Former News of the World reporter Mazher Mahmood commissioned a private investigator to stalk Tom Watson at a Labour Party conference, the MP alleged. Watson told the Leveson Inquiry that Mahmood – known as the ‘Fake Sheikh – hired Derek Webb to trail him in 2009, to establish whether he was having an affair. He… Read more »
The Metropolitan Police has said today it was impossible to conclude how messages from Milly Dowler’s voicemail were deleted, creating “false hope” for her family. A statement from DCI John MacDonald, a senior officer investigating the potential deletions, was read out before the inquiry today. He said it was possible an illegal intercept had resulted… Read more »
A clause allowing journalists to speak out against unethical behaviour in newspapers is a “good idea”, Rupert Murdoch has said. The proprietor endorsed the conscience clause, proposed by the National Union of Journalists, when answering questions submitted by the union at the Leveson Inquiry, admitting he had never heard of the idea before. The clause could be… Read more »
Rupert Murdoch has admitted to a cover-up of phone hacking at the News of the World. He told the Leveson Inquiry today he was “misinformed and shielded” from the extent of hacking at the paper, owned by News International, and blamed other newspapers for turning the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone into a national scandal…. Read more »
by Brian Cathcart More than a year ago the rumour first circulated that among those hacked by the News of the World were victims of the disastrous Northwick Park Hospital drug trial. The latest list of people suing News International over hacking suggests that the rumour may have been accurate. Friday’s Guardian reported: “The list… Read more »
A former assistant Met commissioner attended the wedding of a News of the World crime reporter, the Leveson Inquiry has heard. Lucy Panton, who worked at the paper from 2002 until it shut down last year, said Yates was a working friend who attended her wedding, and the wedding of Jeff Edwards, chair of the… Read more »
