accessory Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Today's Guardian The News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance, an investigation by the Guardian has established.Scotland Yard is investigating the episode, which is likely to put new pressure on the then editor of the paper, Rebekah Brooks, now Rupert Murdoch's chief executive in the UK; and the then deputy editor, Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as the prime minister's media adviser. The Dowlers' family lawyer, Mark Lewis, this afternoon issued a statement describing the News of the World's activities as "heinous" and "despicable". He said this afternoon the Dowler family was now pursuing a damages claim against the News of the World. Milly Dowler disappeared at the age of 13 on her way home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, on 21 March 2002. Detectives from Scotland Yard's new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting, are believed to have found evidence of the targeting of the Dowlers in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World. In the last four weeks the Met officers have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those involved in the original inquiry, who were concerned about how News of the World journalists intercepted – and deleted – the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler. The messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly's disappearance in order to free up space for more messages. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly that she might still be alive. Police feared evidence may have been destroyed. The Guardian investigation has shown that, within a very short time of Milly vanishing, News of the World journalists reacted by engaging in what was standard practice in their newsroom: they hired private investigators to get them a story. Their first step was simple, albeit illegal. Paperwork seen by the Guardian reveals that they paid a Hampshire private investigator, Steve Whittamore, to obtain home addresses and, where necessary, ex-directory phone numbers for any families called Dowler in the Walton area. The three addresses Whittamore found could be obtained lawfully on the electoral register. The two ex-directory numbers, however, were "blagged" illegally from British Telecom's confidential records by one of Whittamore's associates, John Gunning, who works from a base in Wiltshire. One of the ex-directory numbers was attributed by Whittamore to Milly's family home. Then, with the help of its own full-time private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World started illegally intercepting mobile phone messages. Scotland Yard is now investigating evidence that the paper hacked directly into the voicemail of the missing girl's own phone. As her friends and parents called and left messages imploring Milly to get in touch with them, the News of the World was listening and recording their every private word. But the journalists at the News of the World then encountered a problem. Milly's voicemail box filled up and would accept no more messages. Apparently thirsty for more information from more voicemails, the paper intervened – and deleted the messages that had been left in the first few days after her disappearance. According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it. The Dowler family then granted an exclusive interview to the News of the World in which they talked about their hope, quite unaware that it had been falsely kindled by the newspaper's own intervention. Sally Dowler told the paper: "If Milly walked through the door, I don't think we'd be able to speak. We'd just weep tears of joy and give her a great big hug." The deletion of the messages also caused difficulties for the police by confusing the picture when they had few leads to pursue. It also potentially destroyed valuable evidence. According to one senior source familiar with the Surrey police investigation: "It can happen with abduction murders that the perpetrator will leave messages, asking the missing person to get in touch, as part of their efforts at concealment. We need those messages as evidence. Anybody who destroys that evidence is seriously interfering with the course of a police investigation." .... In a statement, the family's lawyer said the Dowlers were distressed at the revelation. "It is distress heaped upon tragedy to learn that the News of the World had no humanity at such a terrible time. The fact that they were prepared to act in such a heinous way that could have jeopardised the police investigation and give them false hope is despicable," Lewis said. The News of the World's investigation was part of a long campaign against paedophiles championed by the then editor, Rebekah Brooks. The Labour MP Tom Watson last week told the House of Commons that four months after Milly Dowler's disappearance the News of the World had targeted one of the parents of the two 10-year-old Soham girls, Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells, who were abducted and murdered on 4 August 2002. The behaviour of tabloid newspapers became an issue in the trial of Levi Bellfield, who last month was jailed for life for murdering Milly. A second charge, that he had attempted to abduct another Surrey schoolgirl, Rachel Cowles, had to be left on file after premature publicity by tabloids was held to have made it impossible for the jury to reach a fair verdict. The tabloids, however, focused their anger on Bellfield's defence lawyer, complaining that the questioning had caused unnecessary pain to Milly Dowler's parents. Surrey police referred all questions on the subject to Scotland Yard, who said they could not discuss it. The News of the World's parent company News International, part of Murdoch's media empire, said: "We have been co-operating fully with Operation Weeting since our voluntary disclosure in January restarted the investigation into illegal voicemail interception. This particular case is clearly a development of great concern and we will be conducting our own inquiry as a result. We will obviously co-operate fully with any police request on this should we be asked." Pressure is growing on News International after the prime minister joined in condemnation of the News of the World over the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone.David Cameron said it was a "truly dreadful act" and urged police to "pursue this in the most vigorous way". Police are due to meet with senior executives from News International on Tuesday morning, according to reports, with the role of Rebekah Brooks, editor of the News of the World at the time of the hacking, coming under increasing scrutiny. The current News International chief executive has insisted she will not resign. Speaking at a press conference in Afghanistan, Cameron said of the Guardian's reports that the News of the World illegally targeted Milly Dowler and her family: "If they are true this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation. "What I've read in the papers is quite shocking, that someone could do this knowing that the police were trying to find this person and find out what happened. "There is a police investigation into hacking allegations ... they should investigate this without any fear, without any favour, without any worry about where the evidence should lead them. "They should pursue this in the most vigorous way that they can in order to get to the truth of what happened. "That is the absolute priority as a police investigation." The BBC reported that police are to meet News of the World executives at 9.30am to discuss the phone hacking, although the Metropolitan police would not confirm the meeting. The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, wrote on his blog that Brooks "is not planning to resign". Brooks was editor of the News of the World when the hacking took place, with Andy Coulson as her deputy. Coulson resigned as the prime minister's media adviser in January. Peston quoted a News International executive as saying Rupert Murdoch "is backing [brooks] 100%". Another low for British journalism. But I doubt whether heads will roll for this. Neither the government nor the opposition will be brave enough to challenge Murdoch.
