The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 2: Discrepancies And Delays

Part 1 provided contexts up until just after Milly Dowler's disappearance.  Part 2 looks at when evidence and suspicions of NotW hackings could - perhaps should - have been unearthed.

May 02  Seven weeks after her disappearance, Bob and Sally Dowler were stalked by NotW whilst they quietly re-traced missing Milly's last known steps. Their 'grief walk' became a major story in NotW, with surveillance photo.  Sally told her police Family Liaison Officer that NotW could only have found out their plans from their phone conversation or a police source.

SURREY Police therefore had an opportunity to connect their knowledge of NotW phone hacking and suspicions that it was still continuing, with Milly's parents as targeted victims.  Adjoining force, Sussex Police, were requested to start a review of the SURREY Dowler enquiry. It is not known if SURREY's knowledge of NotW hacking was disclosed to Sussex officers.  Another missed opportunity.

16th July 02  A major discrepancy here.  According to a SURREY Police statement in 2012 (page 13), this date was when NotW met with SURREY Police detectives Craig DENHOLM and Stuart GIBSON of the Miller Dowler investigation team.  This contradicts The Independent's report  (also cited in Part 1) that two face-to-face meetings had taken place weeks before, in April. The July 16th timing is debatable however as Stuart GIBSON had already been replaced on the Dowler investigation in late June.

Aug 02  The Soham murders, Cambridgeshire.  In 2011, the victims' parents were informed by police that their phone numbers had been found in Glenn MULCAIRE's notebooks.

Sept 02  Milly Dowler's body found.

Nov 02  Devon and Cornwall Police's Operation REPROOF planned with ICO their first raid on suspect premises.  As per good practice REPROOF informed, liaised with and secured necessary support from the relevant geographical constabulary - SURREY Police.  REPROOF and ICO then raided the business premises (Guildford, SURREY) and home (Caterham, SURREY) of John BOYALL. As a result of material seized, ICO commenced OPERATION MOTORMAN, their investigation into widespread data offences.

Mar 03  Raid on Steve WHITTAMORE's Hampshire home and the business premises of 'JJ Services' , registered address Sutton, SURREY - on the SURREY/MET border. Evidence was found of illegal access to the Police National Computer (PNC) and two other suspects were investigated - one was a civilian worker at a MET police station. The other, retired MET officer Alan King, had his private investigator premises in London searched and his home in Coulsdon, SURREY.

Apr 03  OPERATION MOTORMAN investigators briefed MET officers on their evidence that PNC information had been accessed by WHITTAMORE associates.  The MET then started preliminary investigations, prior to establishing their own formal Operation GLADE.  Also in April 03, Bob QUICK left the MET for his new appointment as Deputy Chief Constable of SURREY Police.

May 03  ICO investigators gave the MET further detailed update presentations on OPERATION MOTORMAN and evidence uncovered for use in Operation GLADE. The unsorted MOTORMAN Files continued to be organised and compiled into an electronic database.

Aug 03  OPERATION GLADE officially commenced - this MET investigation was restricted to only some of the PNC offences uncovered by MOTORMAN.

2003 - 04 Controversially, OPERATION MOTORMAN refrained from interviewing any journalists.  OPERATION GLADE interviewed only seven journalists; none were prosecuted.  More missed opportunities.

Oct 04  Bob QUICK promoted to Chief Constable, SURREY Police.

Apr 05 OPERATION GLADE investigation concluded in convictions of John BOYALL, Steve WHITTAMORE, ex-MET officer Alan King and MET civilian worker Paul Marshall after guilty pleas.  Via prosecutions preparations, copies of the MOTORMAN Files remained in the possession of the MET and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The ICO retained their own MOTORMAN database and the original hard copy evidence.

Just a few weeks later, members of the royal household began to suspect their phone messages were being intercepted by NotW.  Their suspicions were raised with MET Counter-Terrorism/Royalty Protection - the command headed by Andy HAYMAN. Dec 05 the resultant covert investigation started - OPERATION CARYATID.

