Hackgate - Varec Revisited - Dissent In The Ranks

The latest from my regular contributor.

Operation Varec is a little fuzzy round the edges.  It has its own formal 2010 inception date and terms of reference, but in some senses, it pre-dates that and grew out of John Yates' response to The Guardian article on the News of the World (NOTW) phone hacking, published July 8th 2009. This was Yates' 'Ratner moment' - undertaking a hasty fact-finding, presenting a same day, televised press statement, and later pronouncing on his own actions as "crap".

Lord Justice Leveson took the view that Yates could have, perhaps should have, excused himself from quasi-review of the phone hacking investigation - given his longstanding friendship with former NOTW executive, Neil Wallis.  Yet, even though his premature 'no new evidence, no re-investigation' press announcement was dismissive, should Yates accrue a little more credit?  After all, he didn't just let it drop there.

A series of meetings was convened by Yates over the next few months to establish if there were still skeletons in the closet of that original 2006 Goodman/Mulcaire investigation (Operation Caryatid).  Amongst those attending were DCS Phil Williams and DS Keith Surtees (investigating officers from 2006 operation), Steve Kavanagh (now sucessor to Sue Akers overseeing Operations Weeting, Elveden, Tuleta), DS Dean Haydon (Staff Officer to John Yates) and Sara Cheesley (Specialist Operations Press Desk, MET Directorate of Public Affairs).  The minutes of many of these are included as Exhibits to John Yates evidence to the Leveson Inquiry.  They seem characterised by a hyper-defensive mindset and a focus on presentational issues rather than evaluating the 2006 investigation.  Much effort was dedicated to developing responses to criticism of the Met from victims, government departments and Select Committee - reputational risk priortised perhaps at the expense of a more rigourous scrutiny of Operation Caryatid.  There is extensive background here in Sara Cheesley's witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry.

Recently, insights into those meetings have emerged which show a distinct lack of agreement on what action was needed - dissent in the ranks.  Tom Watson MP (3rd Dec 2012) raised this issue in the House of Commons:

May I draw his attention to a very late submission to the Leveson inquiry from Detective Chief Superintendent Surtees, which appeared on the (Leveson) website this week? He states that in July 2009, he argued internally that there was enough intelligence to warrant reopening the investigation into phone hacking. The hon. Gentleman will know that at no point was that raised with the Culture, Media and Sport Committee during its inquiry. That might be something that he and the Committee want to look at.  

Surtees 2nd Leveson witness statement (here) clearly spells out his trenchant view that the phone-hacking Investigation SHOULD be re-opened.  He says that he also suggested that Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) be called in.

Surtees assertions are echoed by Phil Williams (here).

Both submissions appear to be tardy attempts to mitigate criticism of the investigating officers contained in the Leveson Report. Presumably, these MET-sanctioned statements were prompted by Section 13 letters.

On 1st September 2010, the New York Times published their exposé ' Tabloid Hack Attack on Royals, and Beyond'.  On the face of it, the article included new information, new informants, and new victims of phone hacking - including Andy Coulson who was then Director of Communications at 10 Downing Street.  Obviously, a disinterested and objective consideration of NOTW phone-hacking was again necessary.  This was a crucial point at which John Yates had another chance to step back, recuse himself, and request that the Commissioner task a different senior officer team without the baggage and closeness to NOTW.  However, Yates chose to have oversight of the new enquiries - Operation Varec - himself.  His own Staff Officer, Dean Haydon, was appointed Senior Investigating Officer (SIO).  Haydon had been closely associated with the 2009 scrutiny as a member (and minutes taker) of the Gold group meetings.

Started formally on 2nd September 2010, Varec's primary objective was

To assess whether allegations being made in the media since 1st September 2010 provided any new evidence of criminal offences, namely unlawful interception of communications, at News of the World, in 2005/6 

It has been alleged that, within ten days of Varec commencing, a senior MET officer contacted NOTW offering to supply information. (Daily Telegraph) The media stories addressed by Operation Varec covered the New York Times story, Guardian follow up, and the Channel 4 Dispatches October 2010 documentary 'Tabloids, Tories and Telephone Hacking'.  When Dean Haydon contacted The Guardian for information, Alan Rusbridger replied in a scathing email

Nick Davies was further able to reveal incontrovertible evidence of the involvement in phone hacking of other NoW reporters and executives: the material is sitting in your own files,... Seeking to obtain evidence from the Guardian should, it seems to us, be a matter of last resort for the police... But the fact that three separate news organizations have been able to uncover this story must give you hope that you, too, could get to the bottom of it without too much trouble   

Twenty one strands of inquiry by Operation Varec were followed, including:

• Asking the New York Times to supply names of their anonymous sources.  They declined.
• Interviewing ex-NOTW's Sean Hoare.  Contraversially, he was interviewed under caution and so refused to answer any questions. Another ex-NOTW journalist simply refused to speak with the police - let alone attend an interview.  
• Other NOTW executives and journalists were questioned about Operation Caryatid and refused to answer, denied any knowledge, or (on legal advice) submitted pre-prepared written statements.
• Anonymous allegations were received by the MET, implicating three NOTW journalists in phone hacking. Each was written to by Operation Varec requesting information. None of the three responded.
• Colin Myler, NOTW Editor, was asked to provide a list of journalists still employed since 2006 (in addition to those above).  Myler did so.  Every one of the list of 19 journalists was individually written to by Varec to ask for cooperation and interview.  Not a single one of the 19 even replied.

Unsurprisingly, Operation Varec came to the conclusion that they were unable to obtain any admissible evidence to warrant re-investigating phone- hacking at the News of the World. For details of the 21 investigatory strands, see here.

The genesis of Operation Varec still leaves some key questions unanswered:

• On the first opportunity to recuse himself from the 2009 quasi-review, why did John Yates not do so?
• On the second opportunity to recuse himself from the 2010 investigation, Operation Varec, why did John Yates not do so?
• Given the obduracy, obstructiveness and disregard shown by such a large number of former and serving NOTW journalists, why did the MET continue to collude with News International's thin veneer of cooperating with the police?

Assistant Commissioner Yates resigned on 18th July 2011.

Related Articles
Hackgate - Dacre's Dodgy Dossier - War Of Attrition 
Hackgate - Sue Akers' Swansong
Hackgate - "Newsdesk Here, Kelvin Speaking..."
Hackgate - Andre Baker - A Hackgate Footnote?
Hackgate - Ten To Watch For
Hackgate - Dear Surrey Police


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

One Rogue Email And The Indestructible Archive

Another new article by my regular contributor bringing some more order to the chaos of Hackgate.

Often a key Hackgate event has come to light months (even years) later.  It can be confusing - trying to see a wider view and adjusting your fuzzy chronology when fresh information appears. But each new fragment contributes to a better grasp of a bigger picture.  Tracing one aspect through the now-massive volume of material can be useful - in this instance, focusing on News International's quirky dealings with the everyday email.

26 January 2007
Goodman and Mulcaire convicted. Goodman's unfair dismissal claim against News of the World mean that batches of relevant emails are provided to News Int lawyers, Harbottle and Lewis, to inspect for evidence of illegality.  Given their narrowly-drawn remit, unsurprisingly they found none.

24 July 2008
Max Mosley won his legal action against News Group Newspapers (NGN), UK parent company of News International (News Int). One part of the defence case (ironically) was that Max Mosley had deleted emails which the News of the World alleged would have incriminated Mosley and exonerated the newspaper.  NGN were clearly suspicious that deleting emails looked guilty. 

Justice Eady demurred, saying in his Judgement (p17-18  paras 73-78) that Mosley's deletion of the emails

...seem to have been prompted, albeit with no great urgency, by the warnings he had received that he might be under surveillance by unidentified persons with the motive of trying to undermine his character or reputation in the motoring world. These came from Bernie Ecclestone in January and from Lord (John) Stevens at the end of February.

