Big business hacking: report suppressed

[Jan Klimkowski]

None of this came up at the Levison Inquiry did it?

The Leveson Inquiry appears to have chosen to ignore it.

The report was privately supplied to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics in 2012 yet the corruption in other identified industries, including the law, insurance and debt collectors, and among high-net worth individuals, was not mentioned during the public sessions or included in the final report.

We can all read between the lines and discern the deep politics:

The Soca report, which contains "sensitive material" that may be subject to "public-interest immunity" tests effectively banning it from ever being published even if it were disclosed during legal proceedings found private investigators to be experts at "developing and cultivating useful relationships" through "socialising with law enforcement personnel". One particular method identified was to become a member of the Freemasons, which has been repeatedly linked to corruption in the police and judiciary.

Victims of computer hacking identified by Soca who suffered eBlaster Trojan attacks which allowed private investigators to monitor their computer usage remotely include the former British Army intelligence officer Ian Hurst. He was hacked by private investigators working for News of the World journalists who wanted to locate Freddie Scappaticci, a member of the IRA who worked as a double-agent codenamed "Stakeknife".

Meanwhile various shenanigans resulted in the suppression of information about a very senior Met Police Officer whose alleged criminal behaviour is subject to a "Public Immunity Interest" gagging order. See here.

The Met "gagged" the Leveson Inquiry from revealing intelligence that a very senior former police officer passed on sensitive information to the News of the World, the Standard reveals today.

The force claimed a "public interest immunity certificate" to ban the disclosure of a report that alleged the officer was obtaining highly confidential information on decisions taken by Lord Blair when he was Commissioner.
The classified document, which the Met withheld from the Leveson Inquiry until after it could have been usefully raised in the public hearings, suggested the officer who is not named for legal reasons passed the leak on to the tabloid for money.
When it was finally passed to the inquiry, Scotland Yard claimed "public interest immunity" which prevented Lord Justice Leveson from referring to it in public or considering it for the conclusions in his landmark report into inappropriate relationships between the press and police.
Tom Watson, the campaigning Labour MP, said: "These are remarkably serious events uncovered by the Evening Standard. As the Prime Minster has said, this inquiry was supposed to have left no stone unturned but it now appears to have been gagged by the very force it was set up to investigate.
"I'm sure the current Commissioner would wish to urgently review what happened and I will be writing to the Home Secretary Theresa May to ask that she satisfies herself that all seemingly vital documents from the Yard were not withheld from Lord Justice Leveson."
When the Evening Standard asked counsel to the inquiry Robert Jay QC why he did not raise these matters during the public hearings, he broke a 10-month silence and issued an extra-ordinary public statement.
The senior barrister, who was "gatekeeper" to the inquiry and had a huge influence over what evidence was made public, wanted to "make clear" that he and Lord Justice Leveson were "never shown" the intelligence report until "well after" it could have been used.
He added: "The Met is claiming public interest immunity in relation to any police intelligence report, the contents of which are neither confirmed nor denied.
"I also owe continuing obligations of confidence to the Met and others in relation to information I received during the course of the inquiry. These factors have at all stages limited what I am able to place in the public domain, and continue to do so."
A source close to Lord Justice Leveson told the Standard the intelligence report would have been used by the inquiry if the Met had passed it over before Lord Blair gave evidence.
Unable to refer to the intelligence of police corruption at a very senior level, Lord Justice Leveson was forced to publicly clear the Met and found the force conducted itself with "integrity" at all times.
News that the Met successfully gagged a public inquiry investigating its own conduct has raised serious questions that Lord Justice Leveson was unable to deliver the aims of David Cameron when he established the milestone judicial investigation in July 2011.