The following people have been identified as victims of the News International phone hacking scandal.
The victims of the phone hacking fall broadly into three categories, as identified by Nick Davies writing in The Guardian : [1]
First, there are those people who have been approached and warned by The Scotland Yard that there was hard evidence of their voicemail being accessed without authority. Some were warned at the time of the original inquiry in 2006. Others were warned only after the Guardian revived the story in July 2009. Scotland Yard refuse to say how many were warned at either time. They have said that they also approached and warned people in four 'national security' categories if there was reasonable grounds to suspect that their voicemail might have been accessed without authority - members of the royal household, the military, the police and the government. But here again, they refuse to say how many people they warned in each of those categories.
Second, there are those who have taken the initiative to approach Scotland Yard and to ask whether the police hold any evidence that they were targeted in any way by Mulcaire. Scotland Yard are holding the results of an analysis of phone records which, we now know, revealed "a vast number" of people who had had their voicemail accessed; and also a spreadsheet which summarises the contents of the mass of paperwork, audio tapes and computer records which police seized from Mulcaire and which, the Guardian discovered, included 4,332 names or partial names; 2,987 mobile phone numbers; 30 audio tapes of varying length; and 91 PIN codes of a kind which are needed to access voicemail with the minority of targets who change the factory settings on their mobile phones.
Third, there are 120 people who were identified by three mobile phone companies who followed up on Scotland Yard's original investigation and found that some of their users had had their voicemail accessed from numbers used by Glenn Mulcaire. Orange say they warned none of those whom they identified; Vodafone say they warned customers 'as appropriate'; O2 say they warned all of their customers whom they identified.
| Name | Title | Warned by police/came forward | When warned/came forward, if known | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ali Dizaei | Metropolitan Police commander | Warned by police | 2011 | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police |
| Andy Coulson | Former editor of News of the World (NOTW), was David Cameron's chief spin doctor | Warned by police | 2009 | Warned by police after Guardian story in July 2009 |
| Andy Gray | Former Sky Sports pundit, ex-footballer | Warned by mobile phone company | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial. Has issued proceedings against the NOTW and Glenn Mulcaire for breach of privacy |
| Benedict Grant Noakes | Television producer, close friend of Paul McCartney and Heather Mills | Warned by police | 2011 | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police |
| Boris Johnson | MP/Mayor of London/future prime minister | Warned by police | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial |
| Brendan Montague | Investigative journalist | Warned by mobile phone company | Now seeking judicial review of Scotland Yard | |
| Brian Paddick | Former deputy assistant commissioner of Metropolitan police (Met) | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police. Now seeking judicial review of Scotland Yard | |
| Chris Bryant | MP | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/orI other details are included in evidence held by police. Now seeking judicial review of Scotland Yard | |
| Chris Tarrant | TV presenter | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police | |
| Colin Stagg | Exonerated murder suspect | Warned by police | 2011 | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police. |
| David Davies | Executive Director of The Football Association | Warned by police | 2009 | Warned by police after Guardian story in July 2009 |
| Elle Macpherson | Model | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire |
| George Galloway | MP | Warned by police | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial. Has issued proceedings for breach of privacy against the NOTW and Glenn Mulcaire. Galloway claims he has been offered "substantial sums of money" by NOTW ahead of his court action. [2] |
| Gordon Taylor | Former chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire. Sued the NOTW for breach of privacy and was paid costs and damages of some £700,000 |
| Heather Mills | Charity and animal rights campaigner, ex-wife of Paul McCartney | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed her name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police | |
| Helen Asprey | Aide to Charles, Prince of Wales | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire |
| Ian Blair | Former commissioner of Met police | Warned by police | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial |
| Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton | Private secretary to Princes William and Harry | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire |
| Jo Armstrong | Legal adviser to Gordon Taylor | Warned by police | 2009 | Warned by police after Guardian story in July 2009. Sued the NOTW for breach of privacy and was paid costs and damages |
| John Prescott | MP | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police. Now seeking judicial review of Scotland Yard | |
| Kieren Fallon | Jockey | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police. Now seeking judicial review of Scotland Yard | |
| Max Clifford | Agent | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire. Sued the NOTW for breach of privacy and was paid approx £1m |
| Mike Fuller | Former assistant commissioner of Met police | Warned by police | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial |
| Miss X | Alleged victim of rape by celebrity | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed her name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police | |
| Nicola Phillips | Former assistant to Max Clifford | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed her name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police. Has issued proceedings against the News of the World for breach of privacy | |
