The briefest of stories in the News of the World in November 2005 began a process that exposed some of the murkier arts of tabloid journalism. Since then, the Sunday newspaper has had its royal editor jailed, its assistant editor sacked, its chief reporter arrested and Andy Coulson resign — first as the paper’s editor and later as the Prime Minister’s chief spin-doctor.
This chaotic scandal continued to unravel yesterday when, after lengthy legal wrangling, News International offered an “unreserved apology” to a number of victims of phone hacking and offered to set up a scheme, said to be worth £15 million, to compensate them and other potential claimants.
It was an admission by the company, which also owns The Times, that its original claim that phone hacking was the work of one “rogue reporter” was wrong and that the practice had been much more widespread.
That first, seemingly innocuous, story concerned a knee injury suffered by Prince William. But its publication troubled the Prince, his friends and his aides, and they concluded that the News of the World could have obtained the information only by listening to mobile phone voicemail messages.
Three members of royal staff complained to Scotland Yard. It set up an inquiry by its Specialist Operations Command, which covers royalty protection, security and terrorism. In August 2006 Clive Goodman, the tabloid’s royal editor, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective, were arrested.
It was bad timing for the police. A day later the focus of the senior officers involved shifted to the arrests of more than 20 people for a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. Privately, the police acknowledge that this could have been where their problems with the case began. It was never going to be the priority for a team concerned mainly with international terrorism.
Goodman and Mulcaire were jailed at the Old Bailey in January 2007, after admitting conspiring illegally to access voicemail messages.
In addition to the charges involving the royals, Mulcaire admitted hacking the voicemails of Max Clifford, the media consultant, Gordon Taylor, of the Professional Footballers’ Association, Simon Hughes MP, Elle Macpherson, the model, and Sky Andrew, the sports agent.
As the case ended, Mr Coulson resigned as Editor of the News of the World but continued to deny any knowledge of phone hacking. The issue appeared to be over until The Guardian revived it in 2009, claiming that the phones of 3,000 people may have been hacked and revealing large compensation settlements in a number of civil cases.
Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the material and announced that the first inquiry and prosecution had been conducted properly and no further investigation was necessary. The Press Complaints Commission said in November 2009 that there was no evidence that phone hacking was still going on. But the allegations continued to mount, with the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee accusing News of the World executives of “collective amnesia” over the issue and last September The New York Times publishing claims from a former tabloid reporter that phone hacking was “endemic” at the paper.
The steady drip of claims and conspiracies became a torrent in January this year when News International, after a new internal inquiry, handed a huge cache of material — much of it in e-mails — to the police.
The company sacked its assistant editor, Ian Edmondson, and the reverberations reached Downing Street where Mr Coulson, David Cameron’s director of communications, stood down.
The speed of events was also being driven by matters in the High Court where the actress Sienna Miller was seeking damages alleging that stories about her private life had been obtained from her voicemails.
Lawyers acting for her and other claimants were obtaining disclosure, by court order, of material gathered by the police in their original 2006 inquiry. One name that emerged was that of Neville Thurlbeck, the News of the World’s chief reporter, who was alleged to have used the services of Mulcaire.
He and Mr Edmondson were arrested and questioned by police this week, and their homes were searched. Both deny any wrongdoing and have been freed on police bail until September. The arrests signal a new determination by police to resolve the criminal matters.
There are now 50 detectives working on the phone-hacking inquiry. There are also 24 civil claims before the High Court, some brought by people who have refused to co-operate with any police investigation. Mr Justice Vos, the judge hearing those claims, had asked for proposals from the parties to speed up a complex process, and News International’s offer of an apology and compensation scheme is its response to that request.
Whether the claimants and their lawyers accept remains to be seen. Whatever happens, however, the issue of journalistic practices still has some way to run. The BBC programme Panorama claimed to have exposed questionable uses of private detectives by newspapers, then had to admit to using private detectives itself.
Mr Clifford, a victim of hacking, has claimed that other newspaper groups were involved in illegal news-gathering. Committees of MPs are demanding more answers. He said: “I think this is a step in the right direction . . . They have done a very thorough investigation themselves and clearly what
they have discovered has made them make this decision.”
Ivan Lewis, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “This admission of responsibility by News International is a belated but welcome step forward.
“This should be a catalyst for any other media organisation which has used phone hacking to make a full disclosure to the police and any victims.”
The Government indicated this week that a full inquiry may be necessary.
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