Cameron challenged on child sex abuse inquiry now backed by “fab 40” MPs

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Zac Goldsmith MP

Zac Goldsmith MP

The demand for an independent panel to examine  police failures in investigating child sexual abuse going back years is rising in Parliament.

David Cameron was challenged by a Liberal Democrat MP Duncan Hames at Prime Minister’s Questions. Hames asked Cameron: “The prime minister will have heard calls from honourable members on all sides of the house for an independent inquiry on the Hillsborough model, into organised child sexual abuse in this country. Can he truly be satisfied that current police investigations are sufficient for the public to have confidence that we are both willing and able to get to the truth?”

Cameron implied that may not be granted at the moment but promised to look at it.

The demand for an inquiry – which began with an initiative by Zac Goldsmith, Mp for Richmond, has now expanded to 40 MPs from all parties.

The full story with the full list of MPs is on the Exaro website today. In the meantime thanks to all the Twitter followers of Exaro and to university lecturer Ian Pace, who has also been pressing for action and contacting MPs.

My magnificent seven have now become the fabulous forty.

 

Phone Hacking Trial: Conspiracy charges hinge on evidence against Charlie Brooks, Judge suggests – Martin Hickman

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The judge puts Charlie Brooks at centre of conspiracy verdict. Was he trying to hide evidence from police because he didn’t want The Guardian to reveal his addiction to lesbian DVDs and lose a book contract or was it part of the conspiracy to hide phone hacking evidence?

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Rebekah and Charlie BrooksDay 118, Part 2: The charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice against Rebekah Brooks, News International former chief executive, and Mark Hanna, the newspaper group’s head of security, hinges on the evidence against her husband Charlie, the judge suggested today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Consider how News International execs behaved after Goodman’s arrest, jury told – Martin Hickman

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The Judge: The deletion of 3.5 million emails at the News of the World in 2010 ” not the most successful damage limitation exercise ever mounted.” Quite.

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News Of The WorldDay 118: Jurors should consider how News International’s executives behaved after the arrest of the News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman for phone hacking, the Old Bailey heard today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Goodman Lied when he gave evidence, judge suggests – Martin Hickman

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The judge gives a damning indictment against Clive Goodman, the royal reporter, accusing him of lying over the extent of his phone hacking. He couldn’t have possibly forgotten he had hacked into Prince William, Prince Harry and Kate Middleton’s phones! damning indeed!

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Clive GoodmanDay 117, Part 2: Clive Goodman, the “rogue reporter” blamed by News International for phone hacking at the News of the World, lied when he gave evidence at the current phone hacking trial, the judge suggested today.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Summing up, Coulson made no effort to inquire into extent of phone hacking at NoTW in 2004 – Martin Hickman

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The judge makes two very important points re Andy Coulson revealing David Blunkett’s affair with Kimberley Quinn – first a public interest justification that he was breaching security was never revealed in the public article- and secondly when he realised Blunkett’s phone had been hacked – he made no further inquiries way back in 2004 to find out whether phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World. One can only wonder why.

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Phone hacking claimsDay 117: Andy Coulson made no attempt to inquire into the extent of phone hacking at the News of the World in 2004 after the chief reporter eavesdropped the messages of the Home Secretary, the Old Bailey was told today.

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Lee Rigby atrocity: The acid test facing the MPs who hold the security services to account

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Lee Rigby; Pic courtesy of AP Press

Lee Rigby;
Pic courtesy of AP Press

Britain’s only body that holds MI5 and MI6 to account is soon to produce a report on one of the most savage terrorist killings in this country – the hacking to death on the streets of Woolwich in south London of drummer Lee Rigby.

I am told that the security services have had to hand over highly sensitive material to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee about the security services knowledge of his killers as changes in the law last year stopped our spies duping the committee by pretending they don’t have it. This duplicity came to light after the inquiry by Sir Peter Gibson  Dame Janet Paraskeva and Peter Riddell, a very through journalist, discovered information on the treatment of detainees  who are alleged to have been tortured abroad which had been withheld from MPs on the committee.

His report is here .

The committee has had a very bad press and been attacked by MPs on the Commons home affairs committee. In a report on counter terrorism published at the end of April, the committee was scathing about its role.

It said; ”  We do not believe the current system of oversight is effective and we have concerns that the weak nature of that system has an impact upon the credibility of the agencies accountability, and to the credibility of Parliament itself. The scrutiny of the work of the security and intelligence agencies should be not the exclusive preserve of the Intelligence and Security Committee. ”

There have been some key reforms. As I reported in an article on Exaro   the committee has both new powers and new resources. What I am questioning is whether they will use them so the public have the unvarnished truth.

