Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Lookie here - Rupert flies in, fires a "rogue reporter", and the famed Murdoch lackeys start feeding selective evidence - "a few emails" - to the rozzers.

It was him, guv. Honest.

Rook to King 8.

Whilst the goon squads slide through the shadows, provoking a shiver here, a shock there.....

Met police reopen investigation into phone hacking at News of the World

Murdoch tabloid gives 'significant new evidence' to Scotland Yard as senior newsman Ian Edmondson is sacked

Vikram Dodd, James Robinson and Nicholas Watt guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 January 2011 21.46 GMT

Scotland Yard reopened its investigation into phone hacking today four years after the only convictions in the case after the News of the World passed on "significant new information" alleged to implicate one of the paper's top executives in the practice.

Shortly afterwards the paper announced that it had sacked its assistant editor (news), Ian Edmondson. This came hard on the heels of the arrival in London of its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, said to be in town to deal with both the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed the paper and his corporation's bid to take complete control of BSkyB.

The sacking, and the new police investigation, come after 18 months of Guardian reports into allegations of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World.

Until shortly before Christmas the paper had always alleged that only one rogue reporter and a private investigator were involved in the practice, and the police had repeatedly insisted that there was no evidence available to link any other News Corporation employees with hacking.

Tonight a source close to the new police investigation said the latest evidence passed to the Metropolitan police so far amounted to only a small number of emails, although detectives believe there may be many more.

"It's hard to believe these are the only ones. There may be a shedload of shit still to come," said one source.

Part of the fresh police inquiry will look at whether this new evidence should have been uncovered by the original investigation, undertaken by the Met's former assistant commissioner Andy Hayman. Some officers are understood to feel that Hayman's team did not investigate sufficiently thoroughly at the time.

Last night a senior Tory launched a strong attack on the police for failing to carry out a proper investigation of the phone-hacking allegations the first time around.

John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture select committee which last year accused News International of "collective amnesia" over the allegations expressed astonishment that the Yard had finally decided to act, given the evidence in a range of documents in its possession for the last five years.

"I find it utterly extraordinary that the police have been sitting on these documents for five years and did absolutely nothing about them," Whittingdale said.

"I think they generally accepted News International's excuse that there was just one rogue reporter. But the police were sitting on documents that implicate Ian Edmondson and they did not question him."

Whittingdale said today's dramatic developments also raised questions for Andy Coulson, who announced his resignation as the Downing Street communications director last week, and Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive.

The announcement by the Yard came just a few hours after David Cameron endorsed the director of public prosecutions' separate decision earlier this week to widen inquiries.

The prime minister told MPs: "Let me be absolutely clear: phone hacking is wrong and illegal, and it is quite right that the director of public prosecutions is reviewing all the evidence, which should be followed wherever it leads.

"I do not think it is necessarily fair to say the police have not been active after all, there have been prosecutions, convictions, and indeed imprisonments but the law is quite clear and the prosecuting authorities should follow it wherever it leads."

News International indicated that it had acted after an internal investigation, which involved a trawl through Edmondson's emails, allegedly revealed correspondence relating to hacking.

A source close to the investigation said the emails could be interpreted as showing Edmondson was aware of phone hacking and came in evidence from Burton Copeland, a firm of solicitors hired to carry out the investigation, on Monday morning.

The new police investigation will be lead by deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, who is a specialist in tackling organised criminal gangs. Scotland Yard has decided to transfer the investigation from the specialist operations division, led by John Yates, to the specialist crime directorate.

Yard insiders say Yates's replacement is not a sign of his having failed. Rather, he is acting as deputy commissioner and heads the Yard's counter-terrorism operation at a time when the threat level is severe roles more deserving of his time than chasing a tabloid over allegations of phone hacking.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan...-by-police

Luv that desperate spin attempting to save Yates' trashed reputation...

[Paul Rigby]

Sky has done-in its own leading faces of football, Andy Gray and Richard Keys. The former, by sheerest coincidence, was among those who had launched legal action against the News of the World's industrial-scale phone-hacking:

SO, WAS SKY PUNDIT ANDY GRAY THE TARGET OF A CONSPIRACY?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...gises.html

Conspiracy theorists are having a field day trying to piece together the extraordinary chain of events in which Andy Gray became embroiled.

