Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal
This article provides a narrative beginning in 1999 of investigations by the
By 2002, the practice by news media organizations of
As this illegal activity became apparent,
Allegations were made of poor judgement and cover-up by news media executives and law enforcement officials. As a result, additional
The Metropolitan Police conducted several investigations between 1999 and 2011. The first three investigations, involving phone taps and seizure of records, successfully gathered large quantities of evidence that confidential information was being acquired illegally, sometimes with the help of public officials including policemen. By 2006,
While continuing to investigate illegal acquisition of confidential information, the Met itself became the object of several investigations about the diligence of its probes and possible involvement of its own personnel in illegal activities. After the scope of the phone hacking scandal became generally known in July 2011, the top two officials of the Met resigned. The new Met leadership augmented the ongoing investigations with the unusual measure of bringing in an independent police organization to help.
Investigations by the Metropolitan Police
Operation Nigeria (1999)
From at least the 1990s, private investigator
In response, and because Rees was also suspected in the 1987 murder of his former partner, the Met's anti-corruption squad CIB3 ran Operation Nigeria. It involved tapping Rees' phone at his agency, Southern Investigations, from April to September 1999 to obtain evidence about the murder and about whether confidential information was being acquired illegally by police and/or reporters. Recorded telephone conversations revealed that Alex Marunchak of News of the World was a regular customer of the agency. It was determined that Rees was purchasing information from improper sources, but no evidence became public that Marunchak or other journalists had committed criminal offences or that they were aware of how Rees acquired the information. The bugging operation ended when it was learned that Rees was planning to plant drugs on a woman so that her husband, Rees' client, could win custody of their child.[6] Rees and others whose voices were recorded during Operation Nigeria (including Austin Warnes, Duncan Hanrahan, Martin King, Tom Kingston, Sid Fillery) were successfully prosecuted and sentenced to jail for various offenses unrelated to illegal acquisition of confidential information.[5]
Rees and another private investigator, Sid Fillery, who later became Rees' partner at Southern Investigations, were under suspicion for the 1987 murder of
The Met handled this apparent attempt by agents of News of the World to interfere with a murder inquiry by having informal discussions with Rebekah Brooks, then editor for News of the World. "Scotland Yard took no further action, apparently reflecting the desire of Dick Fedorcio, who had a close working relationship with Brooks, to avoid unnecessary friction with the News of the World."[8] Fedorico was Director of Public Affairs and Internal Communication for the Met.
As of July 2011, Cook and his wife were believed to be preparing a legal action against the News of the World, Marunchak, Miskiw and Mulcaire.[8] Marunchak was also identified by BBC as the News of the World executive who had arranged for someone to plant a Trojan on the computer of a former British intelligence NCO, Ian Hurst.
In 2000, Rees was sentenced to seven years in prison and served five. Upon release in 2005, he resumed his private investigative work for News of the World, where Andy Coulson by that time had succeeded Rebekah Brooks as editor. Coulson has maintained in evidence given to parliament and under oath in court that he did not know anything about illegal activity during the seven years he spent near or at the top of the News of the World.[5]
No one was charged with illegal acquisition of confidential information as a result of Operation Nigeria. According to Nick Davies, reporter for The Guardian, the Met collected hundreds of thousands of documents during the investigations into Jonathan Rees over his links with corrupt officers and over his alleged murder of Daniel Morgan. Although charges of murder against Rees were dismissed in 2011, Mr. Davies believes these "boxloads" of paperwork "could include explosive new evidence of illegal news-gathering by the News of the World and other papers."[9][10]
Operation Glade (2003)
For years, private investigators in addition to Rees were plying the lucrative trade in illegally acquired confidential information.[11] The specialty of John Boyall's agency, Liberty Resources & Intelligent Research Limited, was acquiring information from confidential databases. Boyall's assistant was Glenn Mulcaire until the autumn of 2001, when News of the World's assistant editor, Greg Miskiw, attracted Mulcaire away by giving him a full-time contract to do work for the newspaper.[5]
Boyall eventually attracted the attention of the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), which is not a police organization but an independent authority with a mandate to "uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals."[12]
With the assistance of the Devon & Cornwall police, the ICO raided Boyall's premises in November 2002.[13] Documents seized there led the ICO to yet another private investigator, Steve Whittamore, who, with his wife, ran JJ information Limited. In March 2003, Whittamore's premises were raided under what was by then dubbed Operation Motorman.[14] Documents from this raid established that confidential information was illegally acquired from telephone companies, the Driving & Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Police National Computer.[13] It was reported that "media, especially newspapers, insurance companies and local authorities chasing council tax arrears all appear in the sales ledger of the dodgy agency."[13] Prices were clearly established: "Ex-directory telephone numbers cost [a] Hampshire detective £40, and he sold them on for £70. A vehicle check cost £70, and customers were charged £150. And so on."[13]
In May 2006, the ICO issued a report titled "What price privacy?" Afterward, they received a request under the Freedom of Information Act "for further information about the publications that the 305 journalists were employed by and a breakdown of their activity." Some information was provided to the requester, and a follow-up report was issued by the ICO in December 2006 titled "What price privacy now?"[15]" However, much of the information obtained through Operation Motorman has never been released to the public. As recently as September 2011, the ICO declined to release information under another Freedom of Information Act request.[16]
Many people were involved in the illegal trafficking of confidential information. Paul Marshall, a former civilian communications officer based at Tooting police station in London, provided confidential police information to Alan King, a retired police officer, who passed it along to Boyall, who gave it to Whittamore, who in turn sold it to agents of news media organizations.
