Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

"I didn't know, guv, 'onest. On my old ma's life."

:finger:

The Murdochs have no shame.

Phone hacking: email to James Murdoch was deleted

An email in which James Murdoch was told of allegations that phone hacking was "rife" at the News of the World was deleted from his personal account days before Scotland Yard opened a new investigation into the company.

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent 6:30AM GMT 01 Feb 2012

The chairman of News International was forwarded a chain of emails suggesting that hacking was not restricted to a single rogue reporter. They included one from Colin Myler, the editor of the News of the World at the time, after it emerged that a second journalist had sent an email with details of a hacked conversation. He warned Mr Murdoch that "it is as bad as we feared".

Mr Murdoch claims he did not read the email in full and was unaware of the suggestion that hacking went beyond one "rogue reporter".

Yesterday, however, it was disclosed that the email was deleted from his account by an IT worker at News International 11 days before Scotland Yard launched Operation Weeting.

Mr Myler's copy of the message was also lost from the email server that held News International emails following a "hardware failure". The deletions meant that the email did not form part of the initial evidence sent by News International to the Metropolitan Police.

It was not discovered until last year when a hard copy was found in a box containing material taken from Mr Myler's office following the closure of the News of the World.

The evidence handed over by News International in January 2011 prompted a new investigation into phone hacking that led to 17 arrests.

Many of the arrests include current or former News International employees who have been arrested on the strength of emails and evidence handed to police by the company.

Mr Murdoch was sent the email detailing a hacking claim by Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, on June 7, 2008.

Mr Myler describes Mr Taylor's case against the paper and requests a meeting with Mr Murdoch. The News International chairman replies two minutes later agreeing to the meeting, but has subsequently claimed he had not had time to read the email in full.

Linklaters, a law firm representing News International, has written to the Commons culture, media and sport committee saying that the email was deleted on Jan 15 2011. Operation Weeting began 11 days later.

The deletion is thought to have happened during or shortly after News International's internal trawl of emails, the results of which were passed to the police.

In a letter to the committee, John Turnbull of Linklaters said: "Mr Murdoch's copy of the email was deleted from his mailbox by a member of News International's IT department on Jan 15 2011 as part of [an] email stabilisation and modernisation programme.

"Mr Myler's copy of the email was lost from the email archive system in a hardware failure that occurred on Mar 18 2010. The email archive system was subject to many such incidents."

A spokesman for News International declined to comment. In a separate letter to the committee, Mr Murdoch said: "I wish to confirm again that I was not aware of evidence of widespread wrongdoing and did not seek to conceal it."

Last month, News International was accused of a "cover-up" of phone hacking evidence by a High Court judge after lawyers for phone hacking victims said the company had deleted emails.

Mr Justice Vos told the company he had seen evidence that raised "compelling questions about whether you concealed, told lies, actively tried to get off scot free."