Operation Tuleta - A Second Look

From a regular contributor:

Things seem to be gearing up for Operation TULETA - the least high-profile Metropolitan Police Service (MET) investigation of the three ongoing as a consequence of the hacking scandal.  The first to start, in Jan '11, was Operation WEETING into phone hacking. It was quickly followed by Operation ELVEDON, looking at newspapers' role in bribery and corruption of police and other public officials.

Operation TULETA was set up later to investigate allegations of computer hacking, interception of emails, stolen phone data etc by journalists, private invetigators and others.  Given MP Tom Watson's view that computer hacking may well turn out to dwarf the scale of phone hacking, it's worth having a closer look at TULETA - what's already in the public domain and what may be to come. A new document dump on the Leveson Inquiry web site last Friday may hold some clues.

Sienna Miller was the first to allege email hacking in her claim against News International and Glenn Mulcaire.  There are more civil litigations for email hacking in the pipeline.  On 19th October 2011, Mark Lewis gave evidence to the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee.  Paul Farrelly MP asked him (Q1275)

are you aware of any other accessing of information that may have been illegal apart from phone hacking? Is phone hacking the tip of an iceberg? 
...What about computer hacking or reading people’s e-mails?

Mark Lewis: "It seems that voice mail interception or phone hacking is old hat and that the thing to do now with the inquiry agents is to obtain information by way of e-mails. As I understand the technology, one plants a Trojan in someone’s computer by sending them an e-mail that looks innocuous, which then pinches all the e-mails sent out or received and sends them to someone else. I am pursuing a claim. Mr Justice Ross has ruled that it is not going to be part of the voice mail interception claims for a former member of military intelligence, who was subject to, shall we say, a Trojan plant. We know that. That is also subject to a police investigation, so I suppose we have to be very careful, but there is a civil claim for that."

Pressed to clarify by Louies Mensch if this involved only News International titles Lewis added, "in respect of the information that the police are obtaining about another inquiry agent in respect of computer hacking, his clients were from other newspapers."

Some of the impetus for TULETA sprang from the related Operation KALMYK (into allegations of Northern Ireland security force personnel having emails hacked), see Ian Hurst's evidence to Leveson, and Operation MILLIPEDE (which resulted in four convictions).

In essence, computer hacking and email interception via Trojan have been rumoured for years, as has collusion of journalists.  News of the World's Alex MARUNCHAK has been implicated in at least two allegations. Firstly - as far back as 2002 - the surveillance of Dave Cook and Jacqui Hames, both serving police officers. It is alleged that their emails were hacked in an attempt to 'sort out' and derail Dave Cook who was heading the fourth investigation into the murder of Daniel Morgan.
Northern Ireland

Secondly, Ian Hurst's hacked emails relating Northern Ireland intelligence were allegedly faxed to MARUNCHAK at the News of the World offices in Dublin.

The Northern Ireland connection is particularly sinister.  Amongst others, Sir Hugh Orde has been informed by TULETA that his emails may have been hacked when he was Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, as has Peter Hain when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Peter Hain added that "the police confirmed to me they had not eliminated any news organisation from their investigation."

Scotland

Strathclyde Police are investigating (Operation RUBICON) whether Tommy Sheridan's lawyer and a key witness in the Sheridan perjury trial had their emails hacked. Both hard copies and electronic copies of the emails are alleged to have been circulated which name and implicate senior news staff at the News of the World Scotland.

Stolen laptop and phones

Amongst the large Leveson 'taken as read' document dump is a revealing witness statement by Claire Ward, former Member of Parliament.  It makes fascinating reading as she details her treatment by journalists when she was a younger, newly-elected MP - she details alleged harassment, pressurising phone calls, suspected phone interception, and stress-inducing inaccurate press stories. In one instance, she describes a tense phone conversation with Rebekah Wade.  Most startling however (and possibly of interest to TULETA) is that her laptop computer was stolen from a guarded room in Manchester Town Hall in 2001.  She believes it may have been stolen with the possible involvement of the national press. Claire Ward is convinced that her laptop was deliberately targeted as it contained a substantial number of documents relating to Keith Vaz MP.

