Remember according to CPS files released at the trial hacker Glenn Mulcaire made £1m from News International over the years. This is some of his work from 11,000 pages of notes.
Day 51: Glenn Mulcaire carried out only a dozen hacks or attempted phone hacks during Rebekah Brooks’s editorship of the News of the World, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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One of the most precious freedoms for journalists is the protection of their sources. Now it appears the Cabinet Office is using an obscure bill – as part of the government’s drive to cut “red tape”- as cover to erode that freedom.
By changing the rules to allow the police to go to court to obtain reporter’s notebooks, pictures and computer files- without facing an open challenge from newspapers, TV, or even individual freelance journalists themselves – they are placing that protection in serious danger.
No wonder the Newspaper Society is up in arms and media lawyers are raising very serious questions. There is an excellent and elegant argument on the Inforrm blog by Gill Phillips,the Director of Editorial Legal Services at Guardian News and Media, about the dangers.
She rightly concludes: “This appears to be yet another backdoor attempt to limit and restrict essential and hard-fought journalistic protections.”
Bloggers should also be aware of this as it could affect them – and they will be much more vulnerable to a police raid- as they would be in a weak position to defend themselves. It is worth reading Vox Political’s blog on this point and taking action.
The official response according to my former colleague Owen Bowcott in the Guardian has been muted.
He reports :A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “Every measure in the deregulation bill is intended to remove unnecessary bureaucracy. Clause 47 would bring the Police and Criminal Evidence Act into line with other legislation in this area and would allow the criminal procedure rules committee to make procedure rules that are consistent and fair.
” However, the government has noted the concerns raised about this issue and Oliver Letwin is happy to meet with media organisations about this before the bill goes to committee.”
I think the government should go further and drop this now. It can hardly save much money and I think their motives in introducing this are questionable and undo good work under the Defamation act and by the Information Commissioners’ Office to protect journalists from interference by the police and the state.
The trial of John Stingmore, the former deputy manager of Grafton Close children’s home in Richmond, and Father Tony McSweeney,a Roman Catholic priest, will take place at Southwark Crown Court on May 6 according to information given to a police witness.
Both have pleaded not guilty to all 14 charges against them following the Met Police’s Operation Fernbridge investigation.
Reporting restrictions were not lifted at the last committal hearing at Southwark Crown Court before Christmas so I am unable to report the arguments of why a trial date was not set then.
So the recovered laptops from Chelsea Harbour were used by Charlie Brooks – hence 25 female nude pix, and hol snaps of Rupert Murdoch in Corfu. The file showing James Murdoch had to approve switching The Sun’s support from Labour to the Tories is politically interesting – thought News International always said its editors were independent! Though to be fair James Murdoch told the Leveson inquiry that he did direct papers on major policy!
Day 44, Part 3 Only a tiny proportion of the material found on computers stashed in the underground car park of Chelsea Harbour belonged to Rebekah Brooks, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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The evidence disclosed today seems to fit in with a general paranoid view of the world – that a genuine Nick Davies scoop must be the work of a Guardian, BBC and old Labour.Also note the irony in the second part of the tale that Andy Coulson was complaining about the Guardian getting tip offs from the Met Police. The on going trial restricts me from saying more.
Day 44, Part 1: Rebekah Brooks appeared to believe that reports on the hacking of Milly Dowler were part of a co-ordinated exercise against News International by the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and members of the Labour Party.
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The 5.0am police raid on the Brooks family home has always been a very sore point for News International. The leaked recording of Rupert Murdoch’s talk to arrested journalists on the ExaroNews website recorded the anger felt by Murdoch personally over the police tactics. Now it turns out the computers found in Rebekah Brooks’ office were not used by her.
Day 43: Computers seized during a police search of Rebekah Brooks’s office at News International did not appear to have been used by her, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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Police tactics in both searching Rebekah Brooks office and home are under fire at today’s hearing – particularly the 5.0 am raid on the home of the Brooks family in Oxfordshire which mysteriously appeared on Sky News just after 6.0am
Day 42: Police searches of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks’s homes in London and Oxfordshire came under scrutiny at the phone hacking trial today. At one stage, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, for Mrs Brooks, suggested that detectives were practising “Carry On” style policing.
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Pedigree Kune Kune pigs and a litter. pic credit: dalehouse farm.com
The Crown Prosecution Service have released today the contents found in the brown briefcase owned by Charlie Brooks examined by the Met police.
The full content list can be read on Peter Jukes blog whom I am indebted for quick publication tonight.
Followers will remember this was the bag recovered by a cleaner and handed over to the police. It was also the subject of allegations by the prosecution that it was part of a conspiracy to try to get rid of evidence once his wife, Rebekah Brooks, alleged code name Black Hawk for security reasons, had been arrested.
The police have already released a video taken from the 24 hour security cameras at Chelsea Harbour, the London home of the Brooks family. Today they added some pictures.
Altogether there are seven DVDs- ranging from titles like Bride of Sin to Instant Lesbian and Lesbian Psychodramas. Other contents include the Kunekune Pig Society newsletter,a pair of Falke Shelina 12 tights and more mundane items like pens,a conker, homeopathic medicine and chequebooks from top banker William Hoare & Co.
The court was also told yesterday that Mr Books may have threatened to sue the manager of Chelsea Harbour for handing over the bag to the police after he couldn’t retrieve it from the porters lodge.
Now just to add to the bizarre opera of Pizzagate, a lesbian porn magazine is found in one of the bags returned to Rebekah and Charlie Brooks Chelsea Harbour flat.
Day 40: Pornography was in a bag allegedly stashed in an underground car park as part of a plot to frustrate detectives investigating phone hacking, Charlie Brooks’s lawyer told the phone hacking trial today.
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By Martin Hickman
A security boss contracted by News International to guard Rebekah Brooks described an alleged plot to hide evidence from police as “pizzagate,” the hacking trial heard today.
William Geddes, managing director of International Corporate Protection, asked colleague Dave Johnson: “Can you talk ref Pizzagate?”
Mr Geddes sent the message on Monday 18 July after police were called to Mrs Brooks’s flat complex following the discovery of a laptop bag in its basement car park.
A security guard working for News International had delivered some pizzas to Mrs Brooks’s husband Charlie at Chelsea Harbour as cover for returning the laptop bag, according to the Crown.
Asked by judge John Saunders to explain the reference to Pizzagate, Mr Geddes said: “Pizzagate was the term the team came up with for the fact that the errand they ran included not only returning a bag, but a pizza, so that’s what they called it.”
He explained that many of the security guards protecting Mrs Brooks were ex-military who used “lingo.”
Asked again by the judge to clarify Pizzagate, Mr Geddes went on: “My interpretation would be in the spirit of the general lingo used by my team members this was blowing an inconvenient situation into a bit of a drama.”
Mr Geddes explained that his company was contracted by NI’s security chief Mark Hanna in April 2011 to protect the chief executive, Mrs Brooks. ICP was contracted again in June 2011, when Mr Geddes subcontracted part of the job to another security firm, Corunna Solutions.
Mr Geddes told the court: “Our duties were to perform a discreet security coverage and to identify any surveillance against her [Mrs Brooks] that might be carried out by members of the media or hostile members of the public.”
He said the risk assessment suggested there might be an internal threat from “rogue elements” within News International, but did not elaborate.
Mrs Brooks, Mr Brooks and Mr Hanna deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The case continues.
This report was originally on the http://hackinginquiry.org website.
Westminster Confidential 