MPs release phone-hacking evidence
New evidence on phone-hacking has been released by a parliamentary probe into the scandal.
The Commons’ home affairs committee released memoranda submitted by a number of key players, most of which seem to reinforce criticisms about the Metropolitan police’s conduct in investigating the allegations.
Mark Lewis of Taylor Hampton Solicitors, a representative of phone-hacking victims, accused the Met of being “deliberately obstructive” in its approaches to potential victims.
He said officers had made statements “which have the effect of misleading the public and thereby putting them off bring a claim”.
Phone-hacking evidence highlights
Guardian journalist Nick Davies, who broke fresh allegations in July 2009, said the evidence suggested the police continued to take an “equivocal approach to enforcing the law in Fleet Street”.
Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, explained in his evidence that he had sought to avoid a lack of clarity in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act by making clear he assumed a court would adopt a “wide interpretation”.
Meanwhile former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan told MPs that he believed Andy Coulson, the former No 10 director of communications who quit over the scandal last month, must have known about phone-hacking.
“The real scandal is Cameron would have been briefed: ‘We can probably get away with this one,’ when hiring Coulson, so Mr Cameron is either a liar or an idiot,” he wrote.
Max Mosley, one of the high-profile victims of phone-hacking, expressed his frustrations with the Met’s reluctance to investigate.
Attacking the News of the World simultaneously, he added: “It has shown contempt for the law and, by virtue of its employees’ false evidence to a parliamentary select committee, contempt for parliament itself.
“Yet the Metropolitan police have not acted and continue to treat it like a normal commercial company.”