Many of those who regularly saw him on their TV screens will be unaware that the 55-year-old pundit for Sky Sports (owned by BSkyB) is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the News Of The World (owned by News International).

And this connection has been seized upon on Twitter and the blogosphere. One Tweet reads Andy Gray sues New (sic) of the World for phone tapping. Sexist tapes (mostly recorded by Sky) leaked. Coincidence?' while a blog has been written entitled Rupert Murdoch, phone-tapping and revenge against Gray'.

The current dilemma the presenter found himself in comes against a background of heavyweight political and financial interests.

For the News Of The World is a subsidiary of 79-year-old Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation which has a 39 per cent stake in BSkyB and is currently trying to buy the rest.

This is clearly a sensitive issue politically and in the week Mr Murdoch flew into London the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is considering whether to refer the deal to the Competition Commission because it might threaten media plurality'.

But that is not Mr Gray's concern. His anger is because, he claims, his phone was hacked by the News Of The World and, along with the comedian and actor Steve Coogan, he is trying to find out who was involved.

Both he and Coogan want Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective at the centre of the case, to name those at the Sunday newspaper who allegedly accessed their mobile phone voicemail and to whom the information was passed.

Mulcaire, who was jailed for six months for hacking into the phones of members of the Royal household. A full hearing for the case is scheduled for November this year.

To some, it seems a tad suspicious that just as the phone hacking story reaches a crescendo - with the resignation of David Cameron's spokesman Andy Coulson - these TV recordings should mysteriously find their way into the public domain. What makes the leaks all the more surprising is that News Corp is known for its corporate discipline.

In the initial tapes, leaked to the Mail on Sunday, Gray and fellow presenter Richard Keys were recorded agreeing that a female football official would need the offside rule explaining to her because she was a woman.

Then came footage released by Sky showing Gray making disparaging remarks about a female match official. The fact it was put out by his own broadcaster begs the question of who, if anyone, high up gave the nod that this should happen.

But being targeted by his own side' should come as no surprise to the former Scotland player.

Four years ago The Sun (owned by News International) ran a piece about the drunken antics' of love rat Gray, 50 - who last year got engaged to a friend's wife' in La Manga, Spain. Just in case readers were in any doubt as to which Andy Gray this may be the piece helpfully added Gray, paid a whopping £20,000 a week by Sky Sports'.

They also brought up the former player's past and the fact that he bedded ex-model Rachel Lewis even though her hubby Michael, 57, had been his friend for more than 30 years. Gray then asked Rachel to marry him'.

Time will tell as to what further twists and turns lie ahead in this bewildering tale.

[David Guyatt]

Bloody good point Paul.

I had wondered who was responsible in the Sky studio for accidentally on purpose recording both their off-air comments and then releasing them to the hyenas to immediately hit number 1 spot in the Scottish album charts. And why.

That's cleared that puzzle up then.

[David Guyatt]

Met say "no stone will be left unturned" in new "robust" phone hacking investigation that "will restore confidence".

:pointlaugh::pointlaugh::pointlaugh:

So, it is a PR exercise.

Rendered out of newspeak into common parlance it simply means that yes, heads will roll. But the "governing mind" is home free. Once again the Dirty Digger escapes the "short-reach" of the Rozzers Plc.

Phone hacking: police promise 'robust' investigation
Met chief says 'no stone will be left unturned' as he defends decision not to reopen News of the World inquiry 18 months ago

James Robinson and Vikram Dodd
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 27 January 2011 14.52 GMT


Phone-hacking inquiry: Scotland Yard said it would 'leave no stone unturned'.

The head of the Metropolitan police said today that "no stone will be left unturned" in the fresh investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking allegations announced yesterday, four years after the initial convictions in the case.

Speaking at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority in London's City Hall this morning, acting commissioner Tim Godwin promised a "robust investigation" that "will restore the confidence for those victims who feel we have not given them the service (they deserve)".

