Metropolitan Police pledges robust phone hacking probe

Source - BBC News

 

Appearing before the Metropolitan Police Authority, Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin defended the force's handling of the case so far.

 

On Wednesday the Met said it had received "significant new information".

 

There has been criticism of Scotland Yard's handling of the case from figures including Lord Prescott.

 

Acting Commissioner Godwin told the panel: "It will be very robust and it will be under scrutiny as it should be.

 

"It will restore confidence in victims who feel they have not been given a service. It will be with no stone unturned. We have some of the most skilled investigators in the country and you will be proud of what they do."

 

He added that the force was not afraid to be held accountable at the end of the process.

 

The inquiry has been transferred to the Met's specialist crime directorate and will be led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers.

 

'Running scared'

 

Acting Deputy Commissioner John Yates explained they could not contact potential victims to provide them with information on the case for civil purposes without a court order.

 

But a source on one of the legal teams acting for those who believe their phones have been hacked told BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins they disputed this assertion.

 

Meanwhile, former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Fowler has called for a "full scale inquiry" into the case, while former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Prescott has restated his demand for a judicial review.

 

Former Scotland Yard assistant commissioner Brian Paddick, who believes his phone was hacked into by another newspaper, accused the force of running scared of the press.

 

"There is a whole media machine at New Scotland Yard, designed to try and make sure the police are portrayed positively in the media. The last thing the police want to do is to upset newspaper editors, which could result in biased reporting against the police."

 

A number of public figures have launched civil legal actions against both the News of the World (NoW) and the police amid allegations the practice of phone hacking was widespread.

 

Scotland Yard's decision to reopen the hacking investigation follows a NoW internal inquiry that led to the sacking of its head of news, Ian Edmondson, on Tuesday.

 

BBC business editor Robert Peston has learned that News International, which owns the paper, uncovered four e-mails showing that Mr Edmondson had full knowledge of illegal phone hacking. The details were passed to police.

 

Legitimate reasons

 

Meanwhile, the BBC has seen documents relating to the hacking of a phone owned by interior designer Kelly Hoppen in 2010, allegedly by reporter Dan Evans, who was suspended from the paper last year.

 

She had successfully won a court order forcing a telephone company to release the identity of anyone allegedly trying to hack her phone between June 2009 and March 2010.

 

Both Ms Hoppen and her stepdaughter, the actress Sienna Miller, are taking action against the newspaper. News International and Mr Evans are defending the allegations.

 

Brian Paddick said the police are afraid of upsetting newspaper editors

 

The Guardian has previously reported that Mr Evans's defence is he phoned Ms Hoppen's number for legitimate reasons and accidentally accessed her voicemail when the keys on his own phone got stuck.

 

In a statement NoW said: "We have carried out an extensive investigation led by a team of independent forensic specialists and we have found no evidence whatsoever to support this allegation.

 

"The civil litigation is ongoing, as is the internal investigation and until both are concluded it would be inappropriate to comment further.

 

"However, we are disappointed the BBC chose to lead with this misleading report without giving the News of the World an opportunity to respond."

 

Mr Edmondson was suspended from active duties last month after he was identified in court documents as having instructed private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to access phone messages.

 

Mulcaire was jailed for six months in January 2007 alongside royal editor Clive Goodman, who was sentenced to four months, for hacking into the mobile phones of royal aides.

 

Last week Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman Andy Coulson resigned, saying the media storm surrounding ongoing hacking claims had distracted him from his work.

 

Mr Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007 and resigned from that job following the convictions of Goodman and Mulcaire.

 

However, he has always denied having any knowledge of hacking, and a source close to him has told the BBC he is not implicated in any way by the new evidence that has come to light.

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TBH, I think Brian Paddick may have a point, I think the reasons for the absolutely woeful original investigation has to be that the Met didn't want bad publicity, or to be given a hard time from the tabloid media in the future should a contentious investigation have arisen...

 

Of course, the fact that there are likely quite a few Met officers being paid by hacks for "exclusives" and "insider info" in particularly juicy investigations clearly has no bearing on things, naaaaaahhhh... I think the way the Met Police has conducted this affair is probably as big a scandal as the crime itself, there's either collusion at high levels, or the Met are just plain incompetent (mind you, either option is equally possible, let's face it), isn't it amazing how vigourous they were against MP Damien Green, and yet in this affair, they seemed completely nowhere, just taking whatever sh"te News International was telling them about a single "rogue reporter" and a single Private Investigator at face value... Unreal...

 

But then, I guess the Met Pig Force were and are too pre-occupied with claiming overtime for kettling student protestors, shooting Brazilian plumbers, shagging environmental activists and going in mob-handed against a few Anti-Iraq protestors at Parliament Square and the Cenotaph to actually rigourously investigate high-level corruption at a Media Empire....

 

The question has to be asked - Who the hell do the Metropolitan Police Force actually serve, the establishment or ordinary Londoners....? I fear we already know instinctively the answer to this, but we also know what the answer should be.....

 

 

And who does the officer who led the original investigation work for now? News International.

 

Don't you just love the was the News of the World were asked politely if they had any incriminating evidence? Can you imagine them knocking on the door of a suspected burglar and saying to him "Would you mind just having a quick look in your loft to see if you can find any stolen property?"

And who does the officer who led the original investigation work for now? News International.

 

Don't you just love the was the News of the World were asked politely if they had any incriminating evidence? Can you imagine them knocking on the door of a suspected burglar and saying to him "Would you mind just having a quick look in your loft to see if you can find any stolen property?"

 

Oh, so that would be the first option I presented then....

 

Spot on dude on the second paragraph too... :lol: