The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 3: A Short Postscript

The Leveson Inquiry web site is currently doing a summer document dump.  This comprises three categories of documents - additional Legal Submissions, further 'Taken as Read ' material, and Exhibits to previously published witness statements.  The latter are scattered throughout the alphabetical witness evidence listings.

There are several interesting documents in the newly published Exhibits - hat-tip to Tom Watson MP for pointing to Andy Coulson's Severance/Compromise Agreement with News International here - it's worth reading.

But it was another Exhibit caught my attention....

When Bob QUICK gave his evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, he outlined a review he undertook when he was Chief Constable of SURREY Police. He was asked by the MET to look at the Cash-for Honours scandal (Operation Ribble).  Specifically, there were high-level leaks from the investigation to newspapers.  The then Commissioner of the MET, Sir Paul Stephenson, was very concerned that the leaks were coming from Acting Assistant Commissioner John YATES.

QUICK's Report to Stephenson made more than a dozen suggestions, including that YATES should allow his mobile phone and landline billing records to be scrutinised, scoured for calls to newspaper contact numbers, and timings cross-checked against press stories emanating from leaks.  YATES cold response to QUICK's recommendation was to refuse, saying  "he was ’very well (or too well) connected’. When I questioned this remark he emphasised "No Bob - I am VERY well connected".   (p9)

The full (though redacted) report from Bob QUICK to Stephenson is now available - Exhibit BQ2 here.

This was in late 2006, the exact same time of the well-publicised trial and conviction of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire. How one 'rogue reporter' from the News of the World had hacked mobile phones for stories made headline news and TV coverage.  Ironic then that one of Bob QUICK's other recommendations to Stephenson was that all phone calls between YATES and the press should be monitored and recorded.  QUICK added that

Surpol (SURREY POLICE) is researching the legality of recording options and I will report on these imminently.

Doubly ironic is that QUICK was seemimgly unaware that he had been  impeded by YATES' cold refusal PLUS the force of which he was Chief Constable.  QUICK was relying on legal research from SURREY POLICE - who had known for more than four years that News of the World had illegally hacked and recorded the voicemail of Milly Dowler.

Related Posts
The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 1: Questions Still Unanswered
The Milly Dowler Hacking - Part 2: Discrepancies And Delays
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 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