News International found 'smoking gun' e-mails in 2007

10 July 2011 Last updated at 14:10
. Article written by Robert Peston
Business editor
News International found 'smoking gun' e-mails in 2007

News International found e-mails in 2007 that appeared to indicate that payments were being made to the police for information, although this evidence of alleged criminal behaviour was not handed to the Metropolitan Police for investigation until 20 June of this year.
According to sources, these e-mails were in the possession of the firm of solicitors, Harbottle & Lewis.

They were retrieved from Harbottle & Lewis by lawyers acting for News Interernational and for William Lewis - general manager of News International - who is in charge of News International's clean-up of what went wrong at the News of the World (and who was recruited by News International last July).

The e-mails appear to show Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World from 2003-2007, authorising payments to the police for help with stories.

They also appear to show that phone hacking went wider than the activities of a single rogue reporter, which was the News of the World's claim at the time.

Mr Coulson, who subsequently became David Cameron's director of communications in 10 Downing Street, was arrested and bailed last week.

In a letter presented to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Harbottle & Lewis confirmed that it had been asked by News International to review whether the illegal actions of Clive Goodman - the News of the World's former royal editor, jailed in 2007 for phone hacking - were known to his News of the World colleagues.

In this letter, dated 29 May 2007, and sent to Jon Chapman of News International, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis wrote that it had "reviewed e-mails to which you have provided access from the accounts of Andy Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Ian Edmondson, Clive Goodman, Neil Wallis, Jules Stenson".

Mr Abramson confirmed to Mr Chapman that it "did not find anything in those e-mails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman's illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar illegal procedures".

The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the e-mails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman.

However, when William Lewis and his fellow News International executives re-acquired those e-mails from Harbottle & Lewis, they found what they perceived to be prima facie evidence that the illegal phone hacking went wider than just the activities of Mr Goodman and that there were potentially illegal payments to the police.

William Lewis went looking for these e-mails after the Metropolitan Police of Operation Weeting, who are investigating alleged phone hacking, enquired about the existence of 2,500 e-mails that Colin Myler - who replaced Andy Coulson as editor of the News of the World - mentioned to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee.

Mr Myler told the MPs these e-mails had been trawled through as part of his own inquiry into whether hacking was carried out by others than Mr Goodman.

In response to a question by the MP Philip Davies about whether Mr Goodman was working alone, Mr Myler said: "I conducted this inquiry with Daniel Cloke, our director of human resources. Over 2,500 e-mails were accessed because we were exploring whether or not there was any other evidence to suggest essentially what you are hinting at. No evidence was found; that is up to 2,500 e-mails".

William Lewis and his News International colleagues on a newly created management and standards committee have not found the full 2,500 e-mails mentioned by Mr Myler, just the sub-set of 300 that were passed to Harbottle & Lewis.

The disclosure that News International found 300 e-mails as long ago as 2007, that indicated wider malpractices at the News of the World than those which led to the jailing of Mr Goodman and of the private detective Glen Mulcaire, will pose very difficult questions for News International's chairman, James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch.

In December 2007, James Murdoch took charge of News International as chief executive of the European and Asian operations of its parent company, News Corporation.

Some four months later, in April 2008, he authorised the payment of a substantial out-of-court settlement, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds, with Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, over the hacking of Mr Taylor's phone.

That settlement - which was agreed by Mr Murdoch and signed by News International's chief operating officer at the time, Clive Milner - contained a gagging clause, making it impossible for either party to talk about the settlement or what led to it (though many of its details were subsequently revealed by the Guardian).

Mr Murdoch has now conceded that it was wrong of him to agree to the settlement with Mr Taylor and also to other out-of-court settlements made at a similar time.

He said on Thursday: "I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret."

There have been allegations that Mr Murdoch, in settling with Mr Taylor, was endeavouring to put a lid on the furore to deter a wider police investigation of the News of the World's behaviour.

News International denies this.

It insists that Mr Murdoch only approved the Taylor settlement and gagging clause because he was ignorant of the alleged transgressions by other News of the World journalists.

In particular, News International says Mr Murdoch had no knowledge of the 300 e-mails that Harbottle & Lewis were asked to review.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14099102

candyfloss wrote:Some four months later, in April 2008, he authorised the payment of a substantial out-of-court settlement, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds, with Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, over the hacking of Mr Taylor's phone.

That settlement - which was agreed by Mr Murdoch and signed by News International's chief operating officer at the time, Clive Milner - contained a gagging clause, making it impossible for either party to talk about the settlement or what led to it (though many of its details were subsequently revealed by the Guardian).

Mr Murdoch has now conceded that it was wrong of him to agree to the settlement with Mr Taylor and also to other out-of-court settlements made at a similar time.

He said on Thursday: "I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret."

There have been allegations that Mr Murdoch, in settling with Mr Taylor, was endeavouring to put a lid on the furore to deter a wider police investigation of the News of the World's behaviour.

News International denies this.

It insists that Mr Murdoch only approved the Taylor settlement and gagging clause because he was ignorant of the alleged transgressions by other News of the World journalists.

In particular, News International says Mr Murdoch had no knowledge of the 300 e-mails that Harbottle & Lewis were asked to review.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14099102

Talking about substantial out of court settlements and gagging orders

On the same subject, I have in the back of my mind a case in which a prosecuting barrister, I believe female, was accused of having leaked details of the case to the papers, resulting in the failure of the high profile trial. She denied the allegation, saying her phone must have been hacked. The disciplinary committee found no evidence of that and her career was in ruins. My memory tells me of suicide attempts and so on.
Does anyone else have a memory of this ?

Rebekah Wade has said that the next 2 years will be painful for NI. She clearly knows a lot, if not everything.

But will the contents of what they found out, ever come out ?

It will all take place behind closed doors, ** data protection**, guaranteeing we will never find anything out.

This is just an exercise to put everything securely back into Pandora's box... forever !

I too am not at all confident that the people most responsible (and, as in the usual course of events, they will be the most senior in position and authority) will be brought to heel. A few underlings will be sacked, leaving their bosses carry on in their own inimitable and corrupt fashion.

Stella wrote:But will the contents of what they found out, ever come out ?

It will all take place behind closed doors, ** data protection**, guaranteeing we will never find anything out.

This is just an exercise to put everything securely back into Pandora's box... forever !

You mean like this Scandal.

Home / News / Amnesty for police credit cards 'is illogical'
Amnesty for police credit cards 'is illogical'


14 August 2009 09:17:04

Widespread police misuse of credit cards was uncovered.

The decision of the Metropolitan Police to impose an amnesty on credit card abuse by officers has been criticised.

Jenny Jones at the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) said that the decision not to impose punishments in most cases was "illogical", Police Professional reported.

Earlier this year, a review from the group, whose job is to scrutinise the actions of the force, had revealed that over 1,000 employees had previously misused their corporate credit cards in some way.

This is equal to around one in three of the total number of staff members who were originally given the cards.

However, it emerged this week that high case numbers meant that a large majority of this group would be given "training and guidance" on the issue, in lieu of any disciplinary action.

A much smaller hard core of more serious cases were passed on to independent investigators.

Speaking to the news source, Ms Jones added: "When there are over 1,000 individuals involved I understand it is too big a problem to deal with every case, but to take no action, I believe, is illogical.

"Either the rules have been explained to these officers and members of staff or not."

The MPA member added that she supported a "note" being made on the employment records of all those found to have abused their corporate cards.

http://www.compareandsave.com/news/amnesty-for-police-credit-cards-is-illogical/