Godwin was forced to defend the Met's decision not to reopen the case 18 months ago, however, in the face of criticism from MPA members.

Scotland Yard announced a new criminal inquiry yesterday after the paper passed it "significant new information".

The new information passed by the News of the World to the police is believed to consist of four emails retrieved from a computer belonging to Ian Edmondson, the News of the World's assistant editor (news), who was sacked by the paper on Tuesday following an internal inquiry.

Scotland Yard previously rejected repeated demands to re-examine evidence and reopen the case, however, despite a series of revelations in the Guardian and the New York Times about the extent of the practice at the paper.

MPA member Jenny Jones, a Green party member of the London Assembly, told acting assistant commissioner John Yates who also at City Hall today he had "got quite tetchy" at a previous hearing when asked why he had decided not reopen the case sooner.

Yates reviewed the phone-hacking evidence in July 2009 after the Guardian revealed the paper's owner, News Group, had paid about £1m in out-of-court settlements to victims of hacking, including PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor, to settle privacy cases. He decided the case should remain closed.

Jones accused Yates of having a "disregard for our questions" and characterised his response to criticisms levelled at the police as: "Don't worry your pretty little heads about that. We are the experts."

Yates responded: "If I did appear tetchy it was because I was expected to act on facts that were not in any way able to be developed into evidence. I was being asked to act on rumour, innuendo and gossip."

He concluded in less than 24 hours that there was not sufficient evidence to reopen the phone-hacking case, which resulted in jail terms in 2007 for Clive Goodman, a former royal editor at the News of the World, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper.

Both men pleaded guilty to illegally intercepting voicemails belonging to members of the royal household. The paper said they had acted alone and without the knowledge of executives at the paper, including Andy Coulson, who resigned as editor when Goodman was jailed.

Coulson resigned as David Cameron's director of communications last week saying coverage of phone hacking made it impossible for him to do his job.

"I have always said we will respond to any new evidence and that is exactly what we have done today. This is the first significant new evidence that may have a chance of being admissible. We have set up a new team to deal with that and we need to let them get on with it," Yates said today.

"This is the first time we have announced a new investigation with new material where there is a prospect of developing some promising lines of inquiry," he added.

Yates said "the original investigation was constructed with the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service]", prosecutors had "access to all the material" and the scale of the prosecution was a matter for the CPS.

The emails sent by Edmondson are rumoured to contain the names of other News of the World executives, although the paper has not confirmed this.

Jones also questioned Godwin and Yates about the close ties between the police and News of the World journalists and demanded to know how often senior officers and reporters at the paper were in contact.

"Coffee, lunch, dinner, dance it would be useful to have that [information]," Jones said.

"We need to understand your motives," she added. "How can we be sure there is no fear or favour in the way the investigation is moving?"

Godwin replied: "I haven't had any meetings with the News of the World. I would be the last person to bow to pressure to drop the case."

Yates said: "News International is a big beast and we have a lot of dealings with them every week, so don't be surprised if there are meetings."

Godwin said the new investigation, which will be carried out by deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, will leave "no stone unturned".

Akers is a specialist in tackling organised criminal gangs. The commissioner said that this decision was "not a reflection" of Yates's personal performance, but a reflection of the need to keep the division focused on counter-terrorism activities at a time of increased threats.

Executives at the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch's News International, are struggling to contain a crisis that now threatens to engulf the whole of Fleet Street.

A number of public figures are threatening to sue other red-top papers over the actions of reporters who allegedly hacked into their voicemails, according to Mark Lewis, a solicitor acting for several claimants.

Murdoch is in London this week and is understood to have taken charge of the group's handling of the affair at a sensitive time. He is also in town as the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, considers whether to approve a bid by Murdoch's global media conglomerate News Corp to take full control of BSkyB.

The prime minister's official spokesman said today that David Cameron will not be meeting with or speaking to Murdoch while he is in the country.

Former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Fowler, who chairs the House of Lords communications committee, today called for "a full-scale inquiry" into the phone-hacking affair.

