to break confidences by bringing about much wider public dissemination through disclosures to the media.'

IN REALITY: In other words, police whistleblowers should not go to the press and newspapers should not take any tip-offs from inside the force. Instead, whistleblowers should take their concerns to senior police officers, or to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Yet that sounds like police self-regulation' of a sort Leveson thinks unfit for the free press. The likely upshot will be fewer whistleblowers coming forward and less public dissemination' of important stories.
Censored:
Censored:

Regulating democracy? Volume 3, chapter 5, 5.31: I recommend that Leaders, Ministers and Front Bench Opposition spokesmen consider publishing: b) on a quarterly basis: details of all meetings with media proprietors, newspaper editors or senior executives, whether in person or through agents on either side, and the fact and general nature of any discussion of media policy issues at those meetings.'

IN REALITY: In response to the Inquiry's revelations about the cosy' relationship between the press and political leaders, Leveson proposes to change the entire character of lobby journalism. The proposal effectively to outlaw off-the-record briefings could be disastrous for political reporting. If politicians can speak only on the record, it will surely mean they talk even more in scripted, hollow soundbites. The long struggle to report the truth about politics to the people will be set back. What is more, it seems the new unelected press regulator will also be tasked with holding our elected leaders to account. Some of us thought that was the voters' role.
Censored:
Censored:

Anonymous suspects: Volume 2, chapter 4, 3.3: I think that it should be made abundantly clear that save in exceptional and clearly identified circumstances (for example, where there may be an immediate risk to the public), the names or identifying details of those who are arrested or suspected of a crime should not be released to the press or the public.

IN REALITY: No doubt part of the intention here is to prevent a repeat of what happened to Christopher Jefferies, landlord of murdered Joanna Yeates, who was monstered by newspapers when arrested. But there have been countless other cases where the role of the press in identifying those arrested or suspected of serious crimes has been crucial in informing the public, aiding the police and keeping the criminal justice process open to scrutiny.

When the editors of Britain's national newspapers meet with culture secretary Maria Miller on Tuesday, it will be their first opportunity to thrash out the practicalities of the Leveson Report.

As well as standing firm against statutory-backed regulation, they should ensure our political leaders are aware of the dangers hidden away behind the report's headlines and their implications for the freedom of the press that is the lifeblood of a democratic society.




Find this story at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...arred.html

[Charles Drago]

As an aside, I would direct readers' attention to the name of the man who originated this thread.

I urge one and all -- especially those who came to DPF after he left -- to familiarize yourself with the timeless and invaluable contributions of David Guyatt.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Here is a 2002 BBC documentary where reporter Olenka Frenkiel exposes the paedophile networks in Belgium.




DPF proudly hosts the ISGP Dutroux archive. It is based on the police files compiled by the original detectives investigating the case. These were leaked. Their leaking enabled the coverup and the lies to be exposed.

Under Leveson, if a similar police dossier was British in origin, receiving and publishing these files would be a crime, the files themselves could be seized, their publication banned, and journalists ordered to identify the source who leaked them, under pain of a lengthy prison sentence.

Leveson is a pernicious and dangerous attack on investigative journalism, on whistleblowers, and on victims of crime.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Every crime family knows it's gotta keep the consigliere happy and contented, even in faux exile:

Rebekah Brooks took £10.8m compensation from News Corp

Accounts at Rupert Murdoch's firm reveal payoff to former chief executive of News International

Dan Sabbagh and Lisa O'Carroll
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 December 2012 14.13 GMT

Rebekah Brooks
Rebekah Brooks's payout is higher than the £7m previously thought to have been given. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Rebekah Brooks walked away with £10.8m from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation as compensation after she resigned from her position as chief executive of News International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal, UK accounts published by News Corp show.

The total is higher than the £7m that Brooks, who also counted David Cameron and Tony Blair as friends, had previously been thought to have taken home and is far in excess of the £3.5m payout believed to have been given at the time of her departure from News International in July 2011.

Accounts for NI Group Ltd, the UK holding company for News Corp's Sun and Times titles plus its HarperCollins British book business, and other related companies disclosed the payment the first time the company has confirmed how much Brooks received ahead of its expected public market listing in 2012.

