Hackgate - The John Boyall Files

The latest piece from my regular contributor.

You win some, you lose some.

Following a four-day hearing last week, the large group of phone-hacking civil claimants won the right to see 9 key Glenn Mulcaire emails. On the downside, Justice Vos said they have enough disclosure material for the current cases so they lost on one issue -

The phone-hacking claimants were seeking further disclosure in relation to Mulcaire's activities before 2001 in an effort to establish whether voicemail interception had taken place earlier than admitted by News International during the course of the civil litigation proceedings

So, restricting the disclosure window  to post-2001? Narrowing the parameters? Isn't that one of the strategies that drew criticism to Operation Caryatid - the original phone hacking 2006 investigation? Has nothing been learnt?

It is to be hoped that an arbitrary 2001 date in the civil cases is not taken as a precedent for ongoing and future police investigations or Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charging decisions into journalist/private investigator 'dark arts'.  Clearly, the phone hacking victims are not the only ones needing to know the genesis and extent of the 'dark arts' - it is in the wider public interest.

Irrespective of Mulcaire having or not having a direct contract with News International pre-2001, it is in the public domain that he was undertaking investigative work for them.

All through the late 1990s, the paper had been hiring an investigator called John Boyall, who, among other services, specialised in acquiring information from confidential databases. He had a wiry young man working as his assistant, named Glenn Mulcaire. In the autumn of 2001, John Boyall fell out with the News of the World's assistant editor, Greg Miskiw, who had been responsible for handling him. Miskiw replaced him by poaching Glenn Mulcaire and giving him a full-time contract.

John Boyall - at the time that he was employing Mulcaire - came to police attention.  Devon and Cornwall Constabulary scoped intelligence that a nationwide network of private investigators was illegally obtaining information from the Police National Computer (PNC).  That scoping led to an investigation called Operation Reproof.  In turn, Operation Reproof led to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) investigation Operation Motorman into data offences, and a Metropolitan Police (MET) investigation - Operation Glade.  For more information, see 'Revisiting Operation Reproof and Other Police Operations'

Devon and Cornwall police organised a raid of business premises outside London associated with Boyall.  ICO investigators were invited to accompany, to deal with suspected Data Protection breaches. Material was seized which indicated corrupt DVLA sources, plus a wealth of other incriminating documentation including commissions from Steve Whittamore (see Alex Owens' evidence to Leveson).

What is less clear is what happened to the wealth of evidentiary material.seized in the Boyall raid.  This of course begs questions - what time period do the 'Boyall Files' cover? Do they include material that may shed light on Boyall and Mulcaire's pre-2001 'dark arts' activities for journalists? Were their specialist corruption and blagging skills commissioned and deployed for other private investigators? Is there material relevant to other contemporaneous police investigations, for example, Operation Nigeria?

Given the MET's past record of effective searches of 'unused material' and their vague, hazy explanation of how long they keep it safe after convictions (five, six, seven years..?) one could be pessimistic. If it weren't for Nick Davies' reports in the Guardian, the Mulcaire material in bin bags may well have found their way into a MET incinerator.  But the best place to start may be via Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the Information Commissioner's Office itself.  As the entity responsible for ensuring FOI compliance, doubtless they would welcome the opportunity to answer a few questions - in the public interest:

Where are the Boyall Files and unused material?

Were the Boyall Files passed on or copied to the MET for use in Operation Glade?

Did Devon and Cornwall Constabulary retain the Boyall Files and unused material for use in the abortive Operation Reproof prosecutions?

Were the Boyall Files incorporated into the spreadsheets of the more-famous Motorman Files?

Where is the unused material from Operation Motorman, given that the earliest data relate to 1996?

Were copies of the Boyall Files and unused material provided to the MET for use in Operation Caryatid?

Have the ICO been asked, or given, permission for the destruction of any or all of the Boyall Files and/or related material?

At least two allegations of pre-2001 phone hacking were given in evidence to Lord Justice Leveson:

• James Hipwell's evidence asserted phone hacking at The Mirror 1998-2000
• Dominic Mohan described how newspapers, in 1998, hacked into the mobile phones of members of the Irish Government to expose lax security.

Therefore there seems to be an argument for locating and preserving pre-2001 material - especially relating to Mulcaire - before it is lost, destroyed or compromised.  The clock is ticking to get it preserved fast.