A report into phone hacking published by the Commons culture select committee in February 2010 concluded that News International was guilty of "collective amnesia" over the affair.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Fixed the rancid cliches:

The head of the Metropolitan Police said today that "all stones left unturned have been buried in the foundations of London's Olympic stadium and will remain there" as the non-investigation into the News of the World phone-hacking allegations was passed to some fresh, young, destined for the top, lackey yesterday, four years after the Met first failed to act.

Speaking at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority in London's City Hall this morning, acting commissioner Tim Godwin promised a "robust whitewash" that "will protect the rights of News International to hack anyone they bloody well like", and denied that Murdoch journos held compromising evidence on the extra-curricular activities of Scotland Yard's finest and leading Westminster politicians.

[Paul Rigby]

[David Guyatt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlVtZfgc4cU

"Verdammt ausgezeichnetes!"

Overheard on this forum.

[Magda Hassan]

Phone hacking: the next turn of the screw

Senior executive sacked as police launch new inquiry
By Cahal Milmo and Oliver Wright

Thursday, 27 January 2011

[URL="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/phone-hacking-the-next-turn-of-the-screw-2195607.html?action=Popup"]
[/URL] AP
The News of the World yesterday fired senior executive Ian Edmondson after an internal investigation into phone hacking

Rupert Murdoch's News International yesterday conceded that the phone-hacking scandal went to the heart of Britain's top-selling newspaper, announcing that it had sacked a senior editor at the News of the World and passed to police what investigators described as "significant new information". The fresh evidence is thought to include emails which could implicate other executives.
Scotland Yard immediately announced a new investigation into the damaging allegations, which have seen NOTW journalists accused of systematically accessing the voicemails of public figures and sparked criticism of police for their failure to question key staff at the newspaper, including the former editor Andy Coulson, during four years of supposed inquiries. Mr Coulson resigned as David Cameron's spokesman on Friday because of the clamour surrounding the hacking claims. In a move that will be seen as the start of a new attempt by News International to draw a line under the affair, the company said it had dismissed Ian Edmondson, the paper's assistant editor (news) and part of Mr Coulson's inner circle, who was suspended in December after he was linked to the activities of Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective jailed for hacking the phones of Prince William's aides.
Sources said a trawl of Mr Edmondson's emails dating back nearly six years had found a dossier of "highly damaging evidence" which has been passed to the Yard. The Independent understands that detectives will scrutinise the information from thousands of messages found on the machine for any indication that Mr Edmondson or other figures at the newspaper were responsible for instructing Mr Mulcaire to target the phones of celebrities and politicians prior to 2006.
Related articles

• Police promise 'no stone unturned' in hacking inquiry
  
• Ian Burrell: So much for the theory of a 'rogue reporter'
  
