Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

The top cops accuse the Murdoch empire of prevarication, lies and obstruction.

A "fit and proper" company? Clearly not.

However, surely if a detective suspects that their investigation is being obstructed and they are being lied to, then the obstructive liars should be the focus of renewed questioning and investigation.

What did Scotland Yard do?

Top copper Andy Hayman declared that his investigative team had "left no stone unturned", and there was no evidence of widespread wrongdoing.

Hayman quit the Met in 2008, and shortly afterwards started writing articles for News International.


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Some quotes:

Asst Commissioner John Yates:

The assistant commissioner said News International had "clearly misled us", meaning that police could not appreciate the "scope and scale" of the hacking.

"They simply did not provide us with evidence at the time," he said.

Asked if he had ever been paid by journalists, Mr Yates said: "That's an amazing question - and I have never, ever, ever received any payment of that sort."

But he said some corruption in the Metropolitan police was inevitable: "We're an organisation of 50,000 people, we have always said from time immemorial that some of those 50,000 people will be corrupt and accept payments."

Former Deputy Asst Commissioner Peter Clarke:

The retired officer also accused News International of "prevarication and lies" and said it "deliberately tried to thwart the criminal investigation".

"Very little material" was given to police by the company, said Mr Clarke.

"We were unable to spread the inquiry further with News International because of their refusal to co-operate more broadly."

Former Asst Commissioner Andy Hayman:

Mr Hayman, who was in overall command of the original inquiry, supported his colleagues and reiterated their view that the original hacking inquiry did all it could with the information it was able to obtain.

"Everything we could do within the resources and parameters of investigation was done", he said.

But he also admitted that in hindsight the decision not to spend more time on the case appeared "lame".

Mr Hayman also confirmed that he had gone for dinner with News International employees during the investigation, but denied he was ever in its "back pocket".

He said the meetings were "business-like" and that he was always accompanied by the Met's head of communications.

The dinners were before the arrests of News of the World journalists Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, said Mr Hayman, who denied that he went into any operational details during the meetings.

Mr Hayman also defended himself against an assertion that the public would see him as a "dodgy geezer".

He quit the force in 2008 amid controversy over his expenses claims and started writing for the Sunday Times - another News International title - only two months later.

He told the committee he had always been interested in journalism and had been approached by several papers with offers of work. However, he admitted the decision to work for a Murdoch newspaper may have been "naive".

"Looking back at it, you might say they're part of the same stable", he said.

"But I just didn't see that. I was seen by the editor and deputy editor and I didn't know them from Adam."