Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Today's sizzling update on the soaraway Sins of the Murdoch Empire includes (all alleged of course):

1) Bribing Royal Protection officers - surely a crime worthy of being hung, drawn and quartered by the House of Saxe-Coburg, before one's stinking remains are transported down under:

At least two Scotland Yard protection officers are alleged to have jeopardised the security of the royal family by selling the contact details of the Queen, Prince Charles and their friends and associates to the News of the World.

Sources have told the Guardian that a contacts book was sold for £1,000 to the paper by the officers who were assigned to protect the royal family.

A 2007 report for News International, prepared by a law firm, showed emails in which the purchase of the royals' details was discussed within the Sunday tabloid.

The Guardian understands from sources with knowledge of the 2007 report that a senior executive at the News of the World exchanged emails about the alleged illegal purchase of the contacts book with a senior reporter. It is believed the extensive details in the book allowed the News of the World to hack phones, helped by information passed on by at least two royal protection officers.

The information was only passed by News International to the police in June this year despite the emails and other documentation having been uncovered by an internal NI investigation in 2007.

2) Hacking (and attempting to hack) Gordon Brown's phone and financial records, including the medical records of his severely ill infant son.

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account, his legal file as well as his family's medical records.

There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him.

That investigator also targeted another Labour MP who was the subject of hostile inquiries by the News of the World, but it has not confirmed whether News International was specifically involved in trawling police computers for information on Brown.

Separately, Brown's tax paperwork was taken from his accountant's office apparently by hacking into the firm's computer. This was passed to another newspaper.

Brown was targeted during a period of more than 10 years, both as chancellor of the exchequer and as prime minister. Some of the activity clearly was illegal. Other incidents breached his privacy but not the law. An investigation by the Guardian has found that:

Scotland Yard has discovered references to both Brown and his wife, Sarah, in paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who specialised in phone hacking for the News of the World;

Abbey National bank found evidence suggesting that a "blagger" acting for the Sunday Times on six occasions posed as Brown and gained details from his account;

Brown's London lawyers, Allen & Overy, were tricked into handing over details from his file by a conman working for the Sunday Times;

Details from his infant son's medical records were obtained by the Sun, who published a story about the child's serious illness.

Brown joins a long list of Labour politicians who are known to have been targeted by private investigators working for News International, including the former prime minister Tony Blair and his media adviser Alastair Campbell, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his political adviser Joan Hammell, Peter Mandelson as trade secretary, Jack Straw and David Blunkett as home secretaries, Tessa Jowell as media secretary and her special adviser Bill Bush, and Chris Bryant as minister for Europe.

The sheer scale of the data assault on Brown is unusual, with evidence of attempts to obtain his legal, financial, tax, medical and police records as well as to listen to his voicemail. All of these incidents are linked to media organisations. In many cases, there is evidence of a link to News International.

Scotland Yard recently wrote separately to Brown and to his wife to tell them that their details had been found in evidence collected by Operation Weeting, the special inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World. It is believed that this refers to handwritten notes kept by Mulcaire, which were seized by police in August 2006 and never previously investigated. Brown last year asked Scotland Yard if there was evidence that he had been targeted by the private investigator and was told there was none.

Journalists who have worked at News International say they believe that Brown's personal bank account was accessed on several occasions when he was chancellor of the exchequer. An internal inquiry by Abbey National's fraud department found that during January 2000, somebody acting on behalf of the Sunday Times contacted their Bradford call centre six times, posing as Brown, and succeeded in extracting details from his account.

Abbey National's senior lawyer sent a summary of their findings to the editor of the Sunday Times, John Witherow, concluding: "On the basis of these facts and inquiries, I am drawn to the conclusion that someone from the Sunday Times or acting on its behalf has masqueraded as Mr Brown for the purpose of obtaining information from Abbey National by deception."

Hmm - the part of News International alleged to have engaged in much of this activity is the Sunday Times. Presumably this means the NOTW thought there was no sex or sport in Brown's life.

However, if it was the Sunday Times, and not NOTW, that hacked Brown, then surely this provides huge additional evidence that NI is fundamentally out of control and cannot be considered "fit and proper" to own major parts of the world's media.