JUDGE RULES PHONE HACKING OCCURRED AT THE SUN UNDER REBEKAH BROOKS' EDITORSHIP

BREAKING- JUDGE RULES PHONE HACKING OCCURRED AT THE SUN UNDER REBEKAH BROOKS' EDITORSHIP.
 
Nick Mutch London,
 
28 April 2016
 
Ruling comes in a significant civil claim against the Sun for phone hacking.
 
Two years after being acquitted of conspiracy to hack phones during her time as editor of the News of the World, Rebekah Brooks is facing another legal challenge after a judge ruled that phone hacking also took place at The Sun, which she edited between 2003-2009.
 
Editor of the News of the World’ newspaper from 2000-2003 Brooks was cleared of conspiracy charges after a nine-month trial in 2014. However eight of her former executives and senior reporters, including her deputy and successor Andy Coulson were convicted of conspiracy to intercept voicemails.
 
Now, Brooks reinstated as CEO last September despite criticism about her competence, faces a legal battle on another front as Judge George Mann has ruled  phone hacking clearly occurred at The Sun, tabloid newspaper, during the six years of her editorship, 2003-2009.
 
The court heard from former assistant Editor of the News of the World, Greg Miskiw, who claimed Brooks ‘was aware I was using phone hacking and surveillance to obtain stories’ while she was editor of The Sun. Miskiw provided stories to TheSun after leaving the News of the World.
 
Byline exclusively revealed Miskiw’s claims Brooks had been told explicitly about his use of phone hacking while she was Editor of the News of the World. Referring to a tabloid source, he explained to Brooks; ‘we turned around his phone records, listened to his voice mails, got his address, hacked his computer, got his employment records’.
 
Miskiw admitted tasking private detective Glenn Mulcaire with the hacking of Fiona Mills, sister -in -law of Sir Paul McCartney, for stories that appeared in The Sun in June 2006. Mulcaire admitted in court the hacking of prostitute Pat Tierney’s phone for information about her relationship with footballer Wayne Rooney, this was the basis for articles published in The Sun in August 2004.
 
He showed the court emails with then associate editor Geoff Webster where he asked to be paid for ‘monitoring’ her phone. Miskiw and Mulcaire have both previously plead guilty to phone hacking charges.
 
The Court also heard from former deputy features Editor of the News of the World Paul McMullan. He stated Brooks set a ‘tone of criminality’ and that ‘the only way… to keep our jobs was to go along with it’. 
 
He claimed it was standard practice at The Sun for journalists to be tasked finding a legitimate way to stand up a story based on information gathered by phone hacking or surveillance.
 
Since 2011 The Sun has lost nearly a million readers. Yesterday it was widely criticized for not covering the Hillsborough Inquest on its front pages, despite having been in the forefront of a campaign during the disaster which sought to blame the 96 victims of the stadium disaster for the tragedy rather than police incompetence.
 
These claims point to the court's belief that phone hacking followed Editor Rebekah Brooks from one paper to another. When Clive Goodman was the first journalist convicted in 2007, he was labeled a ‘rogue reporter.’ When nine journalists and executives were convicted in 2014, the News of the World was referred to as the ‘rogue newspaper.’ The new civil claims suggest phone hacking occurred on much wider basis.
 
https://www.byline.com/column/51/article/1015

Sun hacking claims can go ahead, judge rules
 
20 minutes ago
From the section 
UK
 
Claims against the Sun newspaper by phone-hacking victims can go ahead, a High Court judge has ruled.
 
News Group Newspapers (NGN), which has previously settled a large number of cases brought against the now-defunct News of the World, has always said there was no hacking activity at its sister tabloid.
 
But on Thursday in London, Mr Justice Mann allowed the claims to proceed.
More than 1,000 phone hacking claims have been settled by NGN - now News UK.
The judge said four claimants could amend their cases to include the daily newspaper for the first time in the proceedings against NGN.
 
Two of those claims are among a number scheduled for a trial in July.
 
Chris Hutchings, one of the lead solicitors for those claiming their private voicemail messages were hacked, said: "Today's ruling brings the Sun squarely into the civil litigation being brought against News Group."
 
"The court has now allowed claimants, for the first time, to include claims of phone hacking by the newspaper.
 
"The decision will also affect up to 50 further cases which are about to be commenced against the Defendant and will widen the disclosure of documentation it will have to provide going forward."
 
One of the new claims in the third round of the long-running litigation - which includes the Sun - has been brought by Simon Clegg, the former chief executive of the British Olympic Association.
 
Others now suing NGN include EastEnders actors Christopher Parker and Brooke Kinsella, Coronation Street actor Kym Marsh, designer Pearl Lowe and her musician husband Danny Goffey and Leslie Heseltine, who is better known as actor and comedian Les Dennis.
 
Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones while his predecessor Rebekah Brooks was cleared of all charges.
 
Four other defendants were cleared along with Mrs Brooks.
 
In September Mrs Brooks returned to her role as chief executive of News UK.
She had resigned the same role in 2011 in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and was given a £16m payoff by the newspaper group.
 
Royals, celebrities and victims of crime were among those whose phones were hacked by the News of the World.
 
The paper was closed in July 2011 after it emerged that it had instructed a private investigator to intercept - or "hack" - voicemails left on the mobile phone of murdered Surrey teenager Milly Dowler in 2002.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36159107
 
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‘News Group Newspapers (NGN), which has previously settled a large number of cases brought against the now-defunct News of the World, has always said there was no hacking activity at its sister tabloid.’
 
   
Don’t know how it would work against a ‘spokesman’ or solicitor, but if proven, could 'corporate' perjury charges follow?

Kate must be seething she wasn't hacked, missing out on claiming a lion share from the Sun.

Truth will out and the internet is helping greatly.  

People are fed up WTPTB and are standing their ground.

aiyoyo wrote:Kate must be seething she wasn't hacked, missing out on claiming a lion share from the Sun.

Time for fragrant Rebekah to ring Daves brother to defend her reputation of defamation,after all she could use some of her redundancy money paid by Rupert when the NoTW was forced to close over the Hacking Scandal,of which SY couldn't find evidence to procede to trail in a lot of cases?

aiyoyo wrote:Kate must be seething she wasn't hacked, missing out on claiming a lion share from the Sun.

I think that Kate has already received a lion share from the Sun.  Working alongside them, selling her story, serialising her book etc.

Any parent of a genuinely missing child would have sued the Sun for all the nonsense that they have printed (and profited from) about Madeleine whilst she was still missing and the investigation was ongoing.  The biggest hindrance to the search must surely have been the Sun's insistence on alerting the suspects to the possibility that the police were on to them.


And, of course, it was Rebekah Brooks who demanded that a review of the McCann case be set up.  Why would she do that?  Was it out of the goodness of her heart or to secure some good stories for the next few years?


Phone hacking

Threatening the staff with dismissal if they didn't tow the line

Threatening the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary

Paying bribes to the police in return for information

Husband battering

Using the fate of a 3 year old to sell newspapers

False reporting

Allowing unprofessional, tacky and abusive comments to discredit Goncalo Amaral

What sort of woman is she?


More to the point, where does Clarence Mitchell, the man that Leveson forgot, fit into all this mess?  After all he was supposed tp control what come out in the press.