Apparently, the MET failed to make any connection between CARYATID and the MOTORMAN or GLADE investigations, despite NotW featuring so largely in all three operations.

8 Aug 06  OPERATION CARYATID raided the London home and attempted to raid the NotW Wapping office of royal correspondent Clive GOODMAN. Simultaneously, Glenn MULCAIRE was also arrested and a large quantitiy of material seized from his London home and from business premises in Sutton, SURREY.

CARYATID established extremely narrow parameters solely to inform 4 priority categories of people named in MULCAIRE's notebooks and defined as victims - royal, politicians, police and national security.  Even so not all were informed, including Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.  MULCAIRE's information gathered about the Dowler family was undiscovered in his notebooks, and stored by the MET in bin bags.  Yet another opportunity missed.

Nov 06  GOODMAN and MULCAIRE convicted.

2007  Gordon Taylor negotiations on his settlement with NotW.  His lawyer, Mark Lewis, gained a crucial court decision ordering diclosure of all relevant material held by:
MET (from MULCAIRE and OPERATION CARYATID)
CPS Crown Prosecution Service (limited material from OPERATION CARYATID)
ICO (from OPERATION MOTORMAN)

It seems that all evidence of the Dowler hackings was still left overlooked in this disclosure search process.

Mar 08  Bob QUICK left SURREY Police for new post at the MET as Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations (Counter-Terrorism, Cabinet and Royal Protection).  It is not apparent if he was briefed on OPERATION CARYATID and its implications for royal, national security and senior politicians' protection. And if not, why not.

Apr 08  Craig DENHOLM left SURREY Police for his new post as MET Commander working directly with Assistant Commissioner John YATES.

June 09  Craig DENHOLM left MET and returned to SURREY Police for promotion to Deputy Chief Constable.

July 09  John YATES did his one-day assessment to decide that re-examining OPERATION CARYATID unused evidence was unnecessary.  Questions are still unanswered as to whether or not DENHOLM informed YATES what he knew, and his '02 meetings with NotW when they had admitted Milly Dowler's mobile phone was hacked.  And if not, why not.

Also in July, the CPS undertook its short, parallel consideration of its limited CARYATID material and supportively agreed with YATES that no re-investigation was justified.

The Dowler evidence in bin bags of MULCAIRE material continued to be overlooked.

Aug 09  YATES instructed CARYATID material to be collated and (for the first time) entered into a searchable database.  This work took months

2010  Civil litigations, Select Committee evidence and other revelations increasingly rendered NotW's 'one rogue reporter' defence untenable.

Jan 2011 MET announced the start of the OPERATION WEETING investigation into phone-hacking.

Apr 2011  Sally and Bob Dowler are finally informed by OPERATION WEETING that their (and their murdered daughter's) phone mesages had been intercepted. 

Apr 2012  The Culture, Media & Sports Select Committee reported that John YATES "told us that the eventual number of additional victims who were contacted as a result of the supposedly more vigorous investigation in 2009 was just eight." (para 259)

Inexplicably - and unforgivably - this was more than nine years after SURREY Police knew of the Milly Dowler phone hacking.

There may yet be legal repercussions for SURREY.  They are mentioned twice in court rulings of the 'Mobile Telephone Voicemail Interception Litigation'.  The Generic Particulars of Claim (the agreed basis for all current and future litigation) states that NotW journalists  "had admitted to Surrey Police in April 2002 that the First Defendant (News Group Newspapers) had unlawfully accessed Milly Dowler's voicemail messages."

Plus, Mr Justice Vos has adressed another ruling to the MET on processes for disclosures to claimants.  Vos ordered the Met to disclose to claimants relevant documents, computer data and other material - including that of

the Respondent (The Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis), the First Defendant (News Group Newspapers),  Clive Goodman and the Surrey Police.

Grouped together in this way, they look a motley crew...

