The printing presses for News of the World may have fallen silent, but the tabloid remains at the top of the news agenda in Britain amid fresh allegations journalists targeted former prime Minister Gordon Brown and the families of 9/11 victims as part of the paper’s phone-hacking schemes.
For more than 10 years, Brown was the target of News International journalists, who allegedly attempted to access his voicemail, obtain banking information, legal files and family medical records, the Guardian reports.
Details surrounding Brown’s infant son’s battle with cystic fibrosis were allegedly stolen for a 2006 story that appeared in The Sun, another News International tabloid. If true, the claims mean the dubious schemes used to get stories were not limited to News of the World, which has so far been the primary focus of public outrage.
The Guardian also reports that Scotland Yard, as part of its ongoing investigation into allegations of police payments and phone-hacking at News of the World, found references to Brown and his wife, Sarah, in the personal effects of Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator hired by the tabloid who has already served jail time for his role in hacking the phones belonging to three royal aides.
Further, reports suggest Brown’s lawyers were tricked into handing over legal files to a conman working for the Sunday Times, another News International property, while a man impersonating Brown was reportedly able to access the former prime minister’s banking details.
A spokeswoman for Brown said in a statement Monday the former prime minister’s family is “shocked by the level of criminality and the unethical means by which personal details have been obtained.”
“The police have confirmed Mr. Brown is on Glenn Mulcaire’s list. And some time ago Mr. Brown passed all relevant evidence he had to the police,” the spokeswoman said.
In a statement, News International said it was aware of the allegations regarding the former prime minister. “So that we can investigate these matters further, we ask that all information concerning these allegations is provided to us,” the company said.
Also Monday, a former New York police officer, now working as a private investigator, is claiming he was asked by News of the World reporters to hack into voicemails on mobile phones belonging to 9/11 victims, the Daily Mirror reports.
“(The private investigator’s) presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the U.K.,” the Daily Mirror quotes a source as saying. “The P.I. said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.”
The new claims come just a week after the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World exploded following widespread reports that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid intercepted voicemails on the phone belonging to murdered teenager Milly Dowler in 2002. Allegations that the paper may have listened to and deleted messages on Dowler’s mobile phone — even as police and her family were desperately searched for her — ignited a public firestorm reaching as high as the Prime Minister’s office.
On Sunday, the 168-year-old tabloid printed its last copy after Murdoch ordered it shut down, saying the allegations of phone hacking and payments to police were “deplorable and unacceptable.”
The move has not tempered nationwide anger, however, as politicians continue to call for the head of Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, who was editor of News of the World when some of the phone hacking was alleged to have taken place. Murdoch is standing by Brooks as Scotland Yard continues to investigate as many as 4,000 potential victims of the tabloid’s phone-hacking schemes and the company conducts an internal investigation into what went wrong at the paper.
Murdoch arrived in London Sunday to oversee the dismantling of News of the World and lend support to Brooks, with whom he posed cheerfully outside his downtown apartment before heading out to dinner.
Meanwhile, Milly Dowler’s family met with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg Monday to discuss how the phone-hacking allegations have affected them. After speaking with Milly’s father, mother and sister, Clegg said he is determined to see the recently-announced public inquiries into the scandal done correctly.
“Listening to Bob, Sally and Gemma Dowler, it reminds you that it is innocent families like them who have paid a very heavy price for truly grotesque journalistic practices, which are simply beneath contempt,” Clegg told BBC News. “We owe it to the Dowlers and other innocent victims of hacking to get these inquiries right, to make sure they are really strong, [so] they can get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it never happens again.”
Clegg also weighed in on Murdoch’s much-publicized $14-billion bid to take full control of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) — a deal currently under the government’s scrutiny that was, until last week, expected to be approved. Murdoch currently has a 39 per cent stake in the company and wants to purchase the rest.
“I would simply say to him, look how people feel about this. Look at how the country has reacted with revulsion to the revelations,” Clegg said. “So do the decent and sensible thing and reconsider: think again about your bid for BSkyB.”
Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, charged with overseeing the deal, announced Monday he was referring the takeover bid to the Competition Commission over concerns News Corp. would become a monopoly. He also wrote to Ofcom, the U.K.’s independent regulator and competition authority, asking if News Corp. would be a “fit and proper” owner of BSkyB in light of the recent revelations.
Shares of BSkyB continued to slide Monday.
The BBC also reported Monday that News of the World internal emails show that the tabloid’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, requested 1,000 pounds from the paper’s then-editor Andy Coulson, to pay a royal protection officer for a copy of the “Green Book,” a directory containing personal contact information, including mobile and land telephone numbers, for the royal family.
Goodman has already served jail time after admitting to phone hacking in 2007. On Friday, he and Coulson — Prime Minister David Cameron’s director of communications until last January — were arrested.
