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This list of persons arrested in phone-hacking scandal is a chronological listing of individuals arrested in conjunction with the illegal acquisition of confidential information by employees and other agents of news media companies referred to as the "phone hacking scandal." [1] Dates indicate approximately when each arrest was made. The police investigation ("Operation") under which each arrest was made is shown in parentheses.
In 2004, ten arrests were made under Operation Nigeria following placement of a police listening device in the office of private investigator Jonathan Rees and a subsequent raid on the home of Stephen Whittamore. Recorded conversations and seized documents established that Paul Marshall, a former civilian communications officer based at Tooting police station in London, provided confidential information to Alan King, a retired police officer, who passed it along to private investigator John Boyall, who in turn gave it to private investigator Stephen Whittamore, who in turn sold it to agents of national press organizations. [2] [3] [4] All were convicted of crimes.
In 2006, three arrests were made as a result of the Royal Household/Goodman Inquiry into illegal interception of phone messages of members of the Royal household by Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire. [5] Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to crimes.
In September 2009, Metropolitan Police Service Assistant Commissioner John Yates testified before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee that "there remain now insufficient grounds or evidence to arrest or interview anyone else and...no additional evidence has come to light." [6] In 2011, however, investigations renewed in response to public disclosures from the press. These resulted in many additional arrests that included law enforcement officers, public officials and former editors and executives of news organizations.
As of mid-October 2012, over 100 people had been arrested since 1999 relating to illegal acquisition of confidential information. All but 10 of these were arrested or rearrested since police investigations were renewed in 2011. In some cases, a single individual was arrested more than once or arrested in conjunction with more than one police operation.
Of these arrests, at least 40 have been current or former journalists, 21 at The Sun , [7] 16 at News of the World , 2 at the Mirror , 1 at The Times , and another from an unnamed newspaper. [8] [9]
This is a chronological list of individuals charged with crimes relating to the phone hacking scandal since 1999. Some individuals are listed more than once because they were charged at different times for different offenses. As of September 2012, 31 people had been charged, including five who had been charged twice.
The first two were charged in 1999 relating to alleged bribery of a police officer to obtain confidential information from a police computer. They were tried but acquitted when the judge directed the verdict due to lack of evidence.
The next four were private investigators charged in 2005 for illegal acquisition of confidential information. They were not convicted.
Then next five were private investigators also charged in 2005 for illegal acquisition of confidential information. All pleaded guilty or were otherwise convicted of breaching the Data Protection Act.
The next two were charged in 2005 with hacking into the phones of members of the Royal Household. Both pleaded guilty to the charges.
The next six, charged on 15 May 2012, were former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, her husband, her personal assistant, her bodyguard, her chauffeur, and the head of security at News International. They were charged in relation to removal of documents and computers, allegedly to conceal them from investigating detectives. [53] A seventh person, a former News International security guard, was charged relating to the same case on 12 September 2012. [80] Two computers were found in a parking garage trash bin near Brook's home. [81] These charges were made about 1 year after the Metropolitan Police Service reopened its dormant investigation into phone hacking, [82] about 3 years after the then Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service told the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee that "no additional evidence has come to light," [6] 5 years after News International executives began claiming that phone hacking was the work of a single "rogue reporter, [83] 10 years after The Guardian began reporting that the Met had evidence of widespread illegal acquisition of confidential information, [84] and 13 years after the Met began accumulating "boxloads" of that evidence but kept it unexamined in trash bags at Scotland Yard. [85]
On 30 May 2012, Scotland police charged Andy Coulson with perjury relating to the trial of Tommy Sheridan held there in 2010 during the period Coulson was a senior adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron. [25] In August 2012, Strathclyde police charged two additional former employees of News of the World, both former editors for the Scotland edition, with perjury relating to the same trial. [68] [70]
Another eight people, charged on 24 July 2012, were all former employees or agents of News of the World, and included head editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both of whom had already been charged with different crimes. Of the thirteen suspects that had been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by the Metropolitan Police Service for review, eight were charged with a total of nineteen charges, three that had worked for or contributed articles to News of the World were not to be pursued due to insufficient evidence (Terenia Taras, Raoul Simons, Ross Hall), [21] and two were to continue to be investigated. Seven of the eight were "charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority from 3rd October 2000 to 9th August 2006." All eight were charged with illegal interception of communications relating to specific individuals. [86] [87]
In August 2012, additional files covering possible crimes were submitted to CPS by the Met for advice prior to making formal charges. The seven individuals including four journalists alleged to have been involved in wrongdoing, included one in relation to Operation Sacha under which Rebekah Brooks and others were charged, two members of the public in relation to money laundering under Operation Weeting, two in relation to alleged illegal payments to public officials including police officers under Operation Elveden, and the rest involving journalists and public officials in relation to misconduct in public office. [88]
This is a chronological list of individuals that pleaded guilty or were convicted of illegally acquiring confidential information for the news media in conjunction with the phone hacking scandal. The list also includes those who pleaded guilty or were convicted of unrelated crimes if those individuals were at any time agents of or associated with others alleged to be involved with illegal acquisition of confidential information for news media. Dates in parentheses indicate approximately when convictions occurred.