Related Posts
The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 1: Questions Still Unanswered
The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 3: A Short Postscript
Hackgate for Beginners
Surrey Police and the Hacking of Milly Dowler's Phone
Bloggerheads - News of the World: 110% certainty, the remainder fact

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

Glenn Mulcaire And His Money-Laundering Charges

Another piece by a regular contributor.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) statement on Tuesday on Operation Weeting charging decisions repays careful reading.  Beneath the headline-grabbing decisions to charge eight people, there are details which are quite telling - particularly regarding Glenn MULCAIRE.

All, with the exception of Glenn Mulcaire, will be charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3rd October 2000 to 9th August 2006.

Two things here are of note:-

• Firstly, Mulcaire appears to be the sole exception because he has already been convicted of the relevant offences of conspiracy to intercept - as has Clive Goodman.  Mulcaire is however charged with other alleged offences for which he has not previously been convicted, in relation to Milly Dowler, Andrew Gilchrist, Delia Smith and Charles Clarke.
• Secondly, the lengthy span of time defined also covers the period of illegal activity uncovered by Operation Motorman (c. 1999 to early 2004).  This appears to be a clear signal that the Motorman Files are also NOT ruled 'out of court' as being too historical to pursue.  Sue Akers' evidence on Monday to the Leveson Inquiry seemed to concur.  She made reference in her update to quantities of evidential material which have been collated 'from previous enquiries'.  These are likely to include, amongst others, Operations Glade and Caryatid as well as Operation Motorman.  At least three of those now charged by the CPS under Operation Weeting are also named in the leaked and redacted Motorman Files 'Blue Book'.

Giving her evidence to the Inquiry the day before the CPS charging statement, DAC Sue Akers was careful not to name them in advance of the CPS Announcement.  At the time of her evidence, she identified as pending charging decisions 11 current or former journalists, plus 1 non-journalist (para 13).  The only non-journalist in the batch now charged by the CPS is Glenn MULCAIRE.  Akers' statement continued

The non-journalist referred to at paragraph 13, together with a further non-journalist, is on pre-charge bail in relation to money laundering offences till 24 July 2012. A preliminary file is currently with the CPS for advice in respect of this matter.

So it seems the only 'non-journalist' is additionally awaiting ANOTHER CPS charging decision - not under Weeting-style data interception - but for alleged money-laundering. Hmmmmm.... wasn't that how Al Capone was tripped up?  It really doesn't do to mess with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) through aliases, numerous questionable companies or undeclared income.  In February 2012, Tom Watson raised a relevant query with HMRC regarding the tax arrangements of those in receipt of cash payments from News International

....some of which are reported to run into tens of thousands of pounds, failed to declare this on their Self Assessment tax returns. The company failed to take appropriate measures to ensure the recipients were paying tax...  I would ask you to investigate whether a true record of cash payments was kept by the company, and whether any records have been destroyed...

...Although I appreciate there are currently three ongoing police investigations into criminal wrongdoing at News International, I think it is imperative that reassurance is given from HM Revenue and Customs that these important issues are being investigated in cooperation with the Metropolitan Police. I am sure you will agree that no company, or individual, should be allowed to get away with what amounts to possible tax fraud by paying too little tax and acting in a dishonest manner.

As noted in this Brown Moses blog post, 'Where Now for the Motorman Files', Glenn MULCAIRE (alias 'Paul Williams', alias 'Alexander') ran a company called 'Nine Consultancy Ltd' which was dissolved in Feb '06, according to Companies House records.  He also owned another company called 'Nine Consultancy UK Ltd', dissolved in 2007.  It is to be hoped that he was efficient enough not to get invoices and remittances muddled up in the accounts of these two similarly named businesses.

Another MULCAIRE company 'Eight Consultancy UK Ltd' (Company No. 06280986) wasn't dissolved until 2009. And yet another MULCAIRE company, 'C & E Intelligence Services Limited', employed the non-journalist Alison MULCAIRE (resident at the same address) as Company Secretary.  Glenn MULCAIRE was re-employed by News International when he was released from prison for phone-hacking. At this time, Alison MULCAIRE owned two more businesses: 'Global Intel Services Limited' and 'Euro Research & Information Services Limited'.