As well as the power to compel the security services to hand over information, the committee, in an age of austerity, has seen its budget nearly doubled from about £750,000 to £1.3m after a Parliamentary debate  (contribution by Julian Lewis MP)  revealed it was the worst funded scrutiny committee of the security services in the western world. This has enabled the committee, I am told, to employ competent ex spies to quiz existing spies, to avoid cover ups. Credit should be given to former Tory Cabinet minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the chairman, for pushing for these changes.

This means that the inquiry into the Lee Rigby atrocity will be the first to be properly funded and with new powers to get to to the truth. There still is a  long stop which enables David Cameron, who appointed all existing members (though this will change), to censor part of its report if he wanted to. We will have to hope there is no self  censorship before it reaches him.

What is disturbing is that there are already signs that the security services – mindful that they might be trashed for failing to keep full tabs on Rigby’s killers- are  briefing the mainstream media as part of a damage limitation exercise. A recent article in the Sunday Times  where their solution was to demand even more intrusive monitoring of the internet is an example.

As I reported on Exaro : ” The UK’s Security Service, better known as MI5, faces claims that it failed to realise the threat posed by his killers, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who were jailed for life in February after being convicted of murder…

Relatives of Adebolajo say that MI5 had even approached him in 2011 to become an agent after he was deported from Kenya.

According to Kenyan police, Adebolajo led a group of eight young men who were trying to travel to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab, an offshoot of al-Qaeda.”

What must be clear is that the report from MPs must concentrate on practical ways the security service can protect us, not giving them even more powers – after the revelations over the scale of the monitoring of us all through the  whistleblower Edward Snowdon- to obtrusively check every internet site. It will be acid test to see what is released and whether the committee- now properly resourced – can do a good job.

It is time for the intelligence services to be intelligent in chasing terrorists. It is not their job to want to be an overarching snooping body on the whole nation.

 

 

 

Phone Hacking Trial: Summing up, Recruitment Agency boss remembered call by Stuart Kuttner about Milly Dowler message – Martin Hickman

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Judge emphasises significance of the Milly Dowler hacking by News of the World

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???????????????????????Day 116: The judge today reminded the jury that the boss of a recruitment agent who left a hacked message on Milly Dowler’s phone firmly remembered being called about it by the paper’s managing editor, Stuart Kuttner.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Summing up, Mulcaire may have hacked three celebrities during Brooks’ NoTW editorship – Martin Hickman

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Judge’s summing up ; Mulcaire’s suspected 12 victims named. Milly Dowler hacking central to case against Rebekah Brooks , Andy Coulson.and Stuart Kuttner.

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Old-Bailey1080Day 115, Part 2:  Glenn Mulcaire may have hacked the phones of three female celebrities during Rebekah Brooks’ editorship of the News of the World, the Old Bailey heard.

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You’ve followed the hacking trial, soon you can get the insider book

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The scrum around defendant Rebekah Brooks at the Old Bailey. Pic courtesy Inforrm Blog

The scrum around defendant Rebekah Brooks at the Old Bailey. Pic courtesy Inforrm Blog

The first ever Old Bailey trial to be covered by tweeting is about to become a book.

Peter Jukes, the dramatist,citizen journalist and friend, has  made a little bit of journalism history by providing instant tweets from the trial and got the public to back him through ” crowd sourcing.”

Now with the trial about to end he is producing  a book subtitled The Inside Story of the Hacking Trial. This will not just be a rerun of his half a million words in tweets but the stuff  reporters can’t print while a trial is in full swing because it would be contempt of court.

And as it involves the Murdoch empire there will be a lot to disclose that can’t be reported now.

To do this he has teamed up with Martin Hickman, whose blogs, with his permission, have been reproduced on this site as they appeared on Inforrm’s blog and Hacked Off websites. He is publishing the book under his own imprint, the Canbury Press.

It will be sold in four formats, including an e-book priced £8.99, from www.hackingtrial.com.
The four formats are e-book for quick release; first edition signed paperback with free e-book; the above with a dedication in the paperback and an invite to the launch party with special guests; and an access-all-areas pass.

Peter Jukes was recently named best reporter on Twitter and social media by Press Gazette in April and whose blog was nominated a month later for best UK news site by the London Press Club. He talks about book here.

He soundly beat yours truly as the best reporter on Twitter which is hardly surprising given his innovative skills. So be part of journalist history and buy into the new way journalism will survive well into the twenty first century.

 

 

Phone Hacking Trial: Mr Justice Saunders begins three-day summing up – Martin Hickman

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The judge begins his summing up. Strictly no comment.

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Mr Justice SaundersDay 115: Jurors in Court 12 of the Old Bailey will have to determine three key issues about phone hacking at the News of the World: how much was there, when – and who knew?, the judge said today.

Beginning his three-day summing up in the phone hacking trial, Mr Justice John Saunders said the jury should disregard all extraneous matters when deciding whether the seven defendants were guilty or not guilty.

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