Although there was evidence of many people being engaged in illegal activity, relatively few were questioned. Operation Motorman's lead investigator said in a 2006 inquiry that "his team were told not to interview journalists involved. The investigator...accused authorities of being too 'frightened' to tackle journalists."[19]
Learning that Whittamore was obtaining information from the police national computer, the Information Commissioner contacted the Metropolitan Police, then headed by Commissioner Ian Blair with Deputy Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson second in command. In response, the Met's anti-corruption unit initiated Operation Glade.[5]
Whittamore had kept detailed records of his transactions with his clients, including the
Between February 2004 and April 2005, the
According to Nick Davies of The Guardian, the illegal acquisition was not limited to the rich and powerful and the prosecution was inadequate.[14]
Documents seized from Stephen Whittamore's home in 2003 included "more than 13,000 requests for confidential information from newspapers and magazines."[5][21] There is no indication that a significant portion of this was evaluated by the police as potential evidence against other persons. It was not until February 2011, when Mr Justice Geoffrey Vos ordered the disclosure of this material in response to the phone hacking claim being brought by the politician George Galloway, that any significant release of the seized material was made.[22]
The Royal Household / Goodman inquiry (2006)
In November 2005, within months of the guilty pleas resulting from Operation Glade, the Metropolitan Police Service was notified of irregularities with the telephone voicemails of members of the royal household. By January 2006, Scotland Yard determined there was an "unambiguous trail" to Clive Goodman, the News of the World royal reporter, and to Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who was contracted to do work for the paper." The voicemail of one royal aide had been accessed 433 times.[23]
The Met's counter-terrorism group, then led by assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, had responsibility for the security of the royal family and was charged with making the investigation.[24] There was concern about diverting resources to this effort because of the demands of other priorities, including following up on the 2005 London transit bombings and surveillance operations on possible bomb plotters.[23]
On August 8, 2006, detectives from the Met went to News of the World with a search warrant to search Clive Goodman's desk. They reportedly faced resistance in the newspaper's lobby from executives and lawyers for the paper over searching the newsroom as two veteran reporters stuffed documents into trash bags and removed them. As it happened, detectives limited their search to Goodman's desk.[23]
At the same time, police raided the home of Glenn Mulcaire and seized "11,000 pages of handwritten notes listing nearly 4,000 celebrities, politicians, sports stars, police officials and crime victims whose phones may have been hacked."[25][26] The names included eight members of the royal family and their staff.[26] There were "dozens of notebooks and two computers containing 2,978 complete or partial mobile phone numbers and 91 PIN codes; at least three names of other News of the World journalists; and 30 tape recordings made by Mulcaire.[23] In the upper-left-hand corner of each document page was the name of the reporter or editor Mulcaire was helping.[26] Also seized was a recording of Mulcaire instructing a journalist how to hack into private voice mail, particularly easy if the phone's factory settings for privacy had not been changed.[26]
The records also included a transcript of voice mail messages between Professional Football Association's Gordon Taylor and his legal adviser, Jo Anderson. This document was titled "Transcript for Neville" and is alleged to have been for Neville Thurlbeck, another reporter for News of the World. The email appeared to indicate that use of illegal interception of voice mail messages was being used at News of the World by more than just Clive Goodman. Met detectives did not then question Thurlbeck or any other News of the World journalist or executive as part of their investigation.[27][28][29] This may have been in part because of the Met's relationship with the press.[23]
The Met's investigation under Hayman stayed narrowly focused on the victims in the royal household and a few other victims on a short "target list" obtained during the Mulcaire raid.[26] Hayman had seen but had not acted upon a much longer list that was 8 to 10 pages in length, single-spaced, that "read like a British society directory."[23] The five other victims that were included in the indictment of Mulcaire were notified about violation of privacy. Of the thousands of people who may also have been victims, the Met decided to notify only those that were members of the government, police, military, or otherwise of national-security concern. Politician George Galloway was notified by a detective on 24 August 2006 that his voicemail had been hacked and advised to change his PIN code to prevent re-occurrence. Galloway asked who had accessed his phone messages, but the detective refused to tell him.[23]
Hayman's investigation also stayed narrowly focused on the activities of Goodman and Mulcaire.[26] No News of the World executives or reporters other than Goodman were questioned about phone hacking until Operation Weeting was initiated more than four years later.[30]
Met officials consulted with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) headed by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Ken Macdonald about the best general way to proceed with the investigation and prosecution. The Met did not disclose all available evidence to senior CPS prosecutors at this time, reportedly omitting documents indicating that reporters in addition to Clive Goodman appeared to have been using Mulcaire's services.[23] The CPS appears to have provided some rationale to the Met for limiting the investigation by initially advising that "phone hacking was only an offence if messages had been intercepted before they were listened to by the intended recipient."[31] In fact, the hacking was illegal under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act regardless of whether messages had already been listened to by their intended recipient even if it was not illegal under the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. The precise nature of the guidance given by CPS to the Met became the subject of public disagreement between them in 2011, at which time it was noted, among other things, that the charges brought against Goodman and Mulcaire included counts where there was no evidence provided regarding whether messages had already been heard or not.[32]
Goodman and Mulcaire were arrested in August 2006.[33][34] During their court proceedings, a small number of other victims of Mulcaire's phone hacking were mentioned, including Sky Andrew, Max Clifford, Simon Hughes, Elle Macpherson, and Gordon Taylor.[35] On 29 November 2006, Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to conspiracy to intercept communications without lawful authority with respect to three of the royal aides. The work of the Metropolitan police had resulted in guilty pleas within 12 month of when the crimes against royal aides were committed. However, it was clear from court testimony that Mulcaire had hacked at least five other phones and that he did work for more than just Goodman.[23][35]