Related Articles
One Rogue Email And The Indestructible Archive 

John Yates And Neil Wallis - A Mutual Understanding
Alex Marunchak - Presumed Innocent
News Corp - Diplomatic Immunity?
The Cook-Hames Surveillance : A Watched Kettle...
Alastair Morgan On The Latest Hackgate Revelations

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

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

The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 1: Questions Still Unanswered

Here's the first part of a re-examination of the Milly Dowler phone hacking from a regular contributor.  Part 1 looks at the background to Dowler hackings and highlights some early warning signs, particularly in the interplay between the Metropolitan Police Service and Surrey Police.  Part 2 considers points at which specific evidence of the Dowler family as victims of News of the World 'dark arts' practices remained overlooked for almost a decade.

1999  Operation Nigeria - This was a Metropolitan Police Service (MET) covert operation (into the murder of Daniel Morgan) which bugged the premises of a private investigator, Jonathan Rees, in Thornton Heath, SURREY.  It eavesdropped on evidence of corrupt practices by private investigators, MET police officers and journalists. Three private investigators implicated were John GUNNING, John BOYALL and Glenn MULCAIRE (more on these below). 

Subsequently, two MET officer associates of Rees were convicted in a long-term operation into police corruption in South East London - one of the investigating officers was then Detective Superintendent John YATES. Simultaneously, and also investigating MET corruption allegations, the Head of MET Professional Standards Department was Andy HAYMAN. When YATES moved on to a different post, he was replaced by Bob QUICK.

In 2000, Bob QUICK wrote a report on the increasing dangers of journalists corrupting police officers, with suspect private investigators often acting as brokers. QUICK's report was submitted to the Head of the MET Professional Standards Department, Andy HAYMAN (see page 5 of Quick's Leveson statement).

This context demonstrates how, from 1999 onwards, key senior officers at the MET were aware of the potential for a corrupt nexus of private investigators, police and newspaper journalists. Self-evidently, YATES, HAYMAN and QUICK were sensitised to these kinds of corrupt 'dark arts' - the modus operandi was already on their radar.

Jan 02  Operation REPROOF commenced.  It was a Devon and Cornwall investigation into illicit data access by corrupt officers, procured by suspect private investigators nationwide - including John BOYALL (implicated in Operation Nigeria). 

Feb-Mar 02 Operation REPROOF contacted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) re perceived data offences; the catalyst for initiating Operation MOTORMAN.

Devon and Cornwall Police also informed several constabularies of evidence pointing to potential corruption in their respective forces. One force - in addition to the MET - informed of suspected corrupt officers was SURREY Police.

21st Mar 02  Milly Dowler disappears from Walton-on Thames, SURREY.  The following timeline (where *asterisked*) is based on that given to the Leveson Inquiry
* 25th Mar 02  SURREY Police apply legal authority to "preserve" Milly Dowler's mobile phone voicemail messages.  There is no evidence that her voicemail was acessed by the News of the World (NotW) prior to this.
*  10.57  Milly's PIN number was re-set by Mercury, thus dis-enabling Milly's own PIN.
*  15.19  Mercury re-set the PIN again - no explanation has been given for this anomaly as to why this second Mercury re-set was necessary.  A first download of Milly's voicemails messages was undertaken.

Here there is a disturbing discrepancy.  Instead of enlisting technical assistance from Mercury, SURREY Police say they engaged a specialist forensic phone data company to do the download but this attempt was unsuccessful.  The un-named company deny undertaking any such work (pp9-10).

This contradiction has yet to be resolved, as are the questions of why a private company was decided on, which company exactly, and on whose recommendation.

Late Mar/ early Apr 02 News of the World (NotW) commission private investigator Steve WHITTAMORE to obtain personal information about the Dowler family. The tasking can be found in the Operation MOTORMAN Blue Book.

A NotW journalist, Sarah Arnold, sought the home address of the Dowlers and relevant ex-directory (XD) telephone numbers. The XD number procurement was subcontracted by Whittamore to John GUNNING (implicated in Operation Nigeria).

*  12th Apr 02  A female from NotW telephoned an employment agency in the West Mercia region, purporting to be Milly Dowler's mother.

*  13th Apr 02  The employment agency was 'beseiged' by NotW reporters.  NotW phoned SURREY Police several times that day, asking to speak urgently to the Milly Dowler investigation team.  SURREY Police telephoned NotW back and were informed by NotW that they had obtained Milly's mobile phone number and PIN from her school friends.

An either/or scenario needs considering here. Did NotW use Milly's original PIN - obtained from her friends - to access voicemails between (at the earliest) 24th March and (at the latest) 26th March when that PIN was re-set? If so, NotW then waited until 12th April to inform Surrey Police.