| Paddy Harverson | Prince Charles' communications secretary | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire |
| Paul Gascoigne | Footballer | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police. Now seeking judicial review of Scotland Yard | |
| Prince Harry | Prince | Warned by police | 2006 | Omitted from indictment at trial as part of police strategy of 'ring fencing' evidence to protect sensitive victims |
| Prince William, Duke of Cambridge | Prince | Warned by police | 2006 | Omitted from indictment at trial as part of police strategy of 'ring fencing' evidence to protect sensitive victims |
| Rebekah Brooks | News International chief executive | Warned by police | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial |
| Sienna Miller | Actor | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed her name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police | |
| Simon Hughes | MP | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire |
| Sky Andrew | Football agent | Warned by police | 2006 | Named in indictment at trial of Goodman and Mulcaire. Has issued proceedings against the NOTW and Glenn Mulcaire for breach of privacy |
| Steve Coogan | Actor | Approached Scotland Yard | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police | |
| Tessa Jowell | MP | Warned by police | 2006 | Not named in indictment at trial |
| Tommy Sheridan | Leader of Solidarity | Approached Scotland Yard | 2009 | Given two sets of hacking notes by Glenn Muclaire dated 2004 from Met after court order, and published them during his perjury trial. Starting legal proceedings against NOTW, the Met and Mulcaire |
| Ulrika Jonsson | TV presenter | Warned by police | 2011 | Scotland Yard confirmed her name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police |
| Wayne Rooney | Footballer | Warned by police | 2011 | Scotland Yard confirmed his name and/or other details are included in evidence held by police |
Six unnamed journalists working for the Mail on Sunday/Daily Mail have been warned by the police that their name and/or other details are included in evidence held by the police.
In addition to the people already identified as victims, a number of people have approached the police to say that they believe their phone was hacked by the News of the World.
The News of the World was a weekly national "red top" tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations. It was originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies. The Bells sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969, it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch's media firm News Limited. Reorganised into News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, the newspaper was transformed into a tabloid in 1984 and became the Sunday sister paper of The Sun.
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.
John Yates is a former Assistant Commissioner in the London Metropolitan Police Service (2006–2011). As leader of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)'s Special Inquiry Squad, Yates was dubbed "Yates of the Yard" by the British press following his involvement in a number of cases with high media profiles. Yates came to particular prominence for heading the Cash for Honours investigation. Yates also coordinated the UK police response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, heading "Operation Bracknell", for which he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in January 2006. He resigned in July 2011 over criticism of a July 2009 review he carried out of the 2006 police investigation of the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal. He now works for the government of Bahrain advising it on reform of its security forces.
Clive Goodman is an English journalist, former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal household.
The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct News of the World and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper engaged in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories.
Phone hacking is the practice of exploring a mobile device often using computer exploits to analyze everything from the lowest memory and central processing unit levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source tooling has become fairly sophisticated as to be able to "hook" into individual functions within any running App on an unlocked device and allow deep inspection and modification of their functions.
Glenn Michael Mulcaire is an English private investigator and former non-league footballer. He was closely involved in the News International phone hacking scandal, and was imprisoned for six months in 2007 for his role in phone hacking and given a six-month suspended sentence at the hacking trial of 2013–14.
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.
The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 to 2007 around the interception of voicemail relating to the British royal family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist. It formed a prelude to the wider News International phone hacking scandal which developed in 2009 and exploded in 2011, when it became clear that the phone hacking had taken place on a much wider scale. Early indications of this in the police investigation were not followed through, and the failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011.
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.
The News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations followed the revelations in 2005 of voicemail interception on behalf of News of the World. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011. However, the affair did not end there, developing into the News Corporation ethics scandal as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World and beyond phone hacking came to light.
The news media phone hacking scandal is a controversy over illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations that reportedly occurred in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2011. This article includes reference lists for various topics relating to that scandal.
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.
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