Within weeks of the arrests of Goodman and Mulcaire, a "senior police officer" reportedly advised
The documents seized during the Mulcaire raid remained largely unevaluated until the autumn of 2010. No one at News of the World other than Goodman was questioned by the Met until March 2011.[30] Nonetheless, “senior Scotland Yard officials assured Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid.” According to The New York Times, “the police agency and News International … became so intertwined that they wound up sharing the goal of containing the investigation.[30][36]
Mary Ellen Field was a highly paid adviser to Elle Macpherson.[37][38] Macpherson blamed Field when confidential information about Macpherson began appearing in News of the World and fired her. After Glenn Mulcaire was arrested and jailed, acknowledging he had hacked Macpherson's phone, Field wrote to the police requesting information that might help exonerate her. No one replied.[39]
The Yates review of evidence (2009)
On 8 July 2009, The Guardian published three articles authored by journalist Nick Davies and Vikram Dodd titled:
- "Murdoch papers paid £1m to gag phone-hacking victims"[40]
- "Trail of hacking and deceit under nose of Tory PR chief."[41]
- "Ex-Murdoch editor Andrew Neil: News of the World revelations one of most significant media stories of our time."[42]
The articles alleged:
- News Group Newspapers (NGN) agreed to large settlements with hacking victims, including Gordon Taylor. The settlements included gagging provisions to prevent release to the public of evidence then held by the Metropolitan Police Service that NGN journalists repeatedly used criminal methods to get stories. "News Group then persuaded the court to seal the file on Taylor's case to prevent all public access, even though it contained prima facie evidence of criminal activity."[40] That evidence included documents seized in raids by the Information Commissioner's Office and by the Met.[41]
- If the suppressed evidence became public, hundreds more phone hacking victims of NGN might be a position to take legal action against NGN newspapers including News of the World and The Sun. It might also provoke police inquiries into reporters and senior newspaper executives.[40]
- When Andy Coulson, then chief press adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, was editor and deputy editor at News of the World, journalists there openly engaged private investigators that used illegal phone hacking, paying invoices for this work that itemised illegal acts.[41][42]
- Neil also said that everybody at News of the World knew what was going on, that there was no public interest defense for the phone hacking, and that the way the case was pursued raises serious questions about the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the court which, "faced with evidence of conspiracy and systemic illegal actions,...agreed to seal the evidence."[42]
- The Met held evidence that thousands of mobile phones had been hacked into by agents of News of the World, including Members of Parliament from all three parties and including cabinet ministers.[40]
- The Metropolitan Police decided not to inform the public figures whose phones had been targeted and the Crown Prosecution Service decided not prosecute News Group executives.[41]
- Statements by executives misled a parliamentary select committee, the Press Complaints Commission and the public about the extent of their newspaper's illegal acquisition of confidential information.[40]
Later that same day,
In September 2009, Yates reported his conclusions to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee saying there were insufficient evidence for arresting or even interviewing anyone else and that no additional evidence had been brought forward.[28] Upon review of the first inquiry, he concluded that there were just a handful, only hundreds, not thousands of potential victims.[25][45] Although Yates was aware of the "Transcript For Neville" email during his fresh look, he did not believe it would be worthwhile to interview Neville Thurlbeck. Further, Yates did not believe it would be worthwhile to interview other journalists at News of the World that Glenn Mulcaire may have worked with or to look into the cases of victims beyond the eight that were pursued in 2006.[45][46]
Eventually, as queries continued to come in from celebrities and politicians asking if they had been victims of hacking, Yates directed that the evidence from the Mulcaire raid that had been in stored in trash bags for three years be entered into a computer database. Ten people were assigned this task. Yates himself did not look at the evidence saying later, “I'm not going to go down and look at bin bags. I am supposed to be an Assistant Commissioner."[44] He did not re-open the investigation.
Operation Weeting (2011): interception of voicemail
Some of the few individuals who did become aware that their voicemail messages had been intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire for News of the World initiated legal action against Mulcaire and the newspaper. Progress of these suits and the evidence released by the Met to the courts as a consequence received public scrutiny as The Guardian and other newspapers kept the story in public view.
In 2005, Mark Lewis, solicitor for the Professional Footballers' Association, suspected that News of the World hacked phones to get information for a proposed story concerning Gordon Taylor.[47] His beliefs were confirmed late 2007 at Mulcaire's judicial proceedings, at which Mulcaire pleaded guilty and apologized to Taylor and seven others for accessing their voicemail messages. Lewis sued News of the World on behalf of Taylor, and filed actions with the court to obtain relevant documents. As a result, on 27 June 2008, the court ordered that documents held by the Metropolitan Police that had been obtained in the raids on Mulcaire and Steve Whittamore be turned over to Lewis. One of these documents was the "Transcript For Neville" email. Within 24 hours, News of the World began settlement discussions.[23] Taylor received £700,000, and Lewis became the first solicitor to win a settlement from the newspaper for phone hacking.[47]
The settlement remained secret until it was reported by
On 3 July 2009, shortly before The Guardian articles were published, Stuart Kuttner resigned from News of the World. He had been managing editor.[50]
The Commons
On 1 September 2010, The New York Times published a lengthy article by Don Van Natta Jr., Jo Becker, and Graham Bowley echoing the Committee's concerns and specifically contradicting testimony made by former News of the World editor Andy Coulson in which he claimed not to be aware of phone hacking. Among other things, the article alleged:
- The Met failed to follow leads that indicated News of the World routinely used phone hacking to get leads for stories.
- Several Met investigators said the Met "was reluctant to conduct a wider inquiry in part because of its close relationship with News of the World."