At the time (ironically), post-prison, "Glenn Mulcaire was contracted to give security advice to a private security company, Quest, whose chairman was Sir John Stevens, the former Met Police Commissioner."  (p66, Dial M for Murdoch)

8 July 2009
The Guardian reported that News International settled Gordon Taylor's civil claim: 'Murdoch papers paid £1m to gag phone-hacking victims'

9 July 2009
Assistant Commissioner John Yates (Counter Terrorism Command, Specialist Operations) undertook a day-long consideration of issues raised by the Guardian article the day before.  His conclusion was that a new investigation was not warranted.


14 July 2009At the ensuing Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee hearing, the Guardian's Nick Davies publicly provided Members with the infamous 'for Neville' 2005 email - one rogue email that challenged NGN's 'one rogue reporter' defence.


Nov 2009
News Int established an 'email deletion policy' to "eliminate in a consistent manner" emails "that could be unhelpful in the context of future litigation".



29 July 2010
Following repeated requests, a News Int Senior Executive again pressed for priority action on email deletion - "How come we still haven't done the email deletion policy discussed and approved six months ago?"


4 August 2010
The same Senior Executive asked again about email deletion, adding "everyone needs to know that everything before January 2010 will not be kept."

1 September 2010
The New York Times published a comprehensive story of the phone hacking crisis. Their article included fresh information from former News Int whistleblowers, challenging the fiction of one rogue reporter acting illegally without executives' knowledge - 'Tabloid Hack Attack on Royals, and Beyond'






2 September 2010
Metropolitan Police commence Operation Varec to investigate the New York Times article of the previous day.  Varec was undertaken by Counter-Terrorism Command in Specialist Operations.

6 September 2010
News Int were served with a letter from Sienna Miller's legal team requiring that all relevant documents and emails be preserved. In addition, her legal team demanded the preservation of all computers used by named News of the World journalists. (p 17 Admitted General Particulars of Claim)

9 Sept 2010
A News Int IT employee wrote about deleting emails the next day, "There is a senior NI management requirement to delete this data as quickly as possible..."

11 September 2010
It is alleged that "on 11 September 2010, April Casburn, being a public officer, and acting as such, without reasonable excuse or justification, wilfully misconducted herself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in that office. This charge relates to an allegation that DCI Casburn contacted the News of the World newspaper and offered to provide information." (Crown Prosecution Service charge press statement)

It was reported by the Telegraph that this "related to information allegedly offered to the News of the World about Operation Varec", though it is not yet known if NotW accepted any offer of any inside-track Varec info. Detective Chief Inspector Casburn is a serving senior Metropolitan Police officer in Counter Terrorism Command in Specialist Operations.

Same day - 11 September 2010
All emails from News Int's email archive were deleted, up to September 30th 2004 (p17, Admitted General Particulars of Claim, as above)

October 2010
There now appeared a sense of urgency, brute force is applied - all computers used by News of the World journalists were 'taken out and smashed up' - physically destroyed and the hard drives put through a grinder. (Daily Mail)

10 November 2010
It was revealed by the Guardian that News of the World "accepted liability over allegations from Sienna Miller which included that her private emails had been opened".

17 November 2010
Bob Bird, Editor of News of the World Scotland, gives evidence at the Tommy Sheridan perjury trial -

Mr Bird told the court that the newspaper had lost 'six months' worth of emails due to a decision to archive them in Mumbai India

9 - 10 December 2010
Andy Coulson, Director of Communications at 10 Downing Street, gave his evidence at the Sheridan perjury trial.

21 January 2011
Andy Coulson resigns from No 10 post.

26 January 2011
Operation Weeting was announced. (MET Press Statement at start of Operation Weeting)

The MPS has today (26 January) received significant new information from News International relating to allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World in 2005/06. As a result, the MPS is launching a new investigation to consider this material... The original phone hacking investigation was undertaken by the Counter Terrorism Command in Specialist Operations. However, in view of their current workload and the continuing 'Severe' threat level, it has been agreed that it is no longer appropriate to divert them or Acting Deputy Commissioner John Yates from their main duties and responsibilities. Accordingly, this new investigation will be led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers from the Specialist Crime Directorate.

