News of the World royal phone hacking scandal
Encyclopedia
The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 - 2007 around the interception of voice mail relating to the British Royal Family by a private investigator working for a News of the World
journalist. It formed a prelude to the wider News International phone hacking scandal which developed in 2009 and exploded in 2011, when it became clear that the phone hacking had taken place on a much wider scale. Early indications of this in the police investigation were not followed through, and the failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011.
In August 2006, the News of the World
s royal editor, Clive Goodman
and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire
, were arrested by the Metropolitan Police, and later charged with hacking the telephones of members of the royal family
by accessing voicemail messages, an offence under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
. On 26 January 2007, both Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced to four and six months imprisonment respectively. On the same day, it was announced that Andy Coulson
had resigned as editor of the News of the World.
written by royal editor Clive Goodman
, that claimed that Prince William was in the process of borrowing a portable editing suite from ITV
royal correspondent Tom Bradby.
Following the publication, the Prince and Bradby met to try to figure out how the details of their arrangement had been leaked, as only two other people were aware of it. Prince William noted that another equally improbable leak had recently taken place regarding an appointment he had made with a knee surgeon. After some discussion, the Prince and Bradby concluded it was likely that their voicemails were being accessed.
Their concerns were passed to the Metropolitan Police
, who set up an investigation under Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Peter Clarke
, who managed the Counter Terrorism Command
. Clarke reported to Assistant Commissioner
Andy Hayman
, commander of the Specialist Operations
directorate. The reason the investigation was passed to Hayman and Clarke, was that Hayman's command included the Protection Command
, under whom SO14 provide all Royalty Protection.
Clarke's investigation began as a localised incident involving staff at Clarence House
, but the compiled list of possible victims broadened to include: Government ministers; a Member of Parliament; military chiefs; a leading media figure; Premiership footballers; and celebrities. Clarke's investigation team searched the London office of the News of the World, eventually concluding that the compromised voice mail accounts belonged to Prince William's aides, including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, and not the Prince himself.
, Goodman and Mulcaire were charged with hacking the telephones of members of the royal family
by accessing voicemail messages, an offence under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
. Goodman was subsequently suspended by the paper.
In September 2006 lawyers for News of the World parent company Newsgroup Newspapers told the police that
During the subsequent court hearing, the jury were told that Goodman and Mulcaire made a total of 609 calls to the royal staff members' numbers, with Goodman making 487 calls, while Mulcaire made 122 calls. Over this period, the News of the World had paid Mulcaire £104,988 for his services, on top of which Goodman had additionally paid Mulcaire £12,300 in cash between 9 November 2005 and 7 August 2006, hiding Mulcaire's identity by using the code name Alexander on his expenses sheet. The court heard that Mulcaire had also hacked into the messages of: supermodel Elle Macpherson
; publicist Max Clifford
; MP Simon Hughes
; football agent Skylet Andrew; and the Professional Footballers' Association's Gordon Taylor
.
On 26 January 2007, Mr Justice Gross jailed Goodman for four months, having previously pled guilty to the charges. His associate and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was imprisoned for six months. On the same day, it was announced that Andy Coulson
had resigned as the editor of the News of the World a fortnight earlier. He was immediately replaced by former Sunday Mirror
editor and previously executive editor of the New York Post
, Colin Myler
, hired by News International Chairman Les Hinton
.
.
At this time, Harbottle & Lewis were also acting for the offices of Prince Charles
in their debates with the Metropolitan Police's investigations with regards to the hacking of the phones of his sons, Princes William and Harry.
During its work for News International, Harbottle & Lewis took possession of hundreds of internal emails. In a letter dated 29 May 2007, sent to News International head of legal affairs Jon Chapman, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis wrote that:
This letter was subsequently used by various News International executives in their defence during a parliamentary investigation into phone hacking in 2009.
Chapman then wrote to News International chairman Les Hinton, that the company was likely to lose the case filed by Goodman, based on grounds of failing to follow specified contractual employment law procedure. This could result in a payment of £60,600 to Goodman, plus his notice period. Hinton hence authorised an out of court settlement to Goodman, covering the sum indicated by Chapman, plus Goodman's legal costs. After settlement of Goodman's case, a similar amount was authorised to Mulcaire after he also started legal action, again settled out of court on Hinton's authorisation.
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
journalist. It formed a prelude to the wider News International phone hacking scandal which developed in 2009 and exploded in 2011, when it became clear that the phone hacking had taken place on a much wider scale. Early indications of this in the police investigation were not followed through, and the failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011.
In August 2006, the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
s royal editor, Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...
and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire
Glenn Mulcaire
Glenn Mulcaire, born September 8, 1970, is a former professional footballer, latterly a private investigator. He has been closely associated with the News International phone hacking scandal. In January 2007 he was found guilty of illegally intercepting phone messages from Clarence House and...
, were arrested by the Metropolitan Police, and later charged with hacking the telephones of members of the royal family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
by accessing voicemail messages, an offence under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications...
. On 26 January 2007, both Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced to four and six months imprisonment respectively. On the same day, it was announced that Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
had resigned as editor of the News of the World.
Background
On 13 November 2005, an article appeared in the News of the WorldNews of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
written by royal editor Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...
, that claimed that Prince William was in the process of borrowing a portable editing suite from ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
royal correspondent Tom Bradby.
Following the publication, the Prince and Bradby met to try to figure out how the details of their arrangement had been leaked, as only two other people were aware of it. Prince William noted that another equally improbable leak had recently taken place regarding an appointment he had made with a knee surgeon. After some discussion, the Prince and Bradby concluded it was likely that their voicemails were being accessed.
Their concerns were passed to the Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
, who set up an investigation under Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Deputy Assistant Commissioner
Deputy assistant commissioner is a rank in London's Metropolitan Police Service between assistant commissioner and commander. It is equivalent to deputy chief constable in other British police forces and wears the same insignia: a pip above crossed tipstaves within a wreath.The rank was introduced...
Peter Clarke
Peter Clarke (police officer)
Peter John Michael Clarke CVO OBE QPM is a retired senior police officer with London's Metropolitan Police most notably having served as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner with the Specialist Operations directorate, commanding the Counter Terrorism Command.-Early and personal life:Clarke holds a...
, who managed the Counter Terrorism Command
Counter Terrorism Command
Counter Terrorism Command or SO15 is a Specialist Operations branch within London's Metropolitan Police Service. Counter Terrorism Command was established as a result of the merging of the Anti-Terrorist Branch , and the Special Branch in 2006, to form a single counter-terrorism investigative unit...
. Clarke reported to Assistant Commissioner
Assistant Commissioner
Assistant commissioner is a rank used in many police forces across the globe. It is also a rank used in revenue administrations in many countries.-Australia:...
Andy Hayman
Andy Hayman
Andrew Christopher "Andy" Hayman, CBE, QPM is a retired British police officer and author of The Terrorist Hunters. Hayman held the rank of Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London's Metropolitan Police, the highest ranking officer...
, commander of the Specialist Operations
Specialist Operations
Specialist Operations is a directorate of the Metropolitan Police. At its peak, SO was a group of twenty specialist units, which were formed to give the Metropolitan Police a specialist policing capability. The SO designation was implemented in 1986 as part of Sir Kenneth Newman's restructuring of...
directorate. The reason the investigation was passed to Hayman and Clarke, was that Hayman's command included the Protection Command
Protection Command
The Protection Command is one of the three Commands within the Specialist Operations directorate of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Within the Command, there are two branches - Specialist Protection and Royalty Protection, who provides protective security to the government/diplomatic...
, under whom SO14 provide all Royalty Protection.
Clarke's investigation began as a localised incident involving staff at Clarence House
Clarence House
Clarence House is a royal home in London, situated on The Mall, in the City of Westminster. It is attached to St. James's Palace and shares the palace's garden. For nearly 50 years, from 1953 to 2002, it was home to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, but is since then the official residence of The...
, but the compiled list of possible victims broadened to include: Government ministers; a Member of Parliament; military chiefs; a leading media figure; Premiership footballers; and celebrities. Clarke's investigation team searched the London office of the News of the World, eventually concluding that the compromised voice mail accounts belonged to Prince William's aides, including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, and not the Prince himself.
Goodman and Mulcaire trial
On 8 August 2006, Clarke's team arrested three men, including Goodman and former footballer turned private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. After releasing the third man, in consultation with the Crown Prosecution ServiceCrown Prosecution Service
The Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
, Goodman and Mulcaire were charged with hacking the telephones of members of the royal family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
by accessing voicemail messages, an offence under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications...
. Goodman was subsequently suspended by the paper.