Guilty of unrelated crimes but associated with individuals that may have illegally acquired confidential information
Guilty of illegally acquiring confidential information
Rebekah Mary Brooks is a British media executive and former journalist and newspaper editor. She has been chief executive officer of News UK since 2015. She was previously CEO of News International from 2009 to 2011 and was the youngest editor of a British national newspaper at News of the World, from 2000 to 2003, and the first female editor of The Sun, from 2003 to 2009. Brooks married actor Ross Kemp in 2002. They divorced in 2009 and she married former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks.
Andrew EdwardCoulson is an English journalist and political strategist.
Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting. Later Thurlbeck was among four ex-News of the World journalists to plead guilty to phone-hacking and was jailed along with Greg Miskiw. The newspaper’s former editor Andy Coulson was also jailed after a jury found him guilty. Before the News of the World, Thurlbeck worked as a reporter for the Today newspaper, as deputy news editor of the Western Mail and as chief reporter for the Harrow Observer.
Employees of the now-defunct newspaper News of the World engaged in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories.
Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan Police in April 2011 during the Operation Weeting phone-hacking investigation.
Operation Weeting was a British police investigation that commenced on 26 January 2011, under the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of phone hacking in the News of the World phone hacking affair. The operation was conducted alongside Operation Elveden, an investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to the police by those involved with phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta, an investigation into alleged computer hacking for the News of the World. All three operations are led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, Head of Organised Crime & Criminal Networks within the Specialist Crime Directorate.
Susan Penelope Akers CBE QPM is a retired Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the British Metropolitan Police Service.
Operation Motorman was a 2003 investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office into allegations of offences under the Data Protection Act by the British press.
Operation Elveden was a British police investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police officers and other public officials. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investigation.
Jonathan Rees is a British private investigator, and former partner of murdered private investigator Daniel Morgan.
Operation Tuleta is a British police investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of computer hacking, related to the News International phone hacking scandal.
The News Corporation scandal involves phone, voicemail, and computer hacking that were allegedly committed over a number of years. The scandal began in the United Kingdom, where the News International phone hacking scandal has to date resulted in the closure of the News of the World newspaper and the resignation of a number of senior members of the Metropolitan Police force.
Stuart Kuttner is a former newspaper editor. He worked as the news editor for the London Evening Standard before joining the News of the World newspaper in 1980 first as a deputy editor, then as managing editor. He held the position for 22 years before stepping down from his post in 2009 and retiring to Woodford Green. He was arrested on 2 August 2011, in connection with the News International phone hacking scandal, but has now been acquitted. He was 71 at the time of his arrest.
Greg Miskiw was a British journalist and news editor of the defunct tabloid newspaper the News of the World.
James Desborough is a show business writer, media commentator and PR consultant who works in Los Angeles, New York and London.
Operation Rubicon was a Scottish police investigation into allegations of phone hacking, breach of data protection and perjury.
This article provides a narrative beginning in 1999 of investigations by the Metropolitan Police Service (Met) of Greater London into the illegal acquisition of confidential information by agents in collaboration with the news media that is commonly referred to as the phone hacking scandal. The article discusses seven phases of investigations by the Met and several investigations of the Met itself, including critiques and responses regarding the Met's performance. Separate articles provide an overview of the scandal and a comprehensive set of reference lists with detailed background information.
Phone hacking by news organizations became the subject of scandals that raised concerns about illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2012. The scandal had been simmering since 2002 but broke wide open in July 2011 with the disclosure that a murdered teenage girl's mobile phone had been hacked by a newspaper looking for a story. The scandals involved multiple organizations, and include the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal, the News International phone hacking scandal, the 2011 News Corporation scandals, and the Metropolitan Police role in the News International phone hacking scandal.