No doubt invoices and remittances for any work undertaken will all marry up with payment records of News International Trading Ltd, the company formerly-known-as, until June 2011, News International Supply Co Ltd.

All terribly complex, isn't it. But with the help of electronic records, most business acounts these days are an awful lot better organised than Al Capone's were, aren't they?

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

The Motorman Files And Dacre's Dilemma

A new piece by a regular contributor on Paul Dacre's problem with Operation Motorman and Lord Leveson.

Lord Justice Leveson announced a Hearings respite for this week, earmarked for taking stock, reading and reflection.  The respite did not even last the weekend.  Without fanfare, on Friday evening, the Leveson web site quietly published his new Ruling on Operation Motorman.

Brian Leveson's appetite for Sunday breakfast was doubtless blunted by the Mail on Sunday front page - blaring his alleged displeasure with Michael Gove as expressed in a phone call to the Cabinet Secretary.  Brian Cathcart has pinpointed this as the start of 'Operation Megaphone', a blast of shrill trumpets from sections of the press, sounding their battle cry against the Leveson Inquiry in the hope that the walls will come tumbling down.

These two weekend stories are not unconnected as it is the Mail on Sunday (and Daily Mail) which arguably have most to fear from the Motorman files.  And it is Paul Dacre, Editor-in-Chief, who has throughout resented Leveson's Inquiry the most.

When Dacre was first called to give evidence, in the week scheduled for Editors, he was apparently not available. As Robert Jay reported, ..."some people may be wondering why Mr Paul Dacre is not on the list for today. The answer is he's not available for the rest of this month, and indeed for today, but we have lined him up, as it were, for 6 February".  Dacre duly appeared that day to give his evidence (more below) but - because of the spat over Hugh Grant and the 'mendacious smear' allegation - he was required by Leveson to return for a second appearance.

Mr Caplan QC (Counsel for Associated Newspapers) first argued against Dacre having to appear again, and then seemed less than confident that Dacre would even comply. The exchanges are interesting:

LORD JUSTICE LEVESON: We, of course, as you know, fitted in to Mr Dacre's timetable....  We WILL find some short period of time for this to be the subject of further evidence and we shall do that this week. And there it is.
MR CAPLAN: Sir, I obviously will have to make enquiries of --
LORD JUSTICE LEVESON: Yes.
MR CAPLAN: I have no idea of Mr Dacre's whereabouts.
LORD JUSTICE LEVESON: Mr Caplan, I'm very sorry. I know
that Mr Dacre is busy. We have worked very hard to fit ourselves around his commitments. I cannot believe that in the next three days it is not possible to find a few minutes. We shall fit ourselves around him to such extent as we can but I beg you not to ask me to go further.

Dacre's main evidence on 6th Feb could be characterised as resentful and defensive.  He was questioned by Robert Jay and attempted several times to cross-question him back. He gave the distinct impression that he regarded being questioned by the Inquiry as inconvenient and a gross impertinence. This was most marked when questioned about Daily Mail journalists topping the table of taskings given to Steve Whittamore (p9)

JAY: May I move on to Operation Motorman...You say this: "Until the Information Commissioner's 2006 reports, I was not personally aware of the extent that our journalists were using search agencies." By using the term "extent", were you intending to accept there that you were aware that the Daily Mail was at least using these search agencies?
DACRE: Yes.
JAY: But you weren't aware of the scale of the problem --
DACRE: The numbers. The numbers I wasn't aware of.
...
JAY: The Inquiry received evidence from Mr Peter Wright, the Mail on Sunday editor, and he said that he was aware of Operation Motorman at the beginning of 2004, in view of the Bob Crow story, which of course was published in the Mail on Sunday....Were you aware of Operation Motorman as a result of that particular issue?
DACRE:  I suppose I must have been, yes. I don't recall it exactly, but I must have been aware.
JAY: Yes, because the -- I think the journalist involved was interviewed and it was going to be part of Operation Glade, if not Operation Motorman. Operation Glade was the Metropolitan Police operation...
DACRE: This was a Mail on Sunday journalist?
JAY:  Yes, it was. So you were aware of it from that route, as it were.