In September 2006 lawyers for News of the World parent company Newsgroup Newspapers told the police that
During the subsequent court hearing, the jury were told that Goodman and Mulcaire made a total of 609 calls to the royal staff members' numbers, with Goodman making 487 calls, while Mulcaire made 122 calls. Over this period, the News of the World had paid Mulcaire £104,988 for his services, on top of which Goodman had additionally paid Mulcaire £12,300 in cash between 9 November 2005 and 7 August 2006, hiding Mulcaire's identity by using the code name Alexander on his expenses sheet. The court heard that Mulcaire had also hacked into the messages of: supermodel Elle Macpherson
Elle Macpherson
Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s...
; publicist Max Clifford
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
; MP Simon Hughes
Simon Hughes
Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Until 2008 he was President of the Liberal Democrats...
; football agent Skylet Andrew; and the Professional Footballers' Association's Gordon Taylor
Gordon Taylor
Gordon Edward Taylor was a Canadian politician, businessman and teacher.-Provincial political career:He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1940 provincial election representing Drumheller for Social Credit and continued to sit in the legislature for 39 years...
.
On 26 January 2007, Mr Justice Gross jailed Goodman for four months, having previously pled guilty to the charges. His associate and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was imprisoned for six months. On the same day, it was announced that Andy Coulson
Andy Coulson
Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...
had resigned as the editor of the News of the World a fortnight earlier. He was immediately replaced by former Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
editor and previously executive editor of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, Colin Myler
Colin Myler
Colin Myler is a British former newspaper editor.Myler grew up in Widnes in Cheshire. He started his career working for the Catholic Pictorial news agency in Southport, before joining The Sun and then the Daily Mail. He was appointed news editor of the Sunday People, then moved to Today in 1985,...
, hired by News International Chairman Les Hinton
Les Hinton
Leslie Frank "Les" Hinton is a British-American journalist and businessman. Hinton, born in the UK, became a United States citizen in 1986. He was appointed CEO of Dow Jones & Company in December 2007, after its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...
.
Unfair dismissal claim
Goodman subsequently filed an unfair dismissal claim against News Group Newspapers Limited, his former employer and the publisher of The Sun and The News of the World. Goodman started his claim against his former employer, engaging defence lawyer John Kelsey-Fry, on the grounds that the practice of phone hacking was widespread at the newspaper group. To defend their case, News International hired London-based media specialist solicitors Harbottle & LewisHarbottle & Lewis
Harbottle & Lewis is a law firm based in London, United Kingdom which advises clients across the media, communications and entertainment industries....
.
At this time, Harbottle & Lewis were also acting for the offices of Prince Charles
Charles, Prince of Wales
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir apparent and eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Since 1958 his major title has been His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. In Scotland he is additionally known as The Duke of Rothesay...
in their debates with the Metropolitan Police's investigations with regards to the hacking of the phones of his sons, Princes William and Harry.
During its work for News International, Harbottle & Lewis took possession of hundreds of internal emails. In a letter dated 29 May 2007, sent to News International head of legal affairs Jon Chapman, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis wrote that:
This letter was subsequently used by various News International executives in their defence during a parliamentary investigation into phone hacking in 2009.
Chapman then wrote to News International chairman Les Hinton, that the company was likely to lose the case filed by Goodman, based on grounds of failing to follow specified contractual employment law procedure. This could result in a payment of £60,600 to Goodman, plus his notice period. Hinton hence authorised an out of court settlement to Goodman, covering the sum indicated by Chapman, plus Goodman's legal costs. After settlement of Goodman's case, a similar amount was authorised to Mulcaire after he also started legal action, again settled out of court on Hinton's authorisation.
See also
- CTB v News Group NewspapersCTB v News Group NewspapersCTB v News Group Newspapers is an English legal case between Manchester United player Ryan Giggs, given the pseudonym CTB, and defendants News Group Newspapers Limited and model Imogen Thomas....
- List of alleged victims of the News of the World phone hacking scandal
- Mosley v News Group Newspapers Limited
- Politico-media complexPolitico-media complexThe politico-media complex is a name that has been given to the close, systematized, symbiotic-like network of relationships between a state's political and ruling classes, its media industry, and any interactions with or dependencies upon interest groups with other domains and agencies, such as...
- Sheridan v News InternationalSheridan v News InternationalSheridan v News Group Newspapers is a civil court case brought by Tommy Sheridan against the publishers of the News of the World, which began in the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 4 July 2006...