The accounts say that an unnamed director received £10.852m as "compensation for loss of office". That money includes "various ongoing benefits" including the funding for the costs of an office in Marylebone for two years, and for the cost of providing her some staff for the same period of time.

It is understood that person is Brooks. A close ally of Rupert Murdoch, who once described her as his "larrikin" mischievous youth she edited the News of the World and the Sun in succession before taking over as chief executive of News International in the summer of 2009.

Brooks will also have "all legal and other professional costs" relating to the various court cases she is fighting paid for by News Corp "until those investigations are concluded" and the company noted that it expected further costs to be incurred, costs not factored in the accounts for the year to 1 July 2012.

The former chief executive is facing three sets of charges in relation to alleged criminality at the News of the World and News International. She has been accused of conspiring with her husband, Charlie, and others to pervert the course of justice and frustrate an investigation by the Metropolitan police into the publisher.

She is also facing two charges in relation to conspiring to intercept the voicemails of individuals including those Milly Dowler. She is also facing a charge in relation to corrupt payments allegedly made to a former Ministry of Defence official for stories, alongside the Sun's former chief reporter John Kay.

The accounts did not say if there was any clawback arrangement to reclaim any money should Brooks be found guilty of a criminal offence relating to her employment. But on the last occasion when reports of the size of her severance circulated, News International sources indicated that money would have to be paid back if a court returned a guilty verdict.

Overall, NI Group, reported a loss of £189.4m after tax although the deficit at Britain's largest newspaper group stemmed largely from £250m worth of charges relating to the closure of the News of the World and legal bills relating to phone hacking and other police investigations.

The company ran up legal bills of £140.9m, redundancy and restructuring costs, relating mainly to the closure of the News of the World, of £29.8m. The £150m sale of its historic Wapping print plant and headquarters also prompted a loss on the disposal of £59m.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Rupert Murdoch is in England today.

Partway through Hackgate, he closed his Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, attempting to ringfence the damage and pretend the criminal culture was limited to one newspaper. He desperately wanted to protect his daily tabloid, The Sun, and even launched a Sunday Sun.

Murdoch's strategy has failed pathetically.

Inevitably.

Yet the Murdoch Crime Family is still lauded by politicians and the powerful.....

Sun's defence editor charged under Operation Elveden

Virginia Wheeler charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, crown prosecution service announces


Lisa O'Carroll
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 January 2013 17.17 GMT


The Sun: Wheeler was paper's first female defence editor and reported from the front line in Libya in 2011

The Sun's defence editor, Virginia Wheeler, has been charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, the crown prosecution service has announced.

A former Metropolitan police officer, Paul Flattley, has also been charged with the same offence, the CPS confirmed on Tuesday morning.

Arrested last March, the 33-year-old Wheeler was the 23rd person to be detained by Scotland Yard as part of Operation Elveden.

She is the Sun's first female defence editor and reported from the front line in Libya in 2011.

Before her promotion to defence editor she had been a Sun reporter and foreign correspondent covering events from Zimbabwe, Mexico, Pakistan and Afghanistan and Haiti. Wheeler is on extended leave from the Sun.

It is alleged that between 25 May 2008 and 13 September 2011, Flattley, who at the time was a serving officer with the Met, was paid at least £4,000 in the form of cheques and £2,450 in cash by the Sun in exchange for information provided in breach of the terms of his employment.

The information provided included material about the death of a 15-year-old, as well as details about both suspects and victims of accidents, incidents and crimes. This included, but was not limited to information about high-profile individuals, the CPS said.

Alison Levitt, QC and principal legal advisor to the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said the decisions to charge Wheeler and Flattley were made following the receipt of a file from Scotland Yard on 17 December 2012.

"All of these matters were considered carefully in accordance with the DPP's guidelines on the public interest in cases affecting the media," Levitt said in a statement.

"This guidance asks prosecutors to consider whether the public interest served by the conduct in question outweighs the overall criminality before bringing criminal proceedings."

Wheeler and Flattley are charged with offences contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977. She has been summonsed to appear before Wesminster magistrates court on 11 February with Flattley due to appear in the same court at a date yet to be determined.

The charges were announced on a day when Rupert Murdoch was in London visiting senior executives on his newspapers.