Christoph Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Nothing will happen and tabloids will proceed to get exactly what they want. By tabloids I mean Murdoch.
Guest Bilo Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Murdoch and his media empire are utter scum, always have been and always will be. There is literally no prospect whatsoever of anything coming of this, and Cameron will have to mince his words when condemning this action.
breadandcheese Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 To be fair to Cameron and the government, it is for them to be independent of this investigation and the punishments that follow, should persons or newspapers be found guilty. We have laws that the judiciary now need to uphold and an independent Press Complaints Commission that needs to be involved in punishment. It is not for a government to punish a newspaper or the press in general, as this is counter to a free press.
sdb Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 How low can you go... (here's your answer) Surely a national boycott of buying this paper would be worth a shot?
Bellend Sebastian Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Well I don't blame people for saying that this won't change anything, but this is really ramping things up to a whole new level. If Scarlett Johansen's phone is being hacked then I think people will say it's wrong but not get that upset by it, but a missing (and quite possibly dead) teenager in the midst of efforts to find her? Rebecca Brooks may not be inclined to resign but if she's not sacrificed I'd be surprised, whether or not she was party to it. Murdoch is a c*** but he's not mental. Well, he is, but he'll be able to see the threat to his commercial interests that this presents. The IPCC is toothless and only actually does anything about a fraction of stuff that gets reported to it, but I'll be interested to see how they respond to this one
Stevosevic Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Wankers. I fail to see how people can buy The Sun/NOTW. It's full of trash.
ozleicester Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 The Chief executive of News International was the Editor of the NOW when this occurred... the current CHIEF EXECUTIVE!!!!!! So, this clearly demonstrates what news value in their staff and you can safely expect no change from their behaviour.
accessory Posted 5 July 2011 Author Posted 5 July 2011 To be fair to Cameron and the government, it is for them to be independent of this investigation and the punishments that follow, should persons or newspapers be found guilty. We have laws that the judiciary now need to uphold and an independent Press Complaints Commission that needs to be involved in punishment. It is not for a government to punish a newspaper or the press in general, as this is counter to a free press. And so is one individual owning and controlling most of the main media outlets, whether it be Murdoch, Berlusconi in Italy, or anyone else.
Guest Bilo Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Wankers. I fail to see how people can buy The Sun/NOTW. It's full of trash. My theory.
Houdini Logic Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Surely a national boycott of buying this paper would be worth a shot? Completely agree - especially from the companies that advertise in this paper
Trav Le Bleu Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 The problem is that the MPS need the press onside to keep them popular. It's biting ther hand that feeds. I'm surprised that people are only just waking up to the fact that NOTW is gutter press.
Christoph Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_messages_2/?rc=fb&pv=41 Better to do something than nothing
accessory Posted 5 July 2011 Author Posted 5 July 2011 Quite a few of the NOTW's advertisers are now pulling their ads from the papers or seriously considering doing so. They're sending a clear message to Murdoch in the only language he understands. More revelations are expected on Channel 4 News at 7pm tonight. The heat is really being turned up and I think Rebekah Brooks will be VERY fortunate to still be in her post at the end of the week.
Trav Le Bleu Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Quite a few of the NOTW's advertisers are now pulling their ads from the papers or seriously considering doing so. They're sending a clear message to Murdoch in the only language he understands. More revelations are expected on Channel 4 News at 7pm tonight. The heat is really being turned up and I think Rebekah Brooks will be VERY fortunate to still be in her post at the end of the week. She'll be thrown to the wolves regardless of any involvement. I'm going to stand outside my local newsagent this Sunday and hurl abuse at anyone buying NOTW. No, wait... I did that last Sunday... and the Sunday before... not to mention (you get my drift)
accessory Posted 5 July 2011 Author Posted 5 July 2011 It gets worse! They even bugged the phone of police officers Murdoch hasn't had a good week. Yesterday his Fox News Twitter account was itself hacked and posted a story of Barack Obama's assassination. These tweets, coinciding with US Independence Day, were timed to cause maximum impact both in the US and around the world. Maybe the cracks are beginning to appear in his media empire.
Narborough_fox Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Whoever did this needs to go to prison. End of. To give a family false hope of there deceased daughter being alive is just wrong in ever single way.
accessory Posted 5 July 2011 Author Posted 5 July 2011 One of the phone hackers has already done a stretch inside. He has resurfaced today and claimed that he was only obeying orders..
ozleicester Posted 5 July 2011 Posted 5 July 2011 Anyone who has read my posts about the the media in grneral (and News Ltd in particular) is aware of my opinion of these people... BUT... does it justify a 15 minute in depth coverage to the exclusion of Libya, Afghanistan et al on the bbc? Or is it particularly convenient on the week that Murdoch is trying to get approval to buy out BSB, that the Beeb should make the most of this?
accessory Posted 5 July 2011 Author Posted 5 July 2011 I see where you're coming from. But this story would be genuinely disturbing at any time. The betrayal of the Dowler family (and apparently the families of the Soham murder victims too) will not be lightly forgotten or forgiven.
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