Or, did NotW acess her voicemails post-26th March, ie AFTER the two PIN re-sets?  How was this possible and who did the hacking?

Or BOTH?

*  17th Apr 02 Surrey Police do a second download of voicemail messages

*  20th Apr 02 NotW email SURREY Police and offer their recordings of Milly's voicemails. Later the same day, NotW phoned SURREY Police and played back Milly's voicemails over the phone.

*  23rd Apr 02  Detective Constable John Lyndon of SURREY Police logged his suspicions that NotW had been hacking Milly Dowler's mobile phone voicemails.

There is at this point an important discrepancy regarding meetings between NotW and SURREY Police.  As reported in The Independent, senior news staff of NotW met twice in April 02 with SURREY Police investigating officers, Craig DENHOLM and Stuart Gibson.

In these meetings, NotW made no secret of the fact that they had caused Milly's mobile phone to be hacked.

The Independent's report also states that minutes of one of the meetings exist still in the un-used Milly Dowler evidence files.  There is no mention of these April meetings in the SURREY Police timeline evidenced to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in 2012, nor in MET evidence given to the Leveson Inquiry in May 2012.

Mid-April 02 seems to be when SURREY Police knew definitively that Milly Dowler's voicemails had been hacked by, or at the behest of, NotW.  Arguably, this is the critical point at which action to stop NotW dubious practices could have been taken.

So, hacking of Milly's mobile was known to SURREY Police. In addition, Steve WHITTAMORE's files contained evidence of NotW's procurement of the numbers of Milly Dowler family's phones - awaiting discovery by Operation MOTORMAN.

Tomorrow, part 2 tracks the subsequent actions, inactions and missed opprtunities which conspired to keep the Dowler family ignorant of NotW wrongdoing...

Related Posts
The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 2: Discrepancies And Delays
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

Some Intriguing Hackgate "Known Unknowns"

Another article by a regular contributor.

...There are known unknowns; that is to say there are things that, we know know we don't know...

Some loose ends: The Leveson Inquiry has not concluded its formal evidence hearings having tied up all the frayed ends. In fact, it would be more accurate to say the Inquiry has not even concluded.  Dacre and Associated Newspapers have rowed back from their challenge to Lord Justice Leveson over prima facie wrongdoing evidenced in Operation Motorman - see their response to Leveson's Ruling - and have thus evaded the threat of Motorman Hearings in August. Yet, more submissions on partial release of Motorman information are expected from Core Participant Victims' counsel and any relevant responses should be completed by September 10th. These, together with the return of Sue Akers to update on police investigations, point to at least one more Hearing in mid-September.

And there are several more 'known unknowns'...

The Motorman Files: It is not explicitly known whether the Motorman material now forms part of the evidence currently being investigated.  However, recent charges specify timescales similar to Steve Whittamore's illegal activities and Sue Akers has made reference to evidence utilised from "previous investigations".  A limited amount of information is known from the Motorman Files, but further unknown lines of enquiry could come from the 17, 000 lines of information estimated by Alex Owens, (para 5.10), or 13,343 lines according to the Information Commissioner, 5,025 clear breaches and 6,330 probable breaches of law (pp 56-57' Robert Jay's Opening Submission Nov 14th 2011)

Glenn Mulcaire was ordered by the UK Supreme Court to disclose the names of those who commissioned him. These names will be disclosed only to victims' legal representatives - and to the Metropolitan Police Service.  It seems clear that the Met are then able to use this information in files for charging decisions which are referred to the Crown Prosecution Servive (CPS).  We do not know if those commissioning Mulcaire include any of those journalists already arrested or charged, but we do know that there are 28 legible 'corner names' in the Mulcaire documents.

The Mulcaire Notebooks comprise c. 11,000 pages, 2,266 taskings, those 28 legible corner names, 5,795 named potential victims, 690 audio recordings, 586 voicemail messages and an unquantified amount of computer material.

According to the Metropolitan Police, News International hacking operation had certainly begun by 2002, Milly Dowler being the first named victim. We, however, have recently seen a document which emanates from May 2001. The police believe that it continued until at least 2009. This belief is not derived from an analysis of the Mulcaire notebooks, which we know were seized back in 2006.

- Mr Jay, Opening 14th Nov 2011, pp86-88

So, it appears that there is unknown, additional corroborating evidence that post-dates Mulcaire's 2006 arrest. This must mean that there are as-yet unknown alleged offences between 2006-2009, for which Mulcaire (and possibly alleged conspirators) may or may not have recently been arrested and/or charged under Operation Weeting.