More recently, TULETA is investigating the possibility that mobile phones may have been stolen to order.  According to Sue Akers,

In April 2012, ...Operation Tuleta officers discovered instances where staff at NI titles appear to have been in possession of material downloaded or otherwise obtained from stolen mobile telephones. It appears from some of the documentation, which is dated around late 2010, that one mobile telephone had been examined with a view to breaking its security code so that the contents could be downloaded by experts (whose identities are unknown to Operation Tuleta at present) in different parts of the country... A significant and important line of enquiry is identifying the experts used...
One mobile telephone theft took place in Manchester and another in South West London.

In addition, TULETA is doing forensic analyses of computer hardware, phones and data "previously seized as evidence in other enquiries." 

There have been a spate of mobile phone and laptop thefts from within the Houses of Parliament, including a laptop theft from Keith Vaz - Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee.

It is however possible that these thefts are coincidental and entirely unconnected to TULETA issues.

The first TULETA arrest was that of a private investigator and several journalists have also been arrested.  The latest was that of an unnmamed 55yr old man in Cardiff - not known to be a journalist.  He was arrested 'on suspicion of committing offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.'

Currently, TULETA  is investigating 101 separate allegations of data intrusion, plus other related matters.  The MET will soon be returning to News Corporation's Management Standards Committee with more requests for relevant documents.  Developments in OPERATION TULETA will no doubt help establish if this is (as both Paul Farrelly and Sue Akers both put it) 'the tip of the iceberg'.

Time will tell.

Related Posts
Hackgate for Beginners
Where Now For The Motorman Files?
Hackgate - Major Upcoming Events


You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

Hackgate - Major Upcoming Events

Another quality article from a regular contributor, this time on what we can expect in the coming months.

As the Leveson Inquiry moves towards its conclusion of Module 3 (the Press and Politicians), there is almost a sense of its role as 'centre of attention' is beginning to devolve and disperse into other arenas as multiple court cases start, new ones are scheduled, imminent decisions made on charges, and more arrests are possible. Here is a round-up of some key Hackgate events to look out for.

Rebekah Brooks: sequencing charges and court appearances

Brooks first appearance at Crown Court happened on June 22nd.  Whilst each of her co-defendants are charged with a single related offence,  Rebekah Brooks is charged with 3 counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice.  These charges refer to allegations of removing and concealing evidence of phone hacking at News International titles.  In addition, Brooks is waiting to hear if she is to be charged with offences under Operation Weeting (phone hacking) and Operation Elvedon (corruption of police and/or public officials). Scheduling  current or future court appearances will therefore be complex

Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, should know by the end of the summer whether she is to face further charges in relation to allegations of phone hacking and illegal payments to public officials.

The Crown Court ordered a plea and case management hearing for September 26th.

Glenn Mulcaire Supreme Court decision due any day

Glenn Mulcaire has case ongoing at the UK Supreme Court, against being ordered by the Court of Appeal to reveal the names of those commissioning him at News International.  Legally, the case is very complex. Mulcaire's legal team have argued that he does not have to reveal any information that is self-incriminating, but that is not true of phone hacking which might be legally deemed 'intellectual property'. If it is held that some intercepted phone messages were commercially sensitive and contained intellectual property, Mulcaire's case fails.  The Supreme Court hearing was May 7th and 8th, which resulted in Mulcaire losing the appeal.  It was however argued by his defence that the Supreme Court Decision was flawed. Mulcaire's defence team were given a brief period of a few days to prepare and present their counter-arguments, but this period was extended to take account of the cluster of May, June and Jubilee bank holidays.  To date, the Mulcaire case is stilled listed as 'Awaiting Judgement'.

Charging decisions due under Operation Weeting

Batches of case files have been sent in June to the Crown Prosecution Service for charging decisions.

