Monday, July 25, 2011

UK police face allegations officers leaked contact details to Murdoch tabloid

British police have faced new allegations that officers leaked details about terror attack victims and a murdered schoolgirl to journalists at Rupert Murdoch's felled News of the World tabloid.

The claims deepen the scandal of phone-hacking, which has destroyed Mr. Murdoch's global media empire, claimed the jobs of two of Britain's top police officials and dragged in Prime Minister David Cameron.

A newspaper said on Sunday that the survivors of the July 7, 2005 London Bombings had asked the lawyers to probe their belief that the Metropolitan police  had sold or passed on a confidential list of victims.

Beverli Rhodes, chair of the Survivors Foundation Coalition, said journalists had approached the survivors with false stories about how they got their details.

Four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three underground trains and a bus, killing around 52 people.

The BBC reported that police had removed an police officer from the inquiry into the murder of 13 year old Milly Dowler in 2002, after information was allegedly leaked to the News of the World.

The tabloid has already been accused of hacking Miss Dowler's voicemails and those of families of 7/7 victims, but this was the first time ever police was linked to the paper's activities.

Mr. Murdoch has now closed the News of the World and has personally apologised to Miss Dowler's parents.

Revelations that police employed a former News of the World executive who has since been arrested over phone hacking claimed th jobs of Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson and the force's anti-terror boss John Yates a week ago.

Scotland Yard was heavily criticised for spoiling the initial investigation, which resulted in the jailing of former royal editor and a private investigator in 2007, but concluded he was a "rogue reporter".

When the force re-opened the investigation owing to pressure, it emerged that nearly 4000 people may have their phones hacked.

Even other newspapers such as Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror were involved in these allegations earlier this week, but the main effects ave been on Mr. Murdoch's paper.

News Corporation was forced by the scandal to scrap its bid for full control of pay-TV giant BSkyB earlier this month.

The British Finance Minister George Osborne denied that his decision was infueneced by a meeting with Mr. Murdoch and told that he is to meet all the proprietors and editors of all the newspapers.

Britain's Cabinet Office is due to publish details of all the meetings between cabinet ministers and News International executives since May 2010 early next week.

Mr. Murdoch's son James meanwhile faces calls for a police probe into evidence he gave to MP's last week saying he did not know hacking was more widespread.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cameron also has come under pressure due to his decision to employ Andy Coulson, another former editor of the tabloid, as his media chief.

Mr. Coulson then quit Downing Street in January and was arrested on July 8. Ten people have been detained since January.

Reported by

     AR

 

 

 

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