- Former editor Prime Minister David Cameron, had been fully aware that phone hacking was being used by his newspaper's journalists and that he even encouraged it.[23]
On 15 December 2010,
The renewed Met investigation was titled Operation Weeting and began on 26 January 2011. It was led by Sue Akers, a Deputy Assistant Commissioner with the Metropolitan Police, and was focused on the illegal interception of voicemail. Between 45 and 60 officers began looking over the 11,000 pages of evidence seized from Mulcaire back in August 2006.[56][57] By mid-April, Thurlbeck, Edmondson, and James Weatherup, a senior News of the World journalist, had been arrested.
In May 2011,
On 4 July 2011,
The new Met Commissioner,
Between 4 July and early September 2011, about ten people, mostly editors and journalists who had at one time worked for News of the World, were arrested in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information. These included Rebekah Brooks,[68] Andy Coulson,[69] Neil Wallis,[70] Stuart Kuttner,[71] Greg Miskiw,[5][72] James Desborough,[73] Dan Evans,[74] Ross Hall,[75][76] and The Times deputy editor Raoul Simons.[77][78]
On 22 September 2011,
On 15 May 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
On 24 July 2012,
Operations Tuleta (2011): computer hacking
After Jonathan Rees was released from prison in 2005, he resumed private investigative work for News of the World, then under the leadership of Andy Coulson.[5] Documents seized as part of the ongoing investigation of Rees for the murder of Daniel Morgan included 5 July 2006 fax containing extracts from Ian Hurst's emails sent by Rees to the News of the World's Dublin office which included information on "Stakeknife". Hurst had not had contact with Stakeknife. Mr Marunchak was then editor of the newspaper's Irish edition.[85]
At that time, Martin Ingram, aka Ian Hurst, was a British Army intelligence sergeant in Northern Ireland who falsely claimed responsibility for contact with the agent "Stakeknife," reportedly a double agent imbedded in the Provisional IRA and potentially at high risk for assassination. Very few people knew of the agent's whereabouts, which was kept secret for his protection. Hurst's personal computer was allegedly hacked by Marunchak with a Trojan programme which copied emails and relayed them to the hacker who in turn passed them along to newspaper personnel, putting the agent at risk.[8][85][86][87][88][89]
No apparent investigative action was taken by the Met from the time documentary evidence of the computer hacking came into its possession until 10 June 2011, when Operation Tuleta was launched. Like Operation Weeting, Tuleta was led by the Met's Sue Akers. Hurst stated the Met notified him of the 2006 hacking in July 2011.[90]
Operation Elveden (2011): bribery, corruption
From 2003 to 2008,
On 29 November 2006, Clive Goodman pleaded guilty to illegally acquiring confidential information of the royal household to write stories for
On 20 June, Macdonald gave papers he had reviewed relating to allegations of illegal payments to the police.[93] On 4 July, The Guardian broke the Millie Dowler story. On 6 July 2011, it was announced that Operation Elveden had been initiated to investigate alleged bribery and corruption within the Metropolitan Police.
Investigations of the Metropolitan Police
As the Met initiated new investigations, it became the object of investigations by others.
Investigative reporting by newspapers
As early as 2002, when the
Between February 2004 and April 2005, as a result of Operation Glade, ten men working for private detective agencies were charged with crimes relating to the illegal acquisition of confidential information.[5][18][20] Some of the information they obtained reportedly came from serving police officers. Only four of the accused were ultimately found guilty of crimes but did not serve prison time. The Guardian reported that the investigation and prosecution ended in fiasco since Whittamore and three others received conditional discharges. A trial of other members collapsed before it had even gotten started."[14] The Guardian also observed that enormous amounts of information seized in raids had not been evaluated.[5][21]
After the 2006 imprisonment of
Other newspapers, including
Investigation by national oversight bodies
Commons Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee
The House of Commons
- 2 September 2009John Yates, Assistant Commissioner :
- 2 September 2009Philip Williams, Detective Chief Superintendent :
- 24 March 2011John Yates, Acting Deputy Commissioner :
March 2007
The 2007 inquiry regarding "Privacy and media intrusion" began shortly after Goodman and Mulcaire were sentenced. It was focused on activity at
July 2009
Prompted by the allegations in the three articles published by
July 2011
After The Guardian publicized the 2002 hacking of Milly Dowler's phone, the Committee renewed hearings to follow up on the 2009 inquiry into press standards, privacy and libel. Again evidence was given by
Home Affairs Committee
The Home Affairs Select Committee held hearings regarding phone hacking by news media companies beginning in July 2009 and in September 2010.
July 2009
Like the
September 2010
As information continued to emerge from court cases and investigative reporting, the Home Affairs Committee initiated another inquiry on 1 September 2010. The Committee again received evidence from the Met, newspaper journalists and executives,
Shortly after the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone became public in 2011, committee chairman Keith Vaz wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron asking him to consider points raised during the committee's inquiry, including:
- "Why there was such an extensive failure by the Metropolitan Police properly to investigate allegations of telephone hacking and other illegal activity when those allegations were first made;
- "Whether the advice on the interpretation of section 1 of RIPA given by the CPS inappropriately limited the scope of the Metropolitan Police inquiry in 2006
- "The police response to such offences, especially the treatment of those whose communications have been intercepted;
- "The legal situation surrounding payment of police officers;
- "Whether police officers were compromised by their relationships with journalists during the 2006 inquiry;
- "Whether police officers were subject to blackmail by those they were investigating;
- "Whether criticism of the Metropolitan Police Service was suppressed by the use of public money to threaten legal action;
- "Whether there should be advice to/restrictions on senior public officials such as the Director of Public Prosecutions about taking employment with those previously subject to investigations in which the officials were involved."
