Phone hacking: Ian Paisley Jr alleges family were targeted
Northern Ireland MP says he met police from Operation Weeting who are investigating whether he and his father were hacked
One of Northern Ireland's best-known political families believes they were a victim of phone hacking, after meeting detectives from Metropolitan police investigating the illegal interception of voicemails.
Ian Paisley Jr, the MP for North Antrim, confirmed on Wednesday that he had met officers from Operation Weeting, who are investigating whether he and his father, the former Northern Ireland first minister, were targeted by phone hackers working for news organisations.
The Democratic Unionist MP said: "I believe that hacking was used to gather stories and garner intelligence in order to ask questions to stand up stories. And I believe that my phones and those of my father were hacked."
Paisley said that he believed that the extent of hacking within Northern Ireland may have been widespread raising the possibility that sensitive security information including intelligence from within paramilitary organisations had been gleaned from the practice.
The MP confirmed that he had passed on his and his father's phone details to the Metropolitan police, but he declined to say which news organisations he believed had targeted him and the former first minister.
The son of the Democratic Unionist Party's founder came under media scrutiny over his links with a property developer in North Antrim who sought to build an interpretative centre at the world heritage site, the Giant's Causeway. Paisley always denied that there was any improper financial relationship between himself and the builder Seymour Sweeney.
Paisley also said he had been in contact with the Leveson inquiry to inform it of the latest development. He said that he had been advised that Lord Justice Leveson may respond by holding some hearings in Northern Ireland.
"I hope Leverson is coming to the province because it should investigate the extent of hacking in newsrooms i! n Northe rn Ireland," he said.
It understood a number of other prominent people in Northern Ireland or who had worked in the province may have been the targets of phone hacking including the former chief constable Sir Hugh Orde. The ex-head of the PSNI was the subject of several tabloid stories about his private life during his tenure as chief constable.
There are fears also within the intelligence community that a number of senior Northern Ireland Office officials had their phones hacked. Some of the hacking occurred during sensitive negotiations between republicans and unionists leading to the current power-sharing settlement, and revelations of state agents operating inside the IRA and loyalist terror groups.
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