It is not known in detail what the Operation Nigeria material may contain that is relevant specifically to Hackgate.  It is though known that it is amongst the 750,000 documents in connection to Daniel Morgan's murder, and there is substantial other evidence including audio recordings. Surprisingly not all of these audio recordings have yet been transcribed, according to Tom Watson (House of Commons, 29th February 2012)

It is though known that ALL of the evidence relating to the murder of Daniel Morgan - which includes the Operation Nigeria material - is undergoing a forensic review by the Met, and possibly the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The use of the term 'forensic' is nicely ambivalent as - technically- it encompasses establishing evidence to the standard necessary for court proceedings.  This follows the collapse at trial of the fifth investigation into Daniel Morgan's violent death, and publication of the official Report into how and why the trial collapsed.  (Confusingly, by a strange coincidences, one of the counsel at trial was 'Jonathan Rees QC')

The Cook/Hames Surveillance:  Two people amongst those arrested in 2012 have previously been reported to have connection or involvement with the obtaining of information and surveillance of Dave Cook and Jacqui Hames in 2002.  Both targets were then serving Met police officers, and Dave Cook at the time was an investigating officer on the fourth investigation into Daniel Morgan's murder.  Two others, Alex Marunchak of News International and Sid Fillery, are not known to have been arrested for any Hackgate allegations. Jonathan Rees, Fillery's former business partner, was in prison at the time of the possible conspiracy.

However, it is now known formally that the Cook/Hames surveillance, and the subsequent confrontation at Scotland Yard with Rebekah Brooks, IS being investigated. This is acknowledged by the Metropolitan Police here (Q28), which is an informative read.

Additionally, included are extensive questions on Daniel Morgan's murder (Q40 Daniel Morgan). These questions are not answered publically, presumably so as not to prejudice the forensic review or any possible future arrests.

A Senior Met officer has apparently made a court appearance in relation to an unknown prosecution.  As there are court-imposed reporting restrictions imposed till October, there is no public knowledge who he (or indeed she...) might be.  One national journalist observed on Twitter, following a list of CPS Operation Weeting charges on July 24th: 

and finally... charges against a quite senior Met Police officer remain secret #openjusticemyarse

The same day another national journalist, whose specialisms include writing on Hackgate, tweeted

A very senior police officer is accused of breaking the law in an area which I cover, but I can't tell you who they are due to a court order...
...But I can tell you it sounds very interesting. Roll on October.

Obviously, these tweets may be merely a plausible coincidence of timing and could be utterly unrelated to Hackgate.

The most recent Operation Tuleta arrests of named and unnamed Sun journalists have been accompanied by Met statements to the effect that they

... relate to a suspected conspiracy involving the gathering of data from stolen mobile phones and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.

It is unknown whether the mobile phones involved were allegedly stolen at random, or whether the alleged conspiracy targeted specific mobile phones, potentially stolen to order.  Sue Akers third appearance at the Leveson Inquiry made a short reference to further Operation Tuleta initiatives which may range nationwide.

New allegations/News Corp:  Lastly there is the known unknown of new allegations of wrongdoing being countered by Michael Silverleaf QC on behalf of News Corporation.

The details of the allegations, which could be used to seek punitive damages, should be kept from the public unless they are approved at a Sept. 7 hearing and added to the victims’ so- called generic claims, Judge Geoffrey Vos said

Silverleaf said, "The claims outline “generalized activities which we think are unsustainable...They may change the approach we are taking to the case."  These new allegations could well be connected to the new information, alleged by victims' legal representatives, that

News Corp failed for months to disclose in civil litigation an executive’s e-mail with instructions on hacking the mobile-phone voice mail of a “well-known person. 

How far these 'known unknowns' might reveal themselves over the next few months will continue to make Hackgate very engaging.

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

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

Where Now For The Motorman Files?

Another piece by a regular contributor speculating on the future for the Operation Motorman files:

The latest Ruling given by Lord Justice Leveson is his THIRD on Operation Motorman - it just won't go away.  (For more on the genesis of Operation Motorman, see here) 

The 1st Ruling on Op Motorman was dated 2nd Dec '11, and set out conditions of confidentiality and security imposed on Core Participants' access to electronic spreadsheet copies of the 'Motorman Files'.  The same day, Leveson held private hearings to address concerns from Core Participants on the assumptions the Inquiry could agree regarding the Motorman Files as evidence of wrongdoing.