• Oliver Wright: New light is shed on the timing of Coulson's exit
  
• BSkyB profits leap by 26% to £520m
  

Last night lawyers representing Mr Edmondson did not respond to requests for a comment, but it is believed that he may have evidence implicating other executives on the paper.
In a statement, News International said: "The News of the World has terminated the employment of Ian Edmondson... Material evidence found during the course of the subsequent investigation has led to [his] dismissal. News International has informed the police [and] handed over the material it has found."
The sacking of one of Mr Coulson's most trusted tabloid attack dogs represents a dramatic change in the stance of News International, which as recently as this month was maintaining its stance that the hacking was restricted to a single "rogue reporter" in the shape of the former royal editor Clive Goodman, who was imprisoned along with Mr Mulcaire. Both men were paid money by the NOTW after their convictions, and neither has spoken out.
Downing Street insisted last night that the new police inquiry was a "complete surprise" to Mr Cameron. It was unclear whether Mr Coulson, who has always denied knowledge of the phone hacking, had been aware of developments at his former employer.
Mr Edmondson, who was hired by the newspaper in November 2004 under Mr Coulson's editorship, was effectively No 3 on the newspaper and part of a select group who would discuss the most sensitive stories with the editor.
Mr Murdoch is said to be furious at the failure of his managers to end the hacking scandal. His company's volte-face comes just days after he cancelled his trip to the Davos World Economic Forum and arrived at News International's Wapping headquarters to hold crisis talks with senior staff, including the chief executive and former NOTW editor Rebekah Brooks.
The meeting coincided with the drawing up of a strategy to end the damage being caused by the affair, which has led to at least 20 alleged hacking victims from the comedian Steve Coogan to the former deputy prime minister John Prescott bringing proceedings in the High Court. Legal experts have said they expect News International to seek rapid settlement in many of the cases, which have seen payouts as high as seven figures to the publicist Max Clifford and Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.
The new Yard investigation will be subjected to fierce external scrutiny after strong criticism of its original inquiry in 2006, during which detectives seized thousands of documents from Mulcaire's home detailing his hacking operations against at least 91 people.
Subsequent disclosure of some of these documents in civil cases has revealed the names of at least two NOTW editors, including Mr Edmondson, who commissioned the private detective. But officers failed to question anyone at the paper apart from Mr Goodman.
The Labour MP Tom Watson urged the Director of Public Prosecutions to order an "urgent investigation" by an outside force into the Yard's handling of the affair, saying evidence against the police could amount to "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice". A CPS review of existing evidence in the case is expected to be completed in March.
In a move interpreted as a tacit admission that the investigation had been mishandled, the Yard said the inquiry would no longer be overseen by its counter-terrorism command, headed by acting deputy commissioner John Yates. It will be handled instead by the specialist crime directorate.
Ed Miliband, Leader of the Opposition, said: "I think it would be good for the journalism profession if this is sorted out and people get to the bottom of who did what and anybody who's done something wrong gets punished."
Yates removed from case
The announcement of the third police investigation into phone hacking will cause as much discomfort in New Scotland Yard as it will in Wapping.
It will be seized on as evidence that the Met did not want to destroy a mutually beneficial relationship with the News of the World. A number of the paper's scoops have led to investigations and convictions by the Yard.
The decision to take responsibility for the inquiry away from John Yates and hand it to Sue Akers, a deputy assistant commissioner of the Met's specialist crime directorate, was being seen as an admission of failure.
But senior officers say this is unfair. The force obtained convictions against Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire at a time when Mr Yates and the counter-terrorism command which he headed were tied up dealing with Islamic extremism.
Last night, the Yard said it was this consideration rather than any rebuke of Mr Yates or his officers that had prompted the change.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cri...95607.html

[David Guyatt]

The anticipated "Night of the Long Knives" has begun as the Dirty Digger plays CYA.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Sources said a trawl of Mr Edmondson's emails dating back nearly six years had found a dossier of "highly damaging evidence" which has been passed to the Yard. The Independent understands that detectives will scrutinise the information from thousands of messages found on the machine for any indication that Mr Edmondson or other figures at the newspaper were responsible for instructing Mr Mulcaire to target the phones of celebrities and politicians prior to 2006.


Last night lawyers representing Mr Edmondson did not respond to requests for a comment, but it is believed that he may have evidence implicating other executives on the paper.

In a statement, News International said: "The News of the World has terminated the employment of Ian Edmondson... Material evidence found during the course of the subsequent investigation has led to [his] dismissal. News International has informed the police [and] handed over the material it has found."

The sacking of one of Mr Coulson's most trusted tabloid attack dogs represents a dramatic change in the stance of News International, which as recently as this month was maintaining its stance that the hacking was restricted to a single "rogue reporter" in the shape of the former royal editor Clive Goodman, who was imprisoned along with Mr Mulcaire. Both men were paid money by the NOTW after their convictions, and neither has spoken out.

Black Knight to Queen 6 - Murdoch lackeys send a pile of "highly damaging" emails incriminating Edmondson alone to the Met Police.

White Rook to Bishop 7 - Edmondson reveals existence of "devastating material" in his possession, proving senior Murdoch executives were always in the loop.

Black Queen to Rook 8 Check - Edmondson is found dressed in latex, hanging from from a beam with a noose round his neck, a tangerine in his mouth - a smiling death rictus through smeared purple lipgloss. The rozzers declare it accidental suicide, but they'd quite like to speak to an albino couple with an interest in bondage if that isn't too much trouble.



If Mr Edmondson is a wise man, he should be making multiple copies of his evidence and scattering them across both the real and virtual worlds....