The committee issued its report finding that difficulties justifying the failure to investigate further were insufficient and that there appeared simply to be no real overcome obstacles.
Leveson Inquiry
Two days after The Guardian article regarding Milly Dowler was published, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that a public government inquiry would be initiated. Cameron named Lord Justice Leveson to chair the inquiry into phone hacking at News of the World and other newspapers, the diligence of the initial police inquiry, alleged illegal payments to police by the press, and the general culture and ethics of the media, including broadcasters and social media.[98][99][100]
The Leveson Inquiry would be conducted in two parts.[101] Part 1 of the inquiry would focus on ethical questions, specifically "the culture, practices and ethics of the press, including contacts between the press and politicians and the press and the police." Part 2 would focus on legal questions, specifically "the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International, other media organisations or other organisations. It will also consider the extent to which any relevant police force investigated allegations relating to News International, and whether the police received corrupt payments or were otherwise complicit in misconduct." Part 2 would not begin right away because of ongoing investigations by law enforcement organizations. The Leveson Inquiry's press release of September 2011 named the Met along with 46 celebrities, politicians, sportsmen, other public figures, and members of the public who may have been victims of media intrusion, granting them all "core participant" status in the initial module of the inquiry.[102] Core participants could, through their legal representatives, ask questions of witnesses giving oral evidence.[103]
Internal Met investigations
By early July 2011,
On 14 July 2011,
Three days later, on 17 July, Stephenson resigned. He claimed his relationship with Wallis was that of an acquaintance and maintained only for professional purposes. He denied having suspected Wallis was involved in phone hacking, relying upon senior figures from
The next day, 18 July, an initiative was announced by Home Secretary Theresa May to examine the ethical considerations regarding the relations between the Metropolitan police and the media. It was to be led by Elizabeth Filkin, the former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and intended to create a framework for how officers should interact with journalists. May also noted that she had asked the Independent Police Complaints Commission to determine whether it needs the authority to question civilian witnesses during the course of their investigations and whether it should be able to investigate "institutional failings" of entire forces in addition to allegations against individual officers.[2][110]
On 1 September 2011,
Later in September, in what may also be considered an internal investigation, the new Met Commissioner,
Criticisms and responses
Investigations of the Met gave rise to criticisms of the Met's role in the phone hacking scandal. Commentators observed that the personal relationships among individuals variously in law enforcement, news media, and political institutions may have compromised principles and judgments, sometimes leading to inappropriate favors and even illegal payments. This entanglement of personal and commercial interests led some commentators to believe that a disincentive was created for police officials to thoroughly investigate allegations of wrongdoing. This may have resulted in the failure to notify victims in a timely manner, led to misleading statements to the public and government oversight bodies to cover-up wrongdoing, and/or led to attempts to stifle the voices of whistle-blowers.
Metropolitan Police spokespersons have maintained that investigations were pursued appropriately in light of information and guidance available to them and in light of competing priorities for their resources.
Personal relationships and potential conflicts of interest
While Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1993 to 2000, Paul Condon established the Met's anti-corruption unit, acknowledging that police corruption was not an occasional threat, but a permanent, ongoing one.[111] Condon's initiatives all but closed down communication between Met police and the news media.[110]
Condon's successor, John Stevens was Met commissioner from 2000 to 2005. He was credited with reopening communication between the Met and the news media,[110] consciously cultivating relationships with them. In this, he was assisted by the Met's public affairs head, Dick Fedorcio. One senior officer reportedly said that Stevens was a master of the media who had not understood the complications that could arise from close relationships with the media.[112] After retiring, Stevens wrote a column for the News of the World. In his autobiography, he stated that he had worked hard to maintain good relations with the press and, in doing so had made himself "available" to editors such as Rebekah Brooks (then Wade) at The Sun and Andy Coulson at the News of the World.[113]
Ian Blair was commissioner from February 2005 to December 2008. Apparently less skilled than Stevens in working with the media, Blair made high-profile media gaffes that contributed to his losing support and ultimately led to his resignation.[114] Blair later wrote an article for the New Statesman in which he agreed with Condon that there would always be some small number of corrupt staff in the Met. Then in his role as journalist, the former commissioner held the view that only a small fraction of policemen became compromised and that the principal problem stemmed from their relationships with politicians rather than with journalists.[111]
By the time
In the 15 months following his becoming Prime Minister,
Since 2006, Met commissioner Paul Stephenson dined with executives and others at
Home Secretary
Paul Stephenson resigned 17 July 2011. This was the result of speculation about the Met's ties to senior people at
There was potential for mutual benefit from these various relationships, some of which could be rationalized to be in the public interest. Personal ties could help journalists obtain information on which to base news stories the public should know about. The police might obtain information from journalists that helped solve crimes. In defense of investigative reporting by News of the World, The New York Times noted that even disregarding sex scandals, wrongdoing resulting in dozens of criminal convictions had been reported.[23]
However, some mutual benefit from these personal ties was less focused on the public good. As early as 1997, it was customary for newspapers, including
In the worst case, such personal relationships could create a conflict of interest making senior Met officials less willing to act in the public interest. The
Limited, incomplete investigations
Critics of the
The Met responded that there were higher priority investigations competing for the limited resources available, and that they conducted appropriate investigations based upon their knowledge and guidance at the time. Responding to a critical
Eventually, with increasing publicity regarding the phone hacking scandal, a total of 185 people were committed to investigations relating to illegal acquisition of confidential information. Specifically, by mid-July 2012, 96 officers and civilians were working on Operation Weeting (phone hacking), 19 officers working on Operation Tuleta (computer hacking), and 70 working on Operation Elveden (bribery, corruption).[124]
Unevaluated evidence
The Met began accumulating evidence against
Documents dating back to the 1990s seized in 2003 by the Information Commissioner's Office from the home of private investigator Stephen Whittamore as part of Operation Motorman may not have been thoroughly evaluated by the Met for evidence of illegal acquisition of confidential information. Seized documents included 13,343 requests for confidential information from 305 journalists[5][21][41] In 2007 the information commissioner "berated the police and PCC over their feeble prosecution and condemnation, respectively, of a range of offences, from garnering ex-directory numbers to hacking into the police national computer."[125]
Staff at News of the World reportedly reported to the police in 2002 that the paper only had access to Milly's voice mails and that no one had been accused of phone hacking at that time."[126]
Documents seized by the Metropolitan Police in August 2006 from the home of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire totaled 11,000 pages of evidence,[77] including a voicemail target list with over 4,000 names on it.[26][127] According to The New York Times, no one at the Met cataloged this evidence until late 2010, even though senior Scotland Yard officials told Parliament, judges, lawyers, potential hacking victims, the news media and the public that there was no evidence of widespread hacking by the tabloid.[26] According to The Daily Telegraph, evidence had been kept in trash bags for three years before deputy commissioner John Yates ] had the names entered on to a computer database to permit thorough examination for leads.[44] Only eight of 4,000 potential victims became the subject of charges against Mulcaire in 2006.