The alleged offences took place during a period spanning the editorships of both Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and Dominic Mohan, who was appointed editor in September 2009 following Brooks's promotion.

Today's announcement brings the number of people charged under Operation Elveden, the Met's inquiry into inappropriate payments to police and other public officials, to eight.

Earlier this month a senior Scotland Yard detective DCI April Casburn was found guilty of trying to sell information on the phone-hacking investigation being conducted by her colleagues to the News of the World, the tabloid at the centre of the scandal.

In November David Cameron's former spin doctor and former editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, and Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal correspondent were charged in relation to the alleged receipt of information including a royal phone directory known as the "Green book".

Coulson denied the misconduct allegations in relation to payments to officials and said he was "extremely disappointed by this latest CPS decision", vowing to "fight the charges in court".

Brooks and the Sun's chief reporter, John Kay, were also charged on the same day in relation to a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2012.

An employee of the ministry of defence, Bettina Jordan Barber, was also charged in relation to information allegedly provided to the Sun for a series of stories and for payment of approximately £100,000 over a seven-year period between 2004 and 2011.

Misconduct in public office is a common law offence which carries a maximum life sentence. In practice this is rare and 18 months is more likely to be a reference point in court.

[Jan Klimkowski]

The Murdoch Crime Family.

Still there, supping with the powerful and the puppets.

George Osborne and Rupert Murdoch enjoyed private dinner in Mayfair

Boris Johnson and Homeland star Damian Lewis among those who attended recent event at the media mogul's apartment

Lisa O'Carroll
The Guardian, Monday 28 January 2013 20.57 GMT
Jump to comments (198)

George Osborne has become the latest person revealed to have attended a private dinner last week with Rupert Murdoch at the media mogul's apartment in Mayfair.

The dinner demonstrates that the owner of the Sun's political pulling power has not been diminished by criticism in the Leveson report on the future of press regulation that politicians have had an unhealthily close relationship with the press.

Murdoch regularly assembles some of London's elite for dinners, and last Tuesday's event was no different. Described by insiders at News International as a collection of "very interesting people", the dinner was also attended by Boris Johnsonand several NI executives and editors and given a sprinkling of Hollywood stardust with the attendance of the London mayor's fellow Old Etonian, Damian Lewis, star of Homeland a Fox21 production.

A spokesman for the chancellor said: "We are happy to confirm he attended the dinner. It will be declared in the usual way," describing it as a social dinner.

Private meetings with newspaper proprietors are not disallowed under any parliamentary or party rules, but Hacked Off, the group campaigning on behalf of phone-hacking victims for a Leveson law for press regulation, said social occasions like this smacked of "sleazy" deals behind closed doors.

"There is a breathtaking arrogance in the idea that senior Conservative figures can keep up close connections with Rupert Murdoch at the very time the government is meddling with the recommendations of Lord Justice Leveson and the police are investigating Mr Murdoch's company.

"You have to ask George Osborne and Boris Johnson what they think they were doing, dining privately with Mr Murdoch on the very day a senior Sun journalist was charged with bribing a policeman. The mayor is in charge of oversight of the Met police," said Brian Cathcart, director of Hacked Off.

Hacked Off also criticised the government over declarations of meetings with newspaper proprietors. Despite a promise in 2011 to publish a record of meetings every quarter, nothing has been declared since June 2012.

A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said the meetings would be declared "shortly", and the last two quarterly summaries of meetings had been delayed because there had been a reshuffle and it had proved difficult to collect the relevant data. A spokesman for News International refused to comment on the dinner.

Osborne has always been close to NI. He recommended the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who has now been charged with several offences following the inquiry into activities on the paper, as the Tory party's director of communications.

It emerged during the Leveson inquiry that one third of his meetings with newspaper owners between 2005 and 2010 had been with NI executives.

[Jan Klimkowski]

So, we're now in "supergrass" territory.

I wonder who the "insider" is?

Hmmmmm....

Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch hit by 600 fresh claims

Suspect turned informant gives new evidence to Met before parliament vote on newspaper regulation

Lisa O'Carroll, Patrick Wintour, Josh Halliday
The Guardian, Friday 15 March 2013 21.36 GMT

Rupert Murdoch
New phone-hacking allegations at Rupert Murdoch's now closed newspaper News of the World have been made. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Detectives are examining an estimated 600 fresh allegations of phone-hacking incidents at Rupert Murdoch's now closed News of the World on the back of fresh evidence obtained by the Metropolitan police from a suspect turned supergrass.

