A former defence minister last night urged the director of public prosecutions to sanction an investigation into whether the News of the World and Scotland Yard have perverted the course of justice over illegal phone hacking.
As Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former spin doctor, claimed that his phone may have been hacked, Tom Watson called for an outside force to carry out a "deep investigation" into the conduct of the newspaper and the Metropolitan police.
In a letter to Keir Starmer, who pledged on Monday to adopt a "robust approach" to investigating allegations of phone hacking, Watson raised a series of questions about conduct of the Met and the newspaper.
Watson, the former defence minister:
• Asked why Met officers investigating allegations against Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, jailed for phone hacking in 2007, did not interview other senior News of the World journalists or search their computers. Watson pointed out police simply requested information from the paper's lawyers.
• Said the Met had failed to notify people whose names appeared in paperwork seized from the home of Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator paid by the paper who was jailed at the same time as Goodman. "Lawyers acting for the targets attest that when asked to provide copies of Mulcaire's notes with a view to litigation against the News of the World, the [Met] have been uncooperative to the point of obstruction."
• Raised questions about the way in which News International has paid off alleged victims of phone hacking.
Watson wrote: "The purpose of this letter is to make the case that there has been a conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice. As fragments of evidence have been forced out of News International and the Metropolitan Police Service by civil litigations and Parliamentary enquiries, the case for a deep investigation by an outside force is now, I think, insurmountable.
"The impression of a deliberate and concerted attempt to conceal the commission of serious crime is reinforced by the conduct of the NoW itself. In at least two cases, NoW has settled privacy actions brought by victims of its phone hacking for sums in the order of 100 times greater than any likely award of damages by a court. In each case this settlement followed quickly upon a court order for disclosure and included a confidentiality clause and the sealing of court documents.
"On the face of it, it appears that certain officers in the MPS have not only failed properly to follow evidence, but have taken active measures to conceal it ... The possibility that these officers are guilty of perverting the course of justice and/or misfeasance in public office and/or conspiracy now requires urgent investigation by an independent police force."
The Met faced further pressure as Campbell instructed his lawyers to contact Scotland Yard with details of a specific incident of alleged phone hacking.
Campbell believes his phone was hacked shortly after he left Downing Street in 2003 when he advised a senior member of Blair's cabinet. A News of the World photographer was waiting outside Campbell's house when a minister arrived for a meeting which had been arranged in mobile phone calls and text messages without reference to civil servants.
Campbell said: "Phone hacking is more widespread than people realise and was carried out by many more newspapers. That is why it is not being pursued by most of the press. Just as John Prescott has been pursuing it, I intend to get to the bottom of it."
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the commons home affairs select committee, said he would be publishing a list of people whose phones were allegedly hacked. Vaz told the London Evening Standard: "The committee has received written evidence from a number of people who are very concerned that they were being hacked and we will be publishing that information shortly. This is a very serious matter and it is all taking far too long."
Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, a former law lord, told the Commons standards and privileges committee yesterday that newspapers may have been in contempt of parliament by hacking MPs' phones. Nicholls said: "The nature of contempt is improper interference with the rights and duties of members [MPs]. It is the interference with parliament. It is in the public interest that parliament should not be interfered with. The means by which that interference takes place may of course be the treatment of an individual member outside."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ja ... son-policeAt this rate, either the Met takes a PR pounding, or it takes it on the chin with whatever Team Murdoch has as leverage...