Batch 1  11 June, relating to five journalists - (RIPA) Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000)

Batch 2  18 June, two journalists, RIPA

Batch 3  21 June, four journalists, RIPA

Batch 4  22 June, one  journalist and "one other individual", RIPA

Charging decisions on these June referrals will be made in due course.

Andy Coulson's appeal to require News International to pay his legal costs

This Appeal Court case should be scheduled soon, following Coulson being given leave to appeal on May 8th '12

Coulson's appeal centres on a severance agreement with News Group Newspapers on 26 January 2007, two days before he resigned as editor of the News of the World... (A previous court hearing) "ruled in December that a clause in the agreement covered only Coulson's "lawful duties" as editor and that allegations of criminal activity fell outside the scope of the contract."

High stakes indeed for Andy Coulson as he awaits more charging decisions under Operation Weeting and Operation Elvedon.

Andy Coulson: Procurator Fiscal to decide on trial for perjury

Coulson has already been charged with perjury in Operation Rubicon (Strathclyde Police investigation into the Tommy Sheridan/ News International perjury trial). Under Scots law, a decision will have to be made in the near future as to whether Coulson will stand trial following this charge.

Contempt of the House: Hinton, Crone and Myler

On 30 April '12, the House of Commons Select Committee (Culture, Media and Sport) published its report 'News International and Phone Hacking'.

It concluded that Les Hinton, Colin Myler and Tom Crone all misled the Select Committee with their evidence.

This resulted in a Commons debate (Column 990 onwards) on 22 May.  On behalf of the CMS Select Committee, its Chair John Whittindale moved that the House refer its outcomes to the Standards and Privileges Committee for appropriate action. Whittingdale's motion was carried.

Although Committees rarely take evidence on oath, the House of Commons 2011 guidance for witnesses giving evidence to Select Committees is clear. It states that witnesses are expected to answer fully, honestly and truthfully, and that "deliberately attempting to mislead a committee is a contempt of the House”.

In theory, contempt of the House could be punished by imprisonment or fine though these have not been imposed for many years. It is therefore arguable whether the ability to impose such sanctions should be deemed to have lapsed into disuse.  An alternative approbation is to be  summoned in person to the bar of the House, to be admonished by the Speaker.

The whole situation is going to be difficult for the Standards and Privileges Committee to resolve. Firstly, Hinton, Myler and Crone continue to deny contempt and stand by their testimony.  Secondly, Hinton and Myler are both now resident in the United States.  Parliament would naturally be loathe to see any - or all three - refuse to attend the House when summoned for admonishment, exposing Parliamentary powers as toothless.  Nevertheless, the Standards and Privileges Committee is duty bound to respond the the House's wishes at some point soon.

Ray Adams and allegations of corruption

On 31 May '12, the Metropolitan Police Service concluded its review of alleged police corruption which had impeded the original investigation into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.  It then made public its conclusion that there was no evidence that corruption shielded the killers of Stephen Lawrence, and that the force had given all relevant evidence to the 1998 Macpherson inquiry.

The Met released the findings of its review on Thursday, which began in March after allegations about corruption in the Lawrence case made in the Guardian and Independent. The claims centre on former Met commander Ray Adams, who was a senior officer in the south London area where Stephen was murdered, and former detective sergeant John Davidson, who was a senior detective on the first, flawed investigation into the racist killing. Adams and Davidson had been the subjects of internal corruption investigations, after which neither officer faced disciplinary or criminal charges. They retired on full police pensions and denied any wrongdoing. Adams, who left the force because of a bad back, went on to work at a Rupert Murdoch-owned company, NDS, in a senior security role.

The next day, despite the Met review conclusions, Home Secretary Theresa May made an announcement: 

A spokesman for the Home Office said: “The Home Secretary has asked for a QC-led review of the work the Metropolitan Police has undertaken into investigating claims of corruption in the original Stephen Lawrence murder investigation.

To date, no timescale has been given for the new review process.