A key document seized from Mulcaire's premises in August 2006 was the "Transcript for Nevile" email. The names appearing on this document indicated that
The chairman of Culture, Media and Sport Committee asked Yates why this document did not provoke someone to interview Neville.[46] The committee criticized this 2006 decision not to investigate further, concluding that there had been evidence of additional lawbreaking by others and that more thorough police investigation had been warranted. The Committee criticized Yates judgment.[130] The following year, the Home Affairs Select Committee conducted an inquiry and leveled similar criticism at the Met "for its failures to pursue inquiries."[131]
Priorities
Faced with criticism for not thoroughly pursuing available evidence in 2006, the Met asserted that the Royal Household/Goodman inquiry was limited "because the counter-terrorism unit, which was in charge of the case, was preoccupied with more pressing demands."
The Home Affairs Select Committee acknowledged that the anti-terrorist unit had conflicting priorities and that Clark gave higher priority to protecting life threatened by terrorists than to criminal activity resulting only in breaches of privacy. Nonetheless, it was critical of not looking into the evidence it had in hand.[132]
Incorrect legal criteria
As part of setting their investigative priorities in 2006, the Met consulted with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to agree upon a strategy for pursuing the Royal Household/Goodman inquiry. Assistant commissioner John Yates claimed that the Met was guided by advice from the CPS, then headed by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Ken Macdonald, that "phone hacking was only an offence if messages had been intercepted before they were listened to by the intended recipient."[31] Yates told Parliament on four separate occasions that it was on the basis of this legal theory that Yates repeatedly claimed that only 10 to 12 phone hacking victims had been identified. Yates maintained his position to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in 2011 that the guidance received by the Met was "unequivocal."[32]
This account was challenged by Keir Starmer, who succeed Macdonald as DPP. Starmer told the Home Affairs Select Committee that the Met were not given advice which limited their investigation. Specifically, he claimed:[32]
- The Met had been advised that phone hacking was an offence under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, regardless of whether messages had or had not been heard by their intended recipient.
- Although a CPS lawyer had raised the possibility early in the inquiry that, under the 2000 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), it might be necessary to prove voicemail messages had been intercepted before listened to by the intended recipient, an email sent to the Met in April 2006 cautioned that this was an untested view that warranted further consideration. Furthermore, after David Perry became the prosecutor in July 2006, he advised the Met that this was a narrow interpretation.
- When charges were brought against Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, no mention was made as to whether messages had already been listened to by the intended recipient.
Conflict of interest
Some observers expressed the view that the decision to limit the investigation was in part due to conflict of interest by Met officials. According to
In reply, the Met insisted that they followed the lines of inquiry that they thought was likely to produce the best evidence, and that the charges that were brought were appropriate for the criminality uncovered.[23] A former senior Met official denied the department was influenced by any alliance with News of the World.[23]
Met assistant commissioner John Yates expressed his views to The Daily Telegraph in an interview that mistakes had been made, but that they reflected "cock-up, not conspiracy." The Met had simply taken a narrow view of what constituted a "victim," leading them to report publicly that there were a small number, a "handful," perhaps hundreds of victims, but not thousands.[44]
Illegal payments to officers
Allegations of illegal payments to police officers date back to the earliest period of the phone hacking scandal. During the 1990s,
In March 2003, Rebekah Brooks, editor of The Sun, and Andy Coulson, editor of News of the World testified together before the Commons media select committee. Brooks responded to a question about payments to the police saying that the organization paid the police for information in the past. Asked if she would do so again in the future, her answer was pre-empted by Coulson who stated that, if there is a clear public interest, they would continue with that practice. It was pointed out to Coulson that it was always illegal to pay police officers, regardless of public interest. Coulson suggested he had been talking about the use of subterfuge."[5]
According to
In addition to cash payments, there is concern that Met officers may be influenced by favors or promises of employment, since
Victims not notified or information not released to them
As of June 2011, according to
In 2006, Information Commissioner
There is no indication of a systematic effort by the Met to identify or notify the thousands of potential victims whose names were obtained during the taping of Rees's phone in 1999 or the raid on Whittamore's premises in 2003. After the raid on Glenn Mulcaire's premises in 2006, the Met reportedly alerted the royal household and five other victims who would be included on the formal indictment of Mulcaire. The Met also claimed they notified "select individuals with national-security concerns: members of the government, the police and the military."[23]
The precise number of phone hacking victims is unknown, but a Commons
In contrast, John Yates told the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee in September 2009 that the police had only found evidence indicating that "it is very few, it is a handful" of persons that had been subject to message interception.[21][45] Further, Mr. Yates assured the public that all those affected had been notified.[26] For this, Yates was criticised by John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. As late as February 2010, the Met continued refusing to report how many victims it had warned that their voicemail may have been hacked.