This exchange above is particularly interesting as it pinpoints an identifiable story leading to an identifiable Mail on Sunday journalist being questioned by the Met - one of seven journalists interviewed by Operation Glade but not prosecuted.  Each of the seven protested they were unaware of Whittamore's illegal methods:

DACRE:  ...They said they were only getting phone numbers and addresses and they didn't seem to think they were behaving illegally.
...
JAY: But you accept that you didn't carry out an investigation in 2006 or earlier to ascertain the facts, don't you?
DACRE: Because, as I say, we didn't know then what we now know.
JAY:  But what was set out in the Information Commissioner's second report was quite clear, wasn't it, in relation to the Daily Mail: 958 transactions --

Robert Jay was pressing the point that no conceivable 'failure of corporate governance' was countenanced, and no individual disciplinary investigations mounted.  Whilst some Motorman-implicated journalists moved on, others stayed, thrived - perhaps even rewarded by career progression.  The identifiable Bob Crow story might serve as a case in point.  From Crow's witness statement, there is this:

On the 2nd February 2003 there appeared an article in the Mail on Sunday written by Christopher Leake which showed a photograph of me going to work on the back of a scooter owned by my Personal Assistant.

Crow was puzzled how Christopher Leake could have identified his movements and the scooter driver until "it was subsequently revealed to me as a result of a Court case involing a Mr. S. Whittamore and others around police corruption." Crow believes the Mail on Sunday identified the scooter driver through DVLA or Police National Computer data abuses via Whittamore, and that his whereabouts were obtained by phone hacking. Clearly, Paul Dacre has reason to be rattled at Leveson's new Ruling which may allow more of the Motorman files into the public domain; those of journalists still in employment - as Christopher Leake was, until just two weeks ago.

Lord Justice Leveson did make reference to Dacre specifically in his Motorman Ruling, on the question of whether or not Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday retained (and possibly still used) information illegally obtained by Whittamore.  He reminded:

Although on 9 March, I raised with Mr Caplan the question addressed to Mr Paul Dacre concerning storage of information to which he undertook to provide an answer (see 6 February pm page 60, line 12), he overlooked his failure to do so and has not responded to a subsequent reminder (leading to the delay in ruling on this submission): suffice to say, this evidence continues to remain outstanding

As rebukes go, this seems polite and understated. Yet the timing of the Mail on Sunday 'Gove v Leveson' story demonstrates that Dacre has shifted from defensive to attack mode, intending to deter any more inconvenient and impertinent enquiries. Dacre has raised the megaphone for the press and, as Brian Cathcart puts it:

...cover your ears as you may, from now on you will not be able to block out the howling fury of an industry that never accepted anything was wrong with the way it operated, and which will now vent its sense of injustice at maximum volume...  We do not have to let them swamp us with their self-serving noise.

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

Revisiting Operation Reproof and Other Police Operations

Following on from their earlier Milly Dowler related contribution one of my readers has contributed another piece, this time relating to the various police Operations surrounding various hacking accusations.  Well worth a read in light of tomorrow's appearances at the Leveson Inquiry:

REVISITING OPERATION REPROOF

Two police officers were scheduled to have their written witness statements 'read in' (though not to appear) at the Leveson Inquiry on April 2nd, 2012. In his opening housekeeping remarks that morning, Lord Leveson made a brief reference to these two officers:

"I am giving further considerations to the status of those witnesses, therefore they will not be put into the record of the Inquiry this afternoon."

No explanation was given as to who might have raised objections to their status, or evidence, or why.

Whatever considerations he gave to the 'status' of the two police officers - and to their written submissions, they seem to have galvanised Leveson into thinking their submissions should not simply be 'read in' - they have now both been required to give evidence in person. The two police officers concerned are Temporary Assistant Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Russell Middleton (OPERATION REPROOF) and Detective Chief Constable, Metropolitan Police Service, Brendan Gilmour (OPERATION GLADE). They are both called to give evidence on 9th May 2012.

The number and complexity of named 'Operations' in the evolution of press 'dark arts' is often confusing. The following is an attempt to consider that there may be one continuous narrative that can be discerned from several, spuriously separate, 'Operations'. That narrative contains a strikingly repetitive cast of characters too.

OPERATION REPROOF was a two year Devon and Cornwall Police investigation into corruption of police and public officials, started in 2002.  It seemed that 'private investigators' may have been using bribery to obtain information illegally.
"In all, Devon and Cornwall detectives investigated 37 people, with the final evidential file focused on 100 alleged breaches of data related to 93 individual "victims", including then chancellor Gordon Brown and Labour MPs Martin Salter and Nick Brown." "...But the case collapsed after nearly two years in the courts, with Judge Paul Darlow commenting it was "not a proportionate use of valuable resources to prosecute these matters".
One of the 5 defendants was a private investigator called Christopher DEWSE.

Among the 32 suspects investigated but not charged was Paul "Taff" JONES, he was a highly skilled blagger, ex-soldier and biker.
Another, investigated but not prosecuted, was John BOYALL. Devon and Cornwall Police organised a raid on Boyall's business, Data Research Ltd, accompanied by Alex Owens of the Information Commissioner's Office. This was the genesis of the ICO investigation, OPERATION MOTORMAN, with DEWSE, JONES and BOYALL directly linked with Operation REPROOF.

The illegally obtained data found by Alex Owens led to a subsequent raid on JJ Services, the business of Steve Whittamore. The ICO pursued evidence on breaches of data protection and 'harvesting' of mobile numbers, whilst a simultaneous investigation into police corruption was launched by the Metropolitan Police - OPERATION GLADE. The Motorman Files 'blue book' (controversially released and partially redacted by Guido Fawkes) reveal the names of other information 'getters' in addition to Whittamore himself -
Christopher DEWSE, 'Taff' JONES and a John GUNNING. One of those commissioning information gathering from Whittamore was the News of the World's Greg Miskiw. OPERATION GLADE led to the convictions of four men, including Whittamore and BOYALL.

John GUNNING and John BOYALL were names already known to Scotland Yard.  Both were implicated in the earlier OPERATION NIGERIA, the covert bugging of Jonathan REES  and Sid FILLERY 's Southern Investigations in connection with the Daniel Morgan murder.  BOYALL's assistant at the time was Glenn MULCAIRE.

News of the World's Alex Marunchak and Greg Miskiw had close links to Jonathan REES. When David Cook of the Met was re-investigating Daniel Morgan's murder, Marunchak and Miskiw apparently organised surveillance of Cook and his family. " It is now known that at that time, the News of the World's investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, succeeded in obtaining Cook's home address, his internal payroll number at the Metropolitan police, his date of birth and figures for the amount that he and his wife were paying for their mortgage. All of this appears to have been blagged by Mulcaire from confidential databases, apparently including the Met's own records."

It's worth summarising that
Operation NIGERIA - resulted in no specifically 'dark arts' prosecutions
Operation REPROOF - the judge stopped the trial
Operation MOTORMAN - all prosecutions were dropped
Operation GLADE - four convictions all resulted in conditional discharge

This begs the question - did Scotland Yard fail to notice the recurring same names cropping up again and again in OPERATION NIGERIA, OPERATION REPROOF, OPERATION GLADE and the Information Commissioner's OPERATION MOTORMAN?  And all this prior to the Goodman/ Mulcaire scandal which led to the Met investigation OPERATION CARYATID?

When OPERATION CARYATID led to the arrests of Goodman and Mulcaire, Alex Owens later made the connection with OPERATION MOTORMAN. The reason for the sheer quantity of mobile phone numbers 'harvested' by Whittamore et al became apparent to him:

"...my personal feeling was that Steve Whittamore was gathering the numbers - he wasn't hacking... we found no evidence of that.  But he was then passing them to the papers and possibly those numbers were being passed to people who hacked. I mean the names of people like Milly Dowler, the numbers,... of the names that have now come out in the hacking Inquiry."

In 2008, the Serious Organised Crime Agency produced a confidential report, submitted to the Home Office, entitled "Private Investigators: The Rogue Element of the Private Investigation Industry and Others Unlawfully Trading in Personal Data".  It reviewed ('Project Riverside') five un-named 'dark arts' investigative operations, up to September 2007. They included evidence of corrupt police officers deleting criminal intelligence reports from the Police National Computer and "rogue private investigators "providing organised crime groups with counter-surveillance techniques" and attempting to discover the identities of informants and witnesses under police protection."

This SOCA report has been given to Lord Leveson, and may shed some light on the peculiar prevarication around the appearances of Russell Middleton and Brendan Gilmour as witnesses.

Is it possible 'Project Riverside' - in reviewing 5 operations - might have noticed investigative failures in not connecting the same names and usual suspects in OPERATION NIGERIA, OPERATION REPROOF, OPERATION MOTORMAN, OPERATION GLADE, and OPERATION CARYATID?

Somebody, somewhere needs a Reproof.

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

Leveson Module 3 Directions

Today at the Leveson Inquiry, after Lucy Panton gave evidence, the inquiry discussed the directions for Module 3 - The relationship between press and politicians.  Here's a summary of what was said:

• Lord Leveson invited newspapers to submit their five best public interest stories.
• Lord Leveson confirmed press reports on the inquiry will be made part of the record.
• The full Milly Dowler story will be heard on the week commencing May 8th.
• Victims must reapply for core participant status.
• Newspapers will automatically receive core participant status unless they decide to drop out.
• The Metropolitan Police Service will remain as core participants.
• The Metropolitan Police Authority and the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime will not remain as core participants.
• Lawyer to the victims David Sherborne QC said only a limited number of victims wished to remain core participants.
• David Sherborne said politicians from Module 1 and 2 plus others wished to apply to be core participants, this includes Chris Bryant, Simon Hughes, Denis MacShane, John Prescott, Claire Ward, Tessa Jowell, Tom Watson and Evan Harris.
• David Sherborne went on to add that Tom Watson was put under surveillance to influence what the Select Committee was doing from 2009 onwards.
• David Sherborne said the second group of witnesses apply for core participant status in Module 3 were three individuals who were not politicians, and emphasised the unified voice of core participant victims.
• Elaine Decoulos took the witnesses stand and claimed the Met had failed to investigate claims she had made about David Sherborne's clients in previous evidence, and that she felt she was being frozen out of the inquiry.
• Michael Ward also appeared applying for core participant status.
• Stephen Parkinson, acting for Rebekah Brooks, confirmed that Rebekah Brooks will give written and oral evidence in module 3, and applied for core participant status, saying it would enable Brooks to have advance notice of evidence given by other participants.
• Lord Leveson added he would seek read-only statements from political commentators, and that lines of questioning would need to be received from counsel 7 days in advance, not the same morning as the questioning as it is now.
• Lord Leveson said there would be little evidence in Module 4 - Recommendations for a more effective policy and regulation that supports the integrity and freedom of the press while encouraging the highest ethical standards.
• A rough timetable of events for the following weeks was given:
• Week commencing April 23rd - Propriators and media owners will give evidence (maybe the Murdoch's?)
• Week commencing May 8th - The conclusion of the Milly Dowler story and a review of Operation Reproof and Operation Glade 
• The formal part of the inquiry would end in July with Module 3 end in June. 

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