Bob Crow wades into phone-hacking row
By politics.co.uk staff
Police have told Bob Crow that they will be unable to confirm if he is a phone-hacking victim for three months, despite claims his union was put under surveillance.
Officials for the RMT said they had "good reason to believe" that internal union information has been obtained by journalists from News International.
The development comes as the phone-hacking scandal continues to wreak havoc in Westminster, prompting the resignation of Britain's most senior policemen and triggering a rare Commons committee appearance from Rupert Murdoch and his son James.
"We have been informed by officers from Operation Weeting [the current investigation into phone-hacking] that it will be up to three months before we get answers from the investigations into the suspicion that Bob Crow, and possibly other officials of the RMT, were targeted by the News International hacking conspiracy," a spokesperson said.
"We have good reason to believe that internal and confidential information relating to this trade union and its officials' movements has been obtained by suspect means by both News International and its operatives, and possibly by other national newspapers, and we fully understand in light of the sheer weight of evidence why the police investigations may take some time to conclude.”
Operation Weeting is widely credited with being a thorough attempt to establish the extent of phone-hacking at the News of the World.