The 2nd Motorman Ruling was 11th June '12. It addressed arguments on the validity for the Inquiry of releasing the names of the commissioning journalists to ascertain if their employers had subsequently reprimanded, disciplined or alternatively rewarded them with promotion. Leveson resolved that counsel for victims could present evidence from the Motorman Files only for those journalists still continuously employed. this restricted release of Motorman evidence would be names-redacted  for the public domain. Leveson proved loathe to publicise journalists' names as, he said, "I did not intend to prejudice the ongoing criminal investigation".

The 3rd Ruling, dated 11th July '12, specifically concerns Associated Newspapers submissions which challenge Leveson's assumed acknowledgement of prima facie illegalities contained in the Motorman Files. Lord Justice Leveson has, as a consequence, said that he is now prepared to make public Motorman data relating to Associated in order to resolve the contended issues.  There may be Public hearings in August for the Inquiry to deal with this sticky subject.  (For analysis, see here)

A trawl back shows that Motorman has dominated a great deal of Inquiry witness evidence, legal submission and opening statements in every Module.  Throughout, newspaper groups whose journalists are named in the Motorman Files have argued that the evidence so old, dating back to 2000-03, and could not possibly have any relevance to the current Inquiry.  Yet the Motorman Files contain, for example, evidence that Whittamore was commissioned to target the phone numbers of family members of Milly Dowler, in 2002.  Operation Baronet is the investigation into the in/actions of Surrey Police officers who, in 2002, were aware of interceptions of Milly Dowler's voicemail by the News of the World.  Glenn MULCAIRE's hacking activities for News of the World date back at least as far as 2002 if not earlier. Obviously the length of time that has passed has not precluded other police enquiries.

And wait up a minute..... what was that again? in the 2nd Motorman Ruling? Leveson saying he did not want to "prejudice the ongoing criminal investigation"? Why would he say that specifically in relation to OPERATION MOTORMAN?  Might it be that Motorman is being re-examined?  So many questions, so many loose ends...

One interesting aspect which might be worth some speculation is what has happened since Operation Motorman.  It certainly is remarkable how several 'enquiry agents'  quietly resumed working for national titles following conviction - remaining loyally silent and not implicating newspapers who commissioned them. 

Whittamore's associate John BOYALL's  premises (Data Research) were also reported as raided for evidence by Operation Motorman. 'Data Research Ltd' is dormant but still in existence, based in Surrey, but BOYALL is not listed as director - Christopher DEWSE is, another 'enquiry agent' named in the Motorman Files.

BOYALL is listed as director of 8 different companies, including the very similarly-named 'L.R.I. Research Limited', 'Legal Resource and Intelligence Research Limited' and 'Liberty Resources and Intelligent Research Limited'.

For more on evasive legal strategies of business name-changes and Jonathan REES, see 'Southern Investigations: What's in a Name?'

Glenn MULCAIRE was re-employed by News International after his release from prison, even though Mulcaire's company 'Nine Consultancy Ltd' had been dissolved in Feb '06. But Mulcaire (aka 'Alexander', aka 'Paul Williams') had another company called 'Nine Consultancy UK Ltd' too, not dissolved until 2007.

Yet another Mulcaire company 'Eight Consultancy UK Ltd' (Company No. 06280986) wasn't dissolved until 2009. Presumably, this was the conduit for his invoicing.

'JJ Services' is obscured amongst similar names in the Companies House database. However, within a month after the Operation Motorman raid, Whittamore's wife Georgina (resident at an address in Surrey) incorporated a business called 'JJ Information Ltd'. It is therefore possible that it was this new company that was open for business as usual and still used by Express titles as late as 2010.  Associated Newspapers continued to use Whittamore, according to Paul Dacre's witness evidence to the Inquiry (p 49): "But you know in 2007 we brought the shutters down and banned absolutely the use of all these -- of Whittamore enquiry agencies."  Note the plural.

So, how far has Motorman information been circulated? How much is already in the public domain? Well, a surprising amount...

The ICO have released relevant documentation to selected victims of Glenn Mulcaire's phone hacking, eg Gordon Taylor.

A Freedom of Information request made by Tom Watson MP in Feb 2010 brought some informative (though heavily redacted), searchable material into public scrutiny including the kinds of information targeted, such as criminal records checks, vehicle, friends & family numbers. 

The ICO says the Motorman Files were also used in "the Southampton prosecutions" (anybody..?), and were inspected by the Chair of the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee.

Alex Owens, former Senior Investigating Officer of Operation Motorman, provided the Leveson Inquiry with the full Motorman Files.