The
Only after The Guardian's article of July 2009 making public the details of the settlement News of the World made with Max Clifford was there a broad initiative by solicitors and barristers to force disclosure of phone hacking evidence held by the Met since at least August 2006."[23] Two dozen people brought civil cases against News International, that forced the Met to release information relating to Mr. Mulcaire.[26] Even then, obtaining useful information from the Met was not easy for victims. A woman who believed her phone had been hacked because details about her life appeared in News of the World wrote to the police for information. Two months later, she received a reply confirming that her number had been found among the documents seized from Mulcaire and suggested she contact her phone-service provider.[23]
In summary, according to The New York Times Scotland Yard chose to notify only a fraction of the victims of phone hacking. This had effectively shielded News of the World from many civil lawsuits.[23]
In the case of four people, including former deputy prime minister
Misled prosecutors, courts, Parliament, and the public
Senior Police officials, both in the
The public was not generally aware of the narrow interpretation used by the Met of what constituted illegal phone hacking, i.e., it was only considered illegal if the hacker heard the message before the intended victim. Consequently, the Met's indicating there were just a "handful" of victims misled victims, the public, and Parliament regarding how widespread the practice was of intercepting confidential communications, regardless of when the intended recipient heard them. Scotland Yard originally claimed there were only eight victims.[143] As late at mid-2009, John Yates claimed there were "hundreds, not thousands" of potential victims.[25]
This same narrow interpretation was used by the Met when it assured everyone that all affected individuals had been notified by claiming the police had taken all appropriate action to ensure that people were informed where ever there was evidence of their being subject of any form of phone tapping.[26] In September 2010, Yates told the Home Affairs Select Committee that all reasonable steps had been taken with the major telephone service providers to ensure victims were notified "where we had even the minutest possibility they may have been the subject of an attempt to hack or hacking." According to Yates, this included speaking to the potential victims directly or ensuring that a phone company had done so. The four leading mobile phone companies denied that the police asked them to warn any victims.[144]
Met officials may have made misleading statements when they gave assurances that no evidence of widespread hacking had been found even though they had not thoroughly searched for it.[26]
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) claimed it was misled by the Met during consultations on how broadly to investigate during the Royal Household/Goodman inquiry. Met officials reportedly didn't discuss certain evidence with senior prosecutors, who were later stunned to discover evidence had not been shared. A Met spokesman responded that CPP had access to all the evidence.[23]
In its report, the Home Affairs Select Committee did not expressly accuse Mr. Hayman of lying to them but did say that it was difficult to escape the suspicion that he deliberately mislead them.[118] Member of Parliament Chris Bryant directly accused assistant commissioner Yates of misleading two parliamentary committees and of failing to correct himself to Parliament after errors in testimony became apparent to him.[5] Yates responded to accusations by The Guardian by hiring a well known libel firm to threaten legal action against various media outlets for reporting he had misled parliament."[5] Yates legal fees were reportedly paid by the Met.[147]
Discouraging whistleblowers
During parliamentary debate in July 2011, Baroness Berridge observed that more, not fewer, whistleblowers were needed since whistleblowers speak out in the public interest. This is not the same as leaking information.[148]
In September 2011, as the Met conducted its three newly initiated investigations of illegal acquisition of confidential information, it pursued ongoing leaks from the Met concerning evidence it held as well as earlier leaks that gave rise to the various investigations. In an apparent effort to discourage future leaks, the Met took the unusual action of invoking the Official Secrets Act, which provides for severe penalties. Specifically, the Met used the Act to call for the journalists at The Guardian to reveal their sources for information upon which the Milly Dowler revelations were based.[149] This action was immediately and widely condemned as an attempt to discourage whistleblowers and intimidate the media.[150] The Guardian reported it had received papers demanding that reporters hand over anything that could lead the police to whistleblower for the Dowler story.[149][151]
The Met's action was criticized by chairman Keith Vaz of the Home Affairs Select Committee[131] and chairman John Whittingdale of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.[152] A representative on freedom of the media for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, wrote to foreign secretary, William Hague expressing concern over the potentially chilling effects on investigative reporting and press freedom."[153]
The Met initially sought to clarify its use of the Official Secrets Act but soon retreated from this initiative and withdrew its demand.[154]
Timeline
- 1987 – Daniel Morgan is murdered.[7]
- April to September 1999 – MPS gathers evidence from tap on phone of Jonathan Rees as part of Operation Nigeria.[5]
- September 1999 – MPS raids Jonathan Rees' premises, seizing a large cache of documents.[5]
- Autumn, 2001 – Glenn Mulcaire is given a full-time contract to do work for News of the World.[5]
- March 2002 – Milly Dowler's phone is hacked by agents of News of the World
- November 2002 – Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) raids John Boyall's premises seizing many documents.[13]
- March 2003 – ICO raids Steve Whittamore's premises as part of Operation Motorman, seizing a large cache of documents.[13]
- February 2004 – Whittamore, Boyall, King, and Marshall are arrested and charged with crimes as a result of Metropolitan Police Service investigations under Operation Glade.
