Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

New evidence:

Phone hacking approved by top News of the World executive – new files

High court papers lodged by Sienna Miller's lawyers contradict paper's insistence that a single 'rogue' journalist was involved

Nick Davies guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 December 2010 14.05 GMT

Lawyers have secured explosive new evidence linking one of the News of the World's most senior editorial executives to the hacking of voicemail messages from the phones of Sienna Miller, Jude Law and their friends and employees.

In a document lodged in the high court, the lawyers also disclose evidence that the hacking of phones of the royal household was part of a scheme commissioned by the News of the World and not simply the unauthorised work of its former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, acting as a "rogue reporter", as the paper has previously claimed.

The 20-page document, written by Sienna Miller's solicitor Mark Thomson and barrister Hugh Tomlinson, cites extracts from paperwork and other records that were seized by police from the News of the World's private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, in August 2006. The material has now been released to the lawyers on the orders of a high court judge.

The document claims Mulcaire's handwritten notes imply that the news editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, instructed him to intercept Sienna Miller's voicemail and that the operation also involved targeting her mother, her publicist and one of her closest friends as well as her former partner, Jude Law, and his personal assistant. During the operation Mulcaire obtained confidential data held by mobile phone companies in relation to nine different phone numbers, the notes reveal.

The document, which has been released to the Guardian by the high court, suggests that the hacking of the two actors was part of a wider scheme, hatched early in 2005, when Mulcaire agreed to use "electronic intelligence and eavesdropping" to supply the paper with daily transcripts of the messages of a list of named targets from the worlds of politics, royalty and entertainment.

The new evidence explicitly contradicts the account of the News of the World and its former editor, Andy Coulson, who is now chief media adviser to the prime minister. The paper and Coulson have always claimed that the only journalist involved in phone hacking was Clive Goodman, who was jailed with Mulcaire in January 2007. Ian Edmondson is the fourth of Coulson's journalists to be implicated in the affair since Goodman was convicted.

The disclosure is gravely embarrassing for Scotland Yard, which has held the information about the two actors in a large cache of evidence for more than four years and repeatedly failed to investigate it. Last week the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there was no evidence to justify further charges after a Yard inquiry that was specifically tasked not to look at the material gathered in 2006.

Sienna Miller is suing the News of the World's parent company, News Group, and Glenn Mulcaire, accusing them of breaching her privacy and of harassing her "solely for the commercial purpose of profiting from obtaining private information about her and to satisfy the prurient curiosity of members of the public regarding the private life of a well-known individual".

The high court paperwork suggests that a sequence of 11 articles published by the News of the World in 2005-2006 about Sienna Miller and Jude Law used information that had been obtained illegally from their voicemail, exposing their thoughts about having children, their travel plans, an argument between the two of them and their discussions about their relationships with other people. This caused her "extreme concern about her privacy and safety as well as enormous anxiety and distress".

The document says that Sienna Miller suspected her mobile phone was not secure and changed it twice, but Mulcaire's handwritten notes show that he succeeded in obtaining the new number, account number, PIN code and password for all three phones. He obtained similar details that would be necessary for hacking the phone of her close friend Archie Keswick; for three phones belonging to her publicist Ciara Parkes; for Jude Law; and for Law's personal assistant, Ben Jackson. The notes show that Mulcaire gathered other data on Sienna Miller's mother and on Archie Keswick's girlfriend.

The document records that at the trial of Clive Goodman it was revealed that Mulcaire wrote the word 'Clive' in the top left-hand corner of his notes of hacking undertaken on Goodman's behalf. According to the high court document Mulcaire's notes for the hacking of Sienna Miller "in several cases were marked 'Ian' in the top left-hand corner, which the claimant infers to be Ian Edmondson". Edmondson was appointed news editor of the News of the World by Andy Coulson and still holds the job.

The new evidence implies that the targeting of the royal household, which led to the original police inquiry, was specifically commissioned by the News of the World. "In or about January 2005 the News of the World agreed a scheme with Glenn Mulcaire whereby he would, on their behalf, obtain information on individuals relating to the following: 'political, royal and showbiz/entertainment'; and that he would use electronic intelligence and eavesdropping in order to obtain this information. He also agreed to provide daily transcripts."

The News of the World and Scotland Yard have previously claimed that Clive Goodman acted alone, as a "rogue reporter", in hacking the royal phones and that they knew nothing about the interception of any voicemail.

Among those named as targets of this wider scheme are six of the victims identified in the original court case in January 2007 and also Sienna Miller's friend, Archie Keswick. Mulcaire is said to have used "deception or other unlawful means" to obtain confidential data from mobile phone companies, to have intercepted the targets' voicemail and to have provided "transcripts and other details" to the News of the World's journalists.

Scotland Yard will have to explain why it failed to inform Sienna Miller and the other targets of evidence it held about them. The Yard had agreed with the Crown Prosecution Service that it would approach and warn all "potential victims". It will also have to explain why it failed to interview Ian Edmondson, who was also named last month in a separate phone hacking case brought by Nicola Phillips, former assistant to the celebrity PR agent Max Clifford. The judge in that case has ordered Glenn Mulcaire to say whether it was Edmondson who instructed him to intercept her voicemail. Mulcaire has appealed against the order.

Scotland Yard also failed to interview three other journalists who have now been implicated. In the perjury trial in Glasgow of the socialist politician Tommy Sheridan, the jury has been shown handwritten notes in which Glenn Mulcaire recorded Sheridan's mobile phone number and PIN code and wrote the word "Greg" in the top left-hand corner. The court has been told that refers to Greg Miskiw, who was an assistant editor at the News of the World under Andy Coulson.

Last year documents revealed by the Guardian showed that Miskiw had signed a contract with Mulcaire, using an alias, offering him £7,000 to bring in a story about the chief executive of the professional footballers' association, Gordon Taylor, whose voicemail was then intercepted; and that one of Coulson's news reporters, Ross Hindley, had emailed transcripts of 35 intercepted voicemails involving Gordon Taylor for the attention of the chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck. Neither Miskiw, Hindley or Thurlbeck was interviewed by the original inquiry.

The new evidence discloses that it was Neville Thurlbeck who signed the formal contract paying Mulcaire £2,019 a week to work exclusively for the News of the World, and that Ian Edmondson subsequently exchanged emails with Mulcaire about extending it. Questioned at Tommy Sheridan's trial last week, Coulson said that this was "a legitimate contract for legitimate, legal work".

The high court material raises questions about the security of data held by mobile phone companies, whose staff may be tricked or bribed into disclosing it. The lawyers have obtained records from Sienna Miller's phone company, Vodafone, which suggest that in November 2005 Glenn Mulcaire, posing as "John from credit control", tricked staff into changing her PIN code. Vodafone will have to explain why it failed to warn her that her voicemail had been accessed. The company has previously claimed that it warned victims among its customers "as appropriate".

A total of more than 20 journalists who worked for the News of the World have told the Guardian, the New York Times and Channel Four's Dispatches that illegal activity assisted by private investigators was commonplace and well known to executives including Coulson. Coulson has always denied this.

More than 20 public figures are now in the early stages of suing the News of the World and Glenn Mulcaire for breach of privacy. The former deputy prime minister John Prescott and others are seeking a judicial review of Scotland Yard's handling of the case, which may lead to a new inquiry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec...r-evidence