Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

The top cops were before Parliament today.

Scotland Yard Asst Commissioner John Yates' performance was described the committee chair as "unconvincing".

Which is a generous interpretation.

Met officer John Yates's evidence on phone-hacking inquiry 'unconvincing'

Sue Akers, officer in charge of current investigation, admits police have contacted only 170 of 3,870 suspected victims

Hélène Mulholland, Alan Travis and Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 July 2011 14.47 BST

The Scotland Yard officer who oversaw the review of phone hacking has been accused of giving "unconvincing" evidence to a committee of MPs reviewing the police investigation.

Assistant commissioner John Yates insisted he has no intention of quitting over the affair, despite admitting that it had been "damaging" to the reputation of the police.

Scotland Yard officers carrying out the phone-hacking inquiry, known as Operation Weeting, are examining 11,000 pages of material containing nearly 4,000 names of possible hacking victims. But Yates conceded he had not seen the 11,000 pages and did not know what was in them.

Later in the session, Sue Akers, the Met's deputy assistant commissioner in charge of the current investigation, admitted that her officers had so far contacted only 170 of the 3,870 suspected hacking victims whose details were found in notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was jailed in 2007.

The gruelling session began with a stern warning from Keith Vaz, chair of the home affairs select committee, that witnesses who give false evidence and "persistently mislead a committee may be considered guilty of contempt of the House of Commons".

Yates strongly denied allegations in the New York Times that he was put under pressure not to investigate phone hacking at the News of the World because of fears that the Sunday tabloid would publish details about his personal life.

"I categorically state that was not the case to each and every one of you. I think it's despicable, I think it's cowardly," he told the MPs.

Yates said he had "never, ever, ever" received payment from journalists for information but admitted it was "highly probable" that some of his officers did.

Despite a session that ran over by 20 minutes following a volley of tough questions from MPs, Vaz concluded that Yates's evidence had been "unconvincing" and that he may be called back.

Yates appeared before MPs as Britain's biggest police force attempted to salvage its reputation after it emerged it missed numerous allegedly criminal acts of phone hacking by the News of the World, and that some of its officers allegedly sold information to the paper, which facilitated the hacking of the royal family.

Yates, who became involved in 2009 as the assistant commissioner in charge of specialist operations, acknowledged in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that his decision not to reopen an investigation in 2009 was "pretty crap".

Appearing before MPs, he expressed regret for errors that had been made, but blamed the failure to reopen the investigation on the News of the World's failure to co-operate at the time.

He admitted he did not take fresh legal advice when reviewing the evidence in 2009, and said he had not conducted a review of the original investigation conducted in 2006, but had merely tried to establish whether action was needed in light of revelations made in a Guardian article in 2009. He said the conclusion at the time was that there was no new evidence the police were not previously aware of.

Asked by Vaz if he had considered his position, Yates told him: "If you are suggesting that I should resign for what News of the World has done, I think that is probably unfair."

Pressed again later on whether he thought he would keep his job, Yates insisted this was "not a resignation matter".

In a brief opening statement, he did however tell the committee: "Had I known then what I know now, I would have made different decisions."

He said the Sunday Telegraph article fairly reflected his views on the matter, and he admitted "more could have been done" on his part when he took up the baton.

"I can assure you all that I have never lied and all the information that I've provided to this committee has been given in good faith," he said.

"It is a matter of great concern that, for whatever reason, the News of the World appears to have failed to co-operate in the way that we now know they should have with the relevant police inquiries up until January of this year.

"They have only recently supplied information and evidence that would clearly have had a significant impact on the decisions that I took in 2009 had it been provided to us."

Yates said he was asked to see if there was anything in the Guardian article that merited further investigation. He had just a day to do this.

He conceded in hindsight it was "a poor decision". "But we didn't have the information we should have done."

Yates also admitted he had attended social events with News International executives, but stressed that no investigation was going on at the time.

"I have been absolutely open about that, but the investigation was not open at that time. It was closed ... so I have not been in contact during a live investigation under my oversight, no I haven't."

He was ridiculed by Labour's Steve McCabe, who told him he was not the "dogged, determined sleuth" the MPs were expecting.

Yates had earlier received the backing of the home secretary, Theresa May, who said she had confidence in him and that he was doing a "very good job" as the Metropolitan police's assistant commissioner in charge of counter-terrorism.

Speaking before Yates gave evidence to MPs, May said: "John Yates is in charge of counter-terrorism. He is doing a very good job in that role. I have confidence in John Yates."

She also told a Home Office press briefing that she took any suggestion of corruption in the police very seriously. She had spoken to Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met commissioner, as soon as the allegations emerged last week to satisfy herself that they were being dealt with properly, she said.

"Any officer who is involved in corruption or illegal activity of any sort in any way should be identified and dealt with according to the law," May said.

MPs also heard from Lord Blair, the former Met chief, who said his home and mobile phones were found on lists obtained by detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World. Blair, who stood down as Met police commissioner in late 2008, made the revelation as he gave evidence on the separate issue of the police response to antisocial behaviour.

But he said he had "no evidence" that this phone had been hacked.

Blair told the committee: "What I am aware of is that my mobile and home telephone numbers were within the files that have been examined. I have no evidence and nor, as far I am aware, does Operation Weeting have any evidence to suggest that those phones were hacked."

The former police officer also said an earlier inquiry into phone hacking by the tabloid paper while he was head of Scotland Yard was "not a major issue at the time".

"Never during my period of office, which ended in 2008, did it become a major issue," he said