Phone hacking: police warn Mail journalists of voicemail interceptions
Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail may have been targeted by News of the World investigator Glenn Mulcaire
Six journalists who worked for the Mail on Sunday and its sister title the Daily Mail are set to be shown evidence by Scotland Yard which suggests their voicemail messages were intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked at the News of the World.
The fact that journalists from rival titles, several of whom are still employed by the Mail titles' owner Associated Newspapers, are being warned by the Met they were being targeted by Mulcaire signals that Operation Weeting, the Met's phone hacking investigation which began in January, is about to enter a dramatic phase.
It follows news that Dennis Rice, a Fleet Street veteran who works for the Mail on Sunday as a freelance, is suing the News of the World's owner News Group for alleged breach of privacy, joining public figures who have already launched civil actions action against the title at the high court.
The four remaining Mail on Sunday journalists, along with a Daily Mail reporter, are expected to be contacted by the Met at some point.
The Guardian understands that several of them may follow Rice's example by bringing their own legal proceedings against News Group.
The latest development could threaten the uneasy Fleet Street alliance between tabloid titles, which have been slow to report revelations about the true extent of phone hacking because they fear it will damage public perception of their trade.
Rival titles are also reluctant to cover the story because the majority have also used private investigators in the past. A 2007 report by the information commissioner titled, What Price Privacy, found that the Daily Mail commissioned another private investigator, Steve Whittamore, on more occasions than any other newspaper. The sam! e report found that 31 titles used Whittamore, including the Guardian's sister title the Observer, which is also published by Guardian Media Group.
Rice, who was investigations editor at the Mail on Sunday in 2005 and 2006, is thought to have been shocked by the evidence he was shown by the Met prior to launching his action. It is believed to include recordings Mulcaire made of messages left on Rice's mobile phone, including several from friends and families.
News Group has conceded that Mulcaire was acting on the instructions of News of the World journalists in some cases, but it is contesting other claims.
It is understood that detectives warned the Mail on Sunday's owner Associated Newspapers in 2006 to improve its security systems. The fact that a group of journalists at the Mail titles are apparently intent on discovering whether they were hacked by Mulcaire makes it more likely that the tactics employed by sections of Fleet Street in their search for stories will be exposed.
Journalists frequently attempted to land exclusives by using underhand methods, including trying to access news lists held by competitors. But it now appears that some of them may have been habitually hacking into one another's voicemail message in the hope of obtaining stories, leads and contacts.
The original police inquiry, which led to Mulcaire being jailed in 2007, also discovered evidence that he has successfully intercepted voicemail messages belonging to Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the Sun when Mulcaire was working exclusively for its Sunday stablemate. The current investigation is believed to have found evidence that another former Sun editor, Kelvin Mackenzie, also had his phone hacked.
News International declined to comment.
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