Operation Baronet, the Surrey Police investigation into the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone

Assistant Chief Constable of Surrey Police, Jerry Kirkby, was due to conclude a final report for submission to Levson by the end of May.  A request to the Leveson Inquiry for an update resulted in the following response on 20 June:

The Inquiry is not covered by the Freedom of Information Act, as detailed here - http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/faqs/ - but will endeavour to conduct proceedings in an open and transparent manner.  Documents and information will be made available on the website during the course of the Inquiry, as appropriate and as they are referred to in the hearings.  Therefore it would not be appropriate for the Inquiry to comment on the questions you raise.

Given Lord Justice Leveson's commitment to transparency, there must be good reason to decline to release information - possibly to avoid prejudicing imminent legal action against those involved and/or failing to take action at the time.  More information on Operation Baronet can be found here.

Interesting times, watch this space...

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

Leveson Inquiry To Release Operation Motorman Files

Now for an excellent contribution from a regular reader regarding Operation Motorman:

On Monday 11th June, Lord Justice Leveson lit a slow-burning fuse with a few words in his opening remark:

I am today handing down rulings in relation to the application made concerning Operation Motorman and in relation to costs.

The week's high-profile hearings then moved swiftly on to Gordon Brown, George Osborne, John Major, Ed Milliband and David Cameron et al. No wonder then that this mention of Operation Motorman has been overlooked in the cacophony. Leveson's new Ruling on Operation Motorman was quietly published on the Inquiry web site on Friday evening.

Motorman is the pivotal investigation in a sorry succession of ineffectual probes into press abuses through invasions of privacy, phone hacking, corruption of police and public officials and so on. The narrative starts with Operation Reproof and continues to the current police investigations, Operations Weeting, Elvedon and Tuleta.  For more background, see Hackgate for Beginners - Past Police Operations.

Two key pieces of witness evidence mentioned in Lord Justice Leveson' s new Ruling are those of Alex Owens and DCI Gilmour of the Metropolitan Police Service.

Alex Owens was a lead investigator on Operation Motorman, which was an Information Commissioner's (ICO) investigation (therefore not a police investigation) into 'industrial scale' illegal information-gathering practices by 'enquiry agent' Steve Whittamore who kept records of hundreds of transactions that he and three associates carried out, commissioned by multiple journalists for national newspaper titles.  These records are collectively known the Motorman Files and were summarised in table form in the ICO publication 'What Price Privacy Now', p9

In short, the Motorman Files comprise several note books which are colour coded.  The Red Book refers to Trinity Mirror Group journalists, Yellow and Green Books mainly to the Mail and Express (and related titles), and the notorious Blue Book deals solely with News International titles. Collated into spreadsheets by the ICO, these Whittamore notebooks contain a wealth of information on commissioning journalists' names, their targets, personal details, type of information sought (eg criminal records, County Court judgements, mobile phone numbers), and the substantial fees invoiced by Whittamore.

None of the Motorman files has been officially released into the public domain, but Leveson did earlier rule their circulation - under conditions of strict confidentiality - to Core Participants only.

A partially redacted version of the Blue Book has however been leaked and there are rumoured to be a few unredacted copies around.

DCI Gilmour's evidence revealed that information gleaned by Operation Motorman was used in the Met's parallel Operation Glade and that seven unnamed journalists were interviewed by police:

Freelance journalist
Journalist for News of the World
Journalist for News of the World, Scotland
Journalist for the Daily Mirror
Journalist for the Sunday Mirror
Freelance Journalist
Journalist for the Mail on Sunday 

None of these were prosecuted as - identically - their legal representation  argued a) their ignorance of Whittamore's illegal methods and b) the possibility of having 'public interest' defence.  It may or may not be fair to assume these are a representative sample of  'worst offenders' in sheer volume of requests to Whittamore, but it is certain that these seven bear witness to the range of major national newspaper titles.  This why Leveson's June 11th new Ruling on Motorman is likely to lead to explosive revelations, as he has now ruled that more information WILL be released from Operation Motorman - and not just the News Int related Blue Book.