Further details are expected to emerge on Monday morning at the high court during a hearing relating to the existing litigation by hacking victims against Murdoch's News International (NI) hours before MPs are due to vote on joint Labour and Liberal Democrat amendments that would introduce a backstop law to stiffen regulation of the press.

Sources say Scotland Yard detectives believe they can identify as many as 600 new incidents after obtaining the phone records of an insider who is now being lined up as a crown witness. As a result of the new information, the force's Operation Weeting is revisitng the timetable for concluding its investigation, which had been due to be completed with the conclusion of trials this year. Police now expect their work to continue into 2015.

The 600 new potential litigants fall into three groups: new victims; others who sued over hacking but signed agreements with NI allowing them to sue the company again; and a third group who signed agreements potentially barring them from suing again. The indications are that there may be "some hundreds of new legal actions" from the first two groups.

On Monday the high court will hear formally of at least a dozen settlements out of the 167 civil claims filed last autumn from individuals including Cherie Blair and David Beckham's father, Ted. Blair was one of 170 victims who chose to sue in the high court instead of going through the NI private scheme, which has so far accepted 254 compensation claims.

More than 250 people have sued NI including Jude Law, Sienna Miller and Charlotte Church after they were told by police they were targeted by the paper but the opening of a second line of inquiry into activities at the paper will be a fresh nightmare for Murdoch and NI executives who are busy trying to rebuild the reputation of the company before a demerger of the parent company, News Corp, in June.

Last month there was a fresh wave of arrests of former NoW executives, believed to have been prompted by the new evidence. Three men and three women were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept telephone communications between 2005 and 2006.

Information from the same supergrass also led to the arrests on Thursday of the former editor of the Sunday Mirror, Tina Weaver, and three other former colleagues who were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to hack phones. On Friday, Richard Wallace, former editor of the Daily Mirror and Weaver's partner, was interviewed by police under caution as the crisis at the Mirror Group spread. Scotland Yard said Wallace was not arrested. So far eight former NoW staff, including former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, face charges in relation to allegations of conspiring to hack phones.

The revelations come at the worst possible time for David Cameron as he prepares to battle in parliament to protect the newspaper industry from what he fears is excessive state-backed regulation. MPs and peers are due on Monday to debate legal changes designed to tighten media self-regulation and ensure it is placed on a permanent basis. Labour and the Lib Dems are hoping to defeat the Conservatives with their proposals to introduce a law to strengthen the power of a watchdog to audit the work of a reformed Press Complaints Commission.

Cameron is not currently due to speak in the Commons debate, since the reforms come in the shape of amendments to the crime and courts bill. But the prime minister will face Ed Miliband across the dispatch box during a statement after the conclusion of the European council summit of EU leaders, and may yet be asked by the Speaker to make a Commons statement on why on Thursday he decided to pull the plug on all-party talks to introduce a new system of press regulation.

Cameron is likely to lose, raising questions about his authority and judgment. There were still hopes that he would seek a last-minute deal. Harriet Harman, shadow culture secretary, said: "I hope that even before we get to Monday we will get that cross-party agreement." Aides to Nick Clegg said he was not planning to talk to Cameron before Monday about press regulation, saying his efforts were focused on securing as large a vote as possible amongMPs for a tough system of regulation. Clegg insisted the issue should be seen as above party politics.

Miliband said: "The royal charter we propose would create a new independent voluntary system of self-regulation for the press. It has a code setting out the high ethical standards of the best in British journalism, a complaints procedure which is easily accessible and fair, and real teeth to ensure protection and redress for citizens."

Earlier, Cameron welcomed the move by the other parties towards accepting a royal charter, rather than passing legislation to create a new regulator. He said it was now essential that the matter was brought to a head and could no longer be allowed to "hijack" the rest of the Government's legislative programme.

News International had no comment on allegations of a second hacking operation at the NoW.

It said it still planned to close its compensation scheme, but would continue to consider "meritorious claims".