Late January 2011

...a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.

 (Guardian)

31 January 2011
A data company may have pressured News Int to admit the backed-up pre-2007 email archive still existed - "no emails had been lost en route to Mumbai or anywhere else in India" - they had been located, near Bristol.

May 2011
Former Director of Public Prosecutions, Lord MacDonald, was hired by global parent company News Corporation to re-inspect some of the Harbottle and Lewis email files - ignored since 2007.  It took him just minutes to conclude that the emails must be handed to the police.
(Qs 1056-1060 Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee)

18 July 2011
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates (Counter Terrorism Command, Specialist Operations) resigned.

The News Corp Board followed Lord MacDonald's advice and the emails were provided to the MET Police.  These emails were the kick-start for the MET to intiate Operation Elevedon, their investigation into corruption of police officers and other public officials.

Who could have predicted?  You start with one rogue email and end up with a BIG can of worms...

Related Articles
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

John Yates And Neil Wallis - A Mutual Understanding

The latest piece by my regular contributor.

John Yates is back writing a column, for the Telegraph, with his old friend Neil Wallis playing cheerleader in the wings

Explosive! Ex-Met AC John Yates blasts Hogan-Howe betrayal of own officers over #Gategate shambles! in Telegraph today soc.li/qlapB3S
— Neil Wallis (@neilwallis1) September 29, 2012

Explosive! Betrayal! Shambles!

Yates' article - dubbed 'Enemy at the Gates' - uses the Andrew Mitchell bicycle debacle to aim a high-power snipe at the current Metropolitan Police (MET) Commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe.  Yates compares him unfavourably to the superior tenures of "commissioners of the calibre of Lord Stevens or Sir Paul Stephenson" - something else Wallis enthusiastically endorses.  They do seem to have a lot in common, don't they...?

Both Yates and Wallis share a love of football, fine dining, and a staggering lack of self-awareness.  The irony of his own words is clearly lost on Yates if one compares what he says now, as opposed to what he said then - in his last few years in the MET. Here in 2012, Yates states

The Met looked far too ready to concede that any additional investigation into these matters was not worth the effort.

Hmmm.... 'Additional investigation not worth the effort' in comparison to what, exactly?  The awarding of a very lucrative MET contract to News of the World former Deputy Editor, Neil Wallis?

The total value of the contract was based on two days work per month at £1000 per day. This was funded jointly by the MPS’s Public Affairs Directorate and Specialist Operations, which was headed at this time by Assistant Commissioner (AC) John Yates....  following the award of the contract Mr Wallis’ fees were split evenly between AC Yates’ department and the Department for Public Affairs headed by Mr Fedorcio.

Or perhaps lax by comparison to a scant eight hours devoted to deciding no further investigation was warranted to contradict the News of the World's 'one rogue reporter' fairytale? Move along, nothing to see here. Or as Lord Justice Leveson described it, a "back-of-the-envelope job for the day"? Maybe that is what Yates is echoing in the Telegraph when he says

An investigation, as I know only too well, would have bought time, given everyone the space to breathe and allowed hitherto unknown facts to emerge before final conclusions were reached. By closing this down early, No 10 and the Met have created a problem that was avoidable.

Yates goes on to bemoan what he sees as the current lack of accountability of senior MET officers.  In Yates' good old days, he would have expected the MET Commissioner to be challenged on

live television, with the national and local media present, the commissioner would have had to explain all the circumstances of the incident to a committee whose membership was drawn from all the major political parties...He would then be questioned in detail about his decision-making...Who really challenges the commissioner now and who will challenge other chiefs in the future? Where is the transparency and the public accountability around key decisions?

Yates sounds almost nostalgic for his own appearances before the Parliamentary Select Committees for Home Affairs,  and for Culture, Media and Sport regarding MET accountability on Hackgate.  His evidence sessions were virtuoso performances of stonewalling and evasion, added to his obvious irritation at the impertinence of any Select Committee calling him to account.  Ditto his evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, given by video link from Bahrain.