At the end of February 2012, an application was made other than by a core participant to make public the submissions that I had heard in private. On 13 March, I ruled against that application for two reasons. First, I concluded that this private information was within the purview of the Information Commissioner whose decision as to appropriate disclosure deserved respect and, secondly, this Inquiry was not concerned with ‘who did what to whom’ but rather with the culture, practices and ethics of the press as a whole...I then said that Mr Sherborne, on behalf of core participants who were his clients was at liberty to argue that the details should be made public consistent with the Terms of Reference of the Inquiry and my observations about fairness.

David Sherborne duly made representations on 9th May, based on a variety of arguments which make interesting reading, whilst pressing that release of the Motorman Files was essential "to demonstrate the prevailing and continuing culture, practices and ethics of the press."  Counter-arguments were presented on 11th May by other leading newspaper groups - the Core Participants most likely to suffer a high degree of 'reputational damage'. As one would expect, these arguments covered the 'too historical', 'no longer employed by us', 'public interest', 'information was available legally elsewhere', 'trivial in nature' variety - and are essential reading.  In addition, Leveson's Ruling makes specific reference to the evidence of Pia Samar, Editorial Legal Director of Times Newspapers Ltd, who had robustly defended News International by stating that insufficient evidence had been provided by the ICO in 2006, some of it was erroneous, it was impractical to look into the issue further and that, in any event, no prosecutions had to mean presumption of innocence.

In his considerations Leveson observes,

When I saw the identity of some of those who had been targeted and the nature of the information sought, it seemed to me clear not only that much information had been obtained in breach of the Data Protection Act 1988 but also that the potential to deploy the statutory defence was limited in the extreme. I was reluctant to disclose the details and put them into the public domain not least because of the consequent publicity, probably unwelcome, that would attach to the targets who would suffer a further invasion of privacy nine or ten years after Mr Whittamore had first undertaken the task.

Arguably, these are very damning observations and Leveson has also taken the unusual and sensitive step of consulting with some target-victims to glean their views. He goes on to question whether the press were perhaps slow or reluctant to learn any lessons from Operation Motorman and 'What Price Privacy Now' - one newspaper group had even continued to employ the services of Steven Whittamore after his conviction.

Adhering to his 'who did what to whom' self-denying principle, Leveson notes that David Sherborne's main argument was focused on establishing  subsequent rewards and career trajectories of journalists named in the Motorman spreadsheets, as well as "the lack of disciplinary action and the fact that at least a number of the involved journalists had been promoted to senior editorial positions. I agree that these are potentially relevant considerations."

... I can express my conclusions quite shortly. If Mr Sherborne’s clients wish to provide the Inquiry with such information as they have collated from the Whittamore records where a continuous link to the present day can be established, they should do that without further delay... it is only intended to address the specific journalists that Mr Sherborne’s clients have identified who are still in their [the individual newspaper titles] employment. .....I will, of course, consider anything that emerges from the exercise...

...for public purposes, names will be redacted...names of targets and journalists will (when in redacted form) be referenced by letters so that it will be possible for the public to track any answer that might be provided in connection with any allegation.

Leveson's latest Ruling clearly implies that more explosive information from Motorman will be published and, most importantly, illuminate the ethical practices of newspaper titles in addition to those of News International.

In the absence of any individual journalist being prosecuted, Leveson re-asserts their presumption of innocence though, he says, that "is not, however, a total answer to a charge of failure of corporate governance."  Lastly, he returns to the damaging effects on victims of invasion of privacy and how how questions of corporate governance affect or effect corporate culture and ethics: "it might be thought that Operation Motorman provides better evidence of that culture than interception of mobile telephone messages because it undeniably extends beyond one title."

The possibility of further damaging information emerging as a result of Lord Justice Leveson's new Ruling will not be welcomed by News International, nor newspaper groups which have to date escaped public censure. In particular, this may have severe implications for News International Scottish titles and for the Strathclyde Police investigation (Operation Rubicon) into allegations of perjury at the Tommy Sheridan trial.

We have yet to see what fireworks may ensue, but there is no doubt that Leveson has lit the blue touch paper..... and it's smouldering.

You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com