DPP was warned hacking was rife at Murdoch paper The Independent. Excerpts:
The former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lord Macdonald was warned by his own employees as far back as 2006 that there were a "vast array" of News of the World phone-hacking victims.
Lord Macdonald, who has since been hired by the newspaper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, was sent a memo nearly six months before the reporter Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were convicted, revealing that the charges they were facing related to just a fraction of the potential victims.
However, the hacking investigation was never widened despite pressure on the police and Lord Macdonald, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service at the time, to do so.
In a letter released yesterday, the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith revealed: "The Director [of Public Prosecutions] and I were aware that the particular cases referred to were not isolated examples." Lord Goldsmith said protocol prevented him from speaking to the police, but this did not apply to the Crown Prosecution Service, which Lord Macdonald led at the time, and whose lawyers briefed him on other victims of hacking.
The Met had to reopen its inquiries into criminality by the NOTW in January this year when it became apparent that police and prosecutors had failed to fully investigate the widespread phone hacking by the newspaper five years ago.
Now it's the lawyers' turn to be sucked into the phone-hacking scandal The Guardian UK. Excerpts:
Now it's the turn of lawyers and the legal process to be sucked into the phone-hacking vortex. The Law Society has even suggested justice itself is under threat, implying messages could have been intercepted with the intention of influencing court cases.
Several prominent solicitors fear their mobile phones have been hacked. Some have been formally informed of the risk by police after detectives discovered their numbers among a private investigator's notes.
Graham Shear, of Berwin Leighton Paisner who has represented celebrities such as Robbie Williams and Jude Law, is one of those who has lodged a claim against the News of the World for damages over breach of privacy.
"In January this year I was contacted by senior officers in Operation Weeting [the Metropolitan police inquiry into phone hacking]," Shear said. "They told me that, contrary to what had been said previously, a number of my clients were referred to in documents from [Glenn] Mulcaire's file. My name was among them."
If messages had been intercepted, he said, it would have been a breach of confidential relationship with clients.
The media lawyer Mark Stephens expressed similar anxieties. "I asked [Scotland Yard] if I'd been hacked - they came back to me in 90 minutes and said yes," he told Channel 4 News. "It confirmed my worst suspicions, that I was in Mulcaire's notebook. There is nothing I can do about it, but the important thing is to ascertain which client [was the target] so I can advise them. My concern is for them, not myself."
My favorite Murdoch story to date, courtesy of the Sisters of Sorcha Faal.. Murdoch Threat To Expose Obama As “Christ-Child” Ignites Western Fury Excerpts:
An amazing report circulating in the Kremlin today authored by the Federal Security Service (FSB) states that the ever-growing scandal in the United Kingdom related to the phone-hacking and police bribery claims being made against the global media empire of the man Time Magazine in 2007 called “The Last Tycoon” is, instead, due to the Australian-American billionaire Rupert Murdoch planning to publish a new book claiming that the American President, Barack Obama, is a “direct-line” descendent of Jesus Christ.
First, he was The Anti-Christ. Now he's Christ. Soon, I'm sure, he'll be The Anti-Christ again. Awesome. This is why I'll always love What Does It Mean?. Who else could up the conspriracy ante on the already waaay over the top frenzy that is the Murdoch scandal?
In light of this story, this McCain ad looks a little different, now..
WSJ admits coverage of News Corp hacking scandal was poor Americablog. Excerpts:
The Wall Street Journal "could have done a better job" when it published an interview with proprietor Rupert Murdoch in which he said News Corporation had made only "minor mistakes" in managing the phone-hacking scandal, according to the paper's special editorial committee.
Arrest of ex-Murdoch CEO Rebekah Brooks seals plunge from powerful news exec to public villain
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