U.K. Police Hacking Probe Focuses on 829 ‘Likely Victims’
February 06, 2012, 7:40 PM ESTBy Robert Hutton
(Adds police officer cleared of selling information about murdered schoolgirl in sixth paragraph.)
Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. police officer in charge of investigating illegal behavior at News Corp.’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid said her team had identified 829 “likely victims” of phone-hacking.
About 90 officers and staff are working on the phone- hacking probe, known as Operation Weeting, Metropolitan Police Service Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told an inquiry into media ethics in London today. She said she was expanding the number of personnel on an investigation into bribes to police, Operation Elveden, to 61, after it widened to include News Corp.’s daily Sun newspaper.
Akers said investigators in the phone-hacking probe had uncovered 6,349 “potential victims” and then narrowed their focus to those they believed were targeted. More than 20 people have been arrested in the two probes, including four reporters at the Sun who were questioned last month.
“We’ve defined ‘likely victims’ as those who have detail around their names, which suggests to us they’d either been hacked or had potential to be hacked,” Akers said at the media inquiry set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in July.
She said a third probe into computer hacking, Operation Tuleta, has around 20 officers, investigating 57 claims of “data intrusion.” That investigation has expanded to a third newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., the Times, Labour party lawmaker Tom Watson said last week.
Officer Cleared
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said in a separate statement today that it cleared an officer of selling information to journalists in 2002 about the investigation into the murder of schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The more than five-year- old phone hacking scandal erupted in July after revelations that News of the World reporters accessed Dowler’s mobile phone while she was still missing.
“A police officer was criminally interviewed and remained under suspicion for some months, as our investigators sought to establish the facts,” IPCC Commissioner Mike Franklin said in a statement on the commission’s website. “We have provided Surrey Police with our report and indicated we see no need for further action.”
--Editors: Anthony Aarons, Eddie Buckle
To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.