And what of the two previous MET Commissioners to whom Yates invidiously compares Hogan-Howe - Paul Stephenson and John Stevens?  Both had reason to owe Wallis a debt of gratitude

Former News of the World executive Neil Wallis advised two former senior policemen on how to get the job of Scotland Yard commissioner, the Leveson Inquiry heard today. Mr Wallis said he helped Lord Stevens "throughout" his successful application to become head of the Metropolitan Police, telling him to stress he was a "copper's copper" or "thief-taker".  The ex-tabloid executive also offered his opinions on what the post required to Sir Paul Stephenson, who took over as Met commissioner in 2009.

According to Leveson evidence, Dick Fedorcio informed Stephenson in advance of his intention to contract Neil Wallis.  Stephenson appears not to have disagreed with Fedorcio's decision, perhaps as Sir Paul had already been receiving counsel from an altruistic Wallis - for free - on key speech-making. Once contracted however, Wallis was paid for this advice retrospectively.  Unfortunately for him, Paul Stephenson was put into the position (at the behest of Cabinet Secretary Gus O'Donnell) of asking Bob Quick to investigate serious allegations that John Yates may have been leaking MET Management Board level information to those in the media with whom Yates had over-close friendships.

John Stevens is the other 'high-calibre' Commissioner extolled in Yates' Telegraph piece.  He also enjoyed fine dining with Wallis and was appreciative of Wallis' grooming his public image.  On his retirement from the MET, Wallis proposed that the News of the World serialised Stevens' autobiography. Stevens was then offered a generous contract for a regular column entitled 'The Chief' - ghost-written by NotW's Deputy Editor - Neil Wallis.  For this, Stevens "was paid £5,000 for seven articles in the first year before his fee was upped £7,000 for the second." (Hacked Off)

Robert Jay's questioning of John Stevens revealed other interests shared by Stevens, Yates and Neil Wallis

The Birdcage, which is or appears to be a restaurant in W1... lunch...Sandersons, a hotel in Berners Street W1... lunch with Lord Alli and Neil Wallis... dinner with Neil Wallis... London's Brasserie... dinner with Rebekah Wade and husband, The Ivy... dinner with Mr Wallis, Convivio... News of the World, Scalini - Andy Coulson, editor, Neil Wallis, deputy editor ...

We get the picture - if only Yates and Wallis did.  Blithely unaware of perceptions, they still don't get it.  Their mutual admiration society is cemented by an unshakeable belief in their shared integrity and unchallengable 'objectivity'.  Countering any view that Yates may now be an discredited choice for newspaper columnist, Neil Wallis' eulogised on Twitter:

@gsandhu The Telegraph obviously don't agree.And I promise you, neither do the majority of the Met, who adored him and mourned his leaving
— Neil Wallis (@neilwallis1) September 29, 2012

Ah, yes.  I believe Jung calls it 'projection' - no sense of irony or self-perception at all there from 'Wallis the Wolfman'.

So, Yates feels entitled to opine on the MET's handling of cycling in Downing Street, yet is stubbornly oblivious to the questionable closeness of past senior MET officers to Neil Wallis and News International. Ironically - Yates' own words in the Telegraph could equally reflect an alternative view of his role in Hackgate

It is, in the words of Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It, an 'omnishambles'.  The only way to resolve it is to turn back the clock and for there to be a proper investigation.

 No shit, Sherlock - on yer bike.  Move along.

Related Articles
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 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

Hackgate for Beginners - Controversial Cops and News Corp.

[Back to The Leveson Inquiry]

During the Hackgate Scandal there have been a number of police officers linked to News Corp.  Here’s a few key names you might see popping up when following the Hackgate Scandal:

Andy Hayman – A former Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London's Metropolitan Police, resigning in December 2007 following allegations about expense claims and alleged improper conduct with a female member of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and a female sergeant.  After his resignation he would face criticism, along with Sir Ian Blair, from the press and Independent Police Complaints Commission over the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

During Operation Caryatid, the investigation into the interception of phone messages at Clