Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Yet more alleged collusion between the Murdoch Empire and Scotland Yard.

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.