- April 2005 – Whittamore, Boyall, King, and Marshall plead guilty to charges related to illegal acquisition of confidential information.[17]
- 29 June 2005 – Ross Hall (aka Ross Hindley), journalist at News of the World, sends an email to Glenn Mulcaire titled "Transcript for Neville."[27][28][29]
- November 2005 – Senior aides to Britain's royal family notice irregularities with their telephone voicemail messages. The Metropolitan Police Serviceis notified.
- 2006? – John Gunning is convicted of acquiring private subscriber information from British Telecom's database.[5]
- August 2006 – The Metropolitan Police Service raids Glenn Mulcaire'spremises seizing a large cache of documents, including the "Transcript for Neville".
- August 2006 – Goodman and Mulcaire are arrested.[34]
- Early autumn 2006 –
- 29 November 2006 – Goodman and Mulcaire plead guilty to conspiracy to intercept communications without lawful authority.[35]
- January 2007 – Goodman and Mulcaire are sentenced.
- 27 June 2008 – The court orders documents held by the Met obtained on the raids on Mulciare and Steve Whittamore be turned over to Mark Lewis, solicitor for Gorden Taylor. These documents include the "Transcript for Neville."[23]
- 2008 – News International executives continue to maintain to Parliament that they "had no significant evidence until 2008 that illegal voicemail interception involved more journalists than News of the World's Clive Goodman.[34]
- 8 July 2009 – The Guardian publishes articles reporting the News of the World's large settlement with Gordon Taylor and alleging it was intended to keep secret the misstatements made by newspaper executives regarding involvement of more than one journalist.
- 9 July 2009 – After a cursory one day review, assistant commissioner police John Yates decides not to reopen the 2006 investigation into phone hacking.
- July 2009 – The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee holds additional hearings.
- 1 September 2010 – An article published by The New York Times alleges the Met "failed to pursue leads" that indicated News of the World routinely used phone hacking to get leads for stories, and that the Met "was reluctant to conduct a wider inquiry in part because of its close relationship with News of the World."[23]
- 2 September 2009 – Metropolitan Police Service acting deputy commissioner John Yates testifies before the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee that there is "insufficient grounds or evidence to arrest or interview anyone else and...no additional evidence has come to light."[28]
- February 2010 – The Commons News International executives.[23]
- February 2010 – Justice Geoffrey Vos orders Mulcaire to name journalists for whom he worked when intercepting Metropolitan Police Service.[23]
- 15 December 2010 – An article published by Metropolitan Police Service in 2006 implied that News of the World editor Ian Edmondson specifically instructed Mulcaire to intercept voice messages of Sienna Miller, Jude Law, and several others.[55] The documents also implied that Mulcaire was engaged by others at News of the World, including chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and assistant editor Greg Miskiw, who had then worked directly for editor Andy Coulson. This contradicted testimony to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee by newspaper executives and senior Met officials that Mulcaire acted on his own and that there was no evidence of hacking by other than him and a single "rogue reporter," namely Clive Goodman.[51]
- 26 January 2011 – Operation Weeting led by deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers is launched to investigate phone hacking.
- Early 2011 – News International executives continue to insist that phone hacking "was limited to one 'rogue reporter,' Clive Goodman, who was jailed on hacking-related charges in 2007."[155]
- 5 April 2011 – First arrests are made since 2006 in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information. Arrested were Neville Thurlbeck, Ian Edmondson, and James Weatherup, all editors or journalists for News of the World.[156][157][158]
- 10 June 2011 – Operation Tuleta, also led by Sue Akers, is launched to investigate computer hacking.
- 20 June 2011 – Ken Macdonald gave papers relating to allegations of illegal payments to the Metropolitan police.[93]
- 6 July 2011 – Operation Elveden, also led by Sue Akers, is launched to investigate police bribery and corruption.
- 17 July 2011 – Metropolitan Police Service commissioner Paul Stephensonresigns.
- 18 July 2011 – Assistant commissioner John Yates resigns.
- 19 July 2011 – The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee begins follow-up to the 2009 inquiry into press standards, privacy and libel, including phone hacking.[96]
- 15 September 2011 – The new Met Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, brings in a team from an outside police force, the Durham constabulary headed by Jon Stoddart, to review the work of Operation Weeting.[67]
- 22 September 2011 – An article published by News International, contacted several other executives, including then News of the World editor Andy Coulson, informing them of what the Met told Brooks.[34]
- 15 May 2012 – The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) her husband, her personal assistant, her bodyguard, her chauffeur, and the head of security at News International, with conspiring to pervert the course of justice by removing documents and computers to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Met.[79]
- 24 July 2012 – Charges are brought against eight former employees or agents of News of the World including head editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. All eight were charged regarding illegal interception of communications relating to specific individuals[83][84]
See also
- News media phone hacking scandal
- Phone hacking scandal reference lists
- News International phone hacking scandal
- Metropolitan Police Service
- Operation Motorman (ICO investigation)
- Operation Glade
- Operation Weeting
- Operation Tuleta
- Operation Elveden
- Leveson Inquiry
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{{cite news}}
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{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Sabbagh, Dan (20 September 2011). "Phone hacking: how the Met came to the Guardian looking for evidence". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
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External links
- [1] Metropolitan Police Service
- [2] Culture, Media and Sport Committee proceedings regarding phone Hacking
- [3] Home Affairs Select Committee proceedings regarding unauthorised tapping into or hacking of mobile communications
- [4] BBC News coverage of "phone-hacking scandal"
- [5] Guardian coverage of "phonehacking"
- [6] Media Standards Trust Hacked Off coverage of their "campaign for a good public inquiry into phone hacking"
- [7] New York Times topics page for "British Phone Hacking Scandal (News of the World)"
- [8] Telegraph coverage of "phone hacking"