Core Participants have been provided with copies of Alex Owens' Motorman Files data, under strict conditions of confidentiality.

Guido Fawkes leaked a partially redacted version of the Motorman Blue Book on his blog (servers located outside of UK).

Several news organisations have had access to the full unredacted Motorman Files, resulting in reports eg The Guardian, The Independent, and ITV.

The Leveson Inquiry has required the ICO to hand over the original Motorman Files in their hard copy form.

Leveson's 1st Ruling also reveals another striking recipient of the Motorman Files: 

I also make it clear that I understand that the Metropolitan Police have been provided with copies of these documents by the Information Commissioner for the purposes of their inquiries.

Maybe 63yr old Steve Whittamore (Director ID : 908886016 Year of Birth: 1949, wife resident in Surrey) might have additional information of interest to the Metropolitan Police Service? Perhaps the Met indeed want the Motorman Files to assist  live investigations?  Might the Met be thinking of interviewing more journalists,and perhaps this explains their extending of interest further than just News International titles? Using information NOT provided by News Corporation's Management and Standards Committee? 

How much longer before the Operation Motorman dam bursts?

So many questions, so many loose ends...

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

Operation Motorman - Leveson Hearings In August?

The latest piece from a regular contributor.

Lord Justice Leveson delivered a new Ruling this morning regarding Operation Motorman and Associated Newspapers.  In this new Ruling, Leveson gives a glimpse of representations made in private on how the inquiry should interpret the Motorman Files - the Ruling itself gives a good background summary of the Motorman investigation and Steve Whittamore's documentation in relation to his business of 'enquiries' undertaken for national newspapers via named journalists.  Many of these commissions include criminal records checks, Police National Computer checks - on the face of it, data procurement which was illegal. No journalists were arrested, charged or prosecuted.

In order to address concerns on the level of detail that the Inquiry might make public, Leveson held private hearings to receive Core Participant views.  He understood from those private meetings that there was a general acceptance that breaches of data protection laws by some journalists were acknowledged. Given that understanding, Leveson ruled that he did not intend tp make public any or all information in the Motorman Files.  This decision drew criticism from those wanting all the information released into the public domain and, presumably, some relief was felt by the named journalists and the national newspapers who had employed them.

Then Paul Dacre decided to take umbrage at Lord Justice Leveson's understanding of the private hearings' consensus on Motorman.

Dacre's titles came top of Motorman league of journalists commissioning of Steve Whittamore so, arguably, Dacre has most to fear from any release or leak of the Motorman Files. For an analysis of Dacre's dilemma, see here.

During Paul Dacre's evidence to the Inquiry, he appeared to accept (prompted by Leveson's prompting to consult with Associted Newspapers counsel) that there was prima facie evidence in the Motorman Files that journalists in his employ had commissioned data procurement, obtained illegally by Whittamore.  This grudging and graceless acceptance was given by Dacre amid his defensive opinions on the accuracy and validity of the Motorman evidence.

However, Dacre now seems to be challenging Leveson's understanding of prima facie acknowledgement of illegality by Associated Newspaper journalists.  Associated Newspapers defensive actions may have been, in part, prompted by Core Participant victims' counsel, Mr Sherborne, making successful argument to Lord Justice Leveson for partial and redacted release of some Motorman Files evidence - that which relates to journalists still continuously employed by relevant newspapers. Even in redacted form - letter ciphers standing in for journalists' names - this represents the first Motoman evidence released which relates to non-News International titles.  (Whittamore's 'Blue Book' detailing named News International journalists commissions has been leaked by GuidoFawkes.)

Associated Newspapers representations to Leveson firstly take issue with his assumption that Dacre accepted strong prima facie evidence of illegality. Counsel have complained about Leveson's characterisation as "strong" prima facie evidence. Lord Justice Leveson's opening remarks this morning included an apology to Associated for mis-representing their understanding through his use of the word "strong".

Notwithstanding, should Associated Newspapers additionally be back-pedalling on any acknowledgement of bad practice, Lord Justice Leveson IS now prepared to address the Motorman Files (as they relate to Associated titles) - IN PUBLIC and over the summer:

If necessary I shall sit during August to deal with it

His intention seems to be to make public as many examples of illegal data requests as it takes for Associated Newspapers to finally and unequivocably accept prima facie evidence of wrong-doing, "strong" or otherwise.

Say goodbye to your summer.....

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

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

Operation Motorman Files Reveal Ally McCoist Hacked, But....

