NOTW phone-hacking scandal involved over 100 accounts

Posted by Trafton Kenney on February 2, 2010 at 1:05 PM

Three leading British phone companies have confirmed that over 100 customer accounts were illegally accessed by a private investigator and journalist at the News of the World, claims Nick Davies of the Guardian in the latest development in the phone-hacking scandal that let to a parliamentary committee enquiry.

Scotland Yard supplied 02, Vodafone, and Orange with phone numbers used by News of the World's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, and private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, to access the private voicemails of customers like Prince William and Boris Johnson. Working backwards to trace customers whose voicemail had been dialed from those numbers, Vodafone and 02 each found that "about 40" voicemails had been compromised, while Orange found that 45 customer accounts had been hacked.

The new figure - which only reflects the past 12 months of activity - is substantially higher than the 8 victims reported during the trial of Mulcaire and Goodman in January 2007. Considering that Mulcaire did surveillance for the News of the World for nine years and Scotland Yard never contacted other mobile phone companies like T-Mobile and Three, the actual number of victims is likely much higher, the Guardian believes.

The News of the World has claimed that Goodman was a "rogue reporter" who tricked the newspaper into paying Mulcaire to hack voicemails for leads. However, last July, the Guardian reported that Scotland Yard had found two other News of the World journalists who were involved in intercepting voicemails. According to the Guardian, anonymous sources at News of the World confirmed that "a group of journalists at the paper were fully aware of Mulcaire and other investigators being involved in illegal surveillance."

News of the World reportedly paid £700,000 to settle a case involving high-profile victim, Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballer's Association. The Guardian's reports have been denied by Rupert Murdoch, whose subsidiary News International owns News of the World. "If that had happened, I would know about it," said Murdoch. The New York Times said the Guardian report "could not be independently verified."

With the Guardian continuing to follow up on their initial report last July with breaking developments on the phone-hacking scandal, it seems unlikely that readers have heard the last of this story.

Sources: Guardian, New York Times