Phone-hacking police meet murdered Soham girls' parents

BBC News, 5 July 2011

Phone-hacking scandal

• Hacking probe: Key people
• Timeline: Phone-hacking row
• Q&A: Phone-hacking scandal
• Milly news 'changes hacking saga'

The parents of murdered Soham girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman have been visited by police investigating phone-hacking by journalists.

Cambridgeshire Police confirmed that Met
detectives visited the parents of the murdered girls

It has already been alleged that an investigator working for the News of the World hacked the phone of murdered girl Milly Dowler when she was missing.

News International has promised the "strongest possible action" if it is proven Milly's phone was hacked.

MPs will hold an emergency debate on Wednesday on the phone-hacking scandal.

Jessica and Holly, both 10, of Soham, Cambridgeshire, were murdered in 2002 by school caretaker Ian Huntley, who was jailed for life.

The Guardian has claimed private investigator Glenn Mulcaire - working for the News of the World (NoW) - intercepted messages left by relatives for 13-year-old Milly Dowler while she was missing in 2002.

The Guardian alleged that the NoW deleted some messages it had already listened to in order to make space for more to be left.

Milly went missing in March 2002 near her home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Her remains were found in remote woodland at Yateley Heath in Hampshire six months later.

Nightclub doorman Levi Bellfield was convicted of the murder last month.

'Further torture'

In a memo to staff on Tuesday, Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of NoW publisher News International, said the allegations Milly's phone was hacked were "almost too horrific to believe".

Mrs Brooks said the company would
"not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour"

"I have to tell you that I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened," Mrs Brooks wrote.

"Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowler's family is unforgivable."

She added: "I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew - or worse - sanctioned these appalling allegations."

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the public would be "horrified that the grieving parents of an abducted child were made to go through further torture that somehow she was alive because her voicemails were being retrieved or deleted".

He called the allegations a "stain on the character of British journalism", adding there should be "a proper inquiry into the culture and practices which allowed these things to happen".

Advertising pulled

Motor company Ford has announced a halt on advertising in the News of the World, pending the newspaper's investigation and response over the phone-hacking claims.

"Ford is a company which cares about the standards of behaviour of its own people and those it deals with externally," it said in a statement.

Energy company Npower and the Halifax bank have announced they are considering their options regarding advertising in the News of the World.

House of Commons Speaker John Bercow granted the urgent debate on the possibility of a public inquiry following a call by Labour MP Chris Bryant, who accused the News of the World of "playing God with a family's emotions".

In the upper house, former Conservative Party Chairman Lord Fowler said an inquiry was needed in the wake of "one of the biggest scandals affecting the press in living memory".

Home Office minister Baroness Browning said the government would await the outcome of the police investigation before deciding whether further action was necessary.

Also on Wednesday, the Media Standards Trust - which aims to promote high news standards within the media - will launch the Hacked Off campaign calling for a public inquiry into "phone hacking and other forms of illegal intrusion by the press".

Out-of-court settlements

On BBC Radio 4's World at One programme, actor Hugh Grant - who investigated hacking for the New Statesman in April - said that he hoped the latest allegations would bring about a public inquiry.

It had previously been difficult to get people to care about the hacking scandal - which involved celebrities and MPs having allegedly been targeted - because "most victims are rich", Mr Grant said.

"It's been hard to get people to viscerally feel sickened and outraged, but now that people fully realise just how repulsive these people are - and the lengths to which they'll go - hopefully there'll be more momentum in getting something done," he said.

The Metropolitan Police launched Operation Weeting in January this year after new phone-hacking claims emerged. The force has faced criticism for its initial inquiry in 2006 into phone-hacking at the paper.

That probe led to the convictions and imprisonment of Mulcaire and then News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman in 2007 for conspiracy to access phone messages left for members of the royal household.

A number of alleged phone-hacking victims have since reached out-of-court settlements with the newspaper.

News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch attends
The Times CEO summit at the Savoy Hotel in London June 21, 2011.
(Credit: Reuters/Ben Gurr/Pool)

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