Today there's been reports that Rangers boss Ally McCoist has been told by police his phone has been hacked by the News of the World during their investigations into documents from Operation Motorman, the original phone hacking investigation focusing on private detective Steve Whittamore:

Last night, a source close to McCoist, 49, said: “He has received calls from the police telling him they believe he was hacked.
“He expected he might have heard more, perhaps a letter. But he’s not heard anything, so he’s waiting to see how things develop.”

It goes onto say that "details about McCoist have appeared in documents looked at by the Operation Motorman inquiry team". 

What's rather interesting is if you look through the names in the leaked "Blue Book", which lists the various jobs requested by News International titles Ally McCoist's name doesn't appear at all.  This perhaps suggests the police have much more to look at than has been previously mentioned in the Information Commisioners report What Price Privacy Now, which included a table of collating the number of jobs requested per paper based of the "Blue Book", and other books for other newspapers.  So if the police are looking at far more than just the books that are referred to in the report who knows what they could find?

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

Hackgate for Beginners - Past Police Operations

This is part of a series of posts intended to help newcomers to the Hackgate scandal to understand the many different elements that make up the scandal.  With so much of the focus being on the Leveson Inquiry it’s easy to lose sight of some of the other aspects of the scandal, something this series of posts will hopefully correct.

In this first article I will be covering a number of past police operations that are relevant to the current hacking scandal.

Previous Operations

There have been a number of previous police operations relating to the current Hackgate scandal that met with varying levels of success, for a variety of reasons.

The most significant investigations were Operation Motorman and Operation Glade in 2003.  These Operations were the result of the ICO discovering the scale of the problem when documents were found on the premises of Surrey private investigator John Boyall that revealed the misuse of data from the Police National Computer, and this led to the two operations.

As an interesting side note, until the autumn of 2001 the News of the World was a regular client of John Boyall, but when News of the World's assistant editor, Greg Miskiw fell out with Boyall, Miskiw poached Boyall's assistant Glenn Mulcaire, who would go on to hack the voicemail messages of public figures at the behest of the News of the World.

Operation Motorman

A  2003 investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office into allegations of offences under the Data Protection Act by the British press led by ICO Senior Investigator Alec Owens triggered by discoveries at the premises of Surrey private investigator John Boyall.

The discoveries at John Boyall’s premises led to the search of the Hampshire offices of the private detective Steve Whittamore, where a huge cache of documents were revealed.  These documents revealed, in precise detail, a network of police and public employees illegally selling personal information obtained from government computer systems, which were passed onto over 300 journalists working for various British newspapers, including nearly every national newspaper.

In 2006 the Information Commissioner’s Office released a report, What Price Privacy, which closely examined Operation Motorman and which was followed in the following year by What Price Privacy Now, which including a table detailing transactions with Steve Whittamore by the number of requests per paper, and number of journalists requesting jobs per paper.  The top five included the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Sunday People, Daily Mirror, and News of the World.  However, it’s impossible to know if the jobs requested by the papers were illegal as Steven Whittamore did a mixture of legal and illegal jobs, so it’s possible that certain papers were more prone to requesting illegal jobs than others.

Therefore it’s believed by some that the release of the Operation Motorman files could uncover a scandal much larger on scale than the current News of the World focused scandal, involving many news organisations, and in March 2012 the Hacked Off website started to a campaign to have the Operation Motorman files published by the Leveson Inquiry and in April 2012 blogger Paul Staines of the Guido Fawkes blog published a redacted version of data taken from the document known as the Blue Book, containing jobs requested by staff at News International titles, including jobs requests by Rebekah Brooks (then Wade).  The ICO strongly condemned the release, and Paul Staines was summoned to appear before the ICO. 

Since then unredacted versions of the Blue Book have appeared online for brief periods of time, and an eventual leak of the unredacted files seems inevitable.

For further reading I’d recommend this article by Nick Davies of the Guardian, Operation Motorman: the full story revealed.

Operation Glade

An operation that ran alongside Operation Motorman, and investigated the way in which the information from the Police National Computer was being obtained.  Glade discovered that Whittamore's ultimate source was a civilian worker at Wandsworth police station, south London, Paul Marshall, who was logging phoney 999 calls in order to justify accessing the computer records of public figures that were of interest to newspapers. Marshall was passing the information to a former police officer, Alan King, who passed it to a private investigator, John Boyall, who supplied it to Whittamore.

In April 2005 Whittamore, Boyall Alan King, Paul Marshall appeared at Blackfriars crown court and pleaded guilty to procuring confidential police data to sell to newspapers, with all four receiving a suspended sentence.  The News of the World was named as one of their buyers, and the judge at the trial questioned why no-one from Fleet Street titles had been prosecuted, a question that appears to have remained unanswered. 

DCI Brendan Gilmour, who worked on Operation Glade, appeared at the Leveson Inquiry on May 9^th 2012, and stated that seven journalists were interviewed under caution in 2004 after evidence suggested they had been commissioning private investigators to obtain information illegally, and said they were unable to establish if the journalists were aware of the methods used to gather the information requested were illegal.  Robert Jay QC, inquiry counsel, pointed out the journalists were sent written invitations to attend places to be interviewed under caution, and had legal advice, meaning answers could have been orchestrated in advance.

Operation Varec

A September 2010 police operation that investigated claims made in a New York Times article by former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare that Andy Coulson, the then editor of the News of the World, had encouraged him to hack phones.  It also looked into claims by Kelly Hoppen that News of the World journalist Dan Evan had hacked her phone.  Sean Hoare was interviewed but according to the police report provided no information, and no actionable evidence was found in the Kelly Hoppen case either, so it was decided no further action would be taken.  A more detailed examination of the case can be read here.

Sean Hoare died in 2011.

Operation Millipede 

A 2008 Serious Organised Crime Agency led investigation into the practice of blagging which resulted in the prosecution and jailing of Daniel Summers, Philip Campbell Smith, Graham Freeman, and Adam John Spears. 

Philip Campbell Smith was later investigated by Operation Kalmyk, part of Operation Tuleta, into accusations that he hacked the computer of the former army intelligence officer Ian Hurst aka Martin Ingram, who was involved with the alleged spy Stakeknife.  Philip Campbell Smith was accused of hacking the computer in an attempt to get information on the alleged spy for the News of the World.

Operation Caryatid

A 2006 police operation overseen by Peter Clarke that investigated the interception of phone messages from the official residence of The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry Clarence House after two entries in Clive Goodman’s column for the News of the World raised suspicion with Royal Household staff that Goodman had access to the Royal Family's voicemails.

Clive Goodman was imprisoned for four months in January 2007 along with his co-conspirator Glenn Mulcaire.  Clive Goodman was sacked by the News of the World that same month, but would later receive a £240000 settlement from News International as according to News International his dismissal was unfair as they had failed to "follow statutory procedures" in sacking Goodman.

Andy Coulson, who was News of the World editor at the time, resigned as a result of the court case, and both Andy Coulson and Clive Goodman were arrested in on July 8th and released on police bail in connection with new phone hacking related charges.

The narrowness of the investigation has been questioned, especially with the recent revelations about hacking at the News of the World, and The former commissioner of the Metropolitan Sir Paul Stephenson was asked at the Leveson Inquiry why phone hacking was not investigated further in 2009 when Assistant Commissioner John Yates was asked to review Operation Caryatid, ruling that there was no fresh material that could lead to convictions.  Sir Paul Stephenson said there had been a “flawed assumption” that the original investigation had been sufficient, and the force felt it couldn’t expand its resources without further evidence, especially at a time when the priority was investigating terrorism.

Operation Reproof

A 2002 to 2004 Devon and Cornwall Police operation examining how confidential information was being leaked and obtained by various individuals and groups. 

It discovered a network of individuals being passed on by current and retired police officers to a number of individuals.

A more detailed examination of Operation Reproof and related operations can be found here.

Operation Nigeria

The police surveillance of Jonathan Rees run private investigation company South Investigations between May and September 1999.  The operation was run by the Metropolitan police's anti-corruption squad CIB3, and ended when evidence was uncovered that Jonathan Rees was involved with a plot to plant drugs on a woman so her husband could win a custody battle.  This resulted in Rees and a serving detective, Austin Warnes being jailed.

Transcripts from the operation recorded reports from a variety of newspapers, including the News of the World, Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, requesting jobs and revealed collusion between private investigators and corrupt police officers.

This post contains more information about links between Operation Nigeria and other police operations, particularly the links between the News of the World and Southern Investigations.

Operation Russia

A 1987 investigation led by John Yates into police corruption in South East London by a number of officers, including Ray Adams, who went on to work for the News Corp owned NDS UK Ltd.  It’s believed there’s a number of links between the officers involved with the police corruption and the Stephen Lawrence inquiry and the murder of the private investigator Daniel Morgan, which has also been linked to News International.  A more detailed examination of the case can be read here.

In the next part of Hackgate for Beginners I'll be looking at the current police operations into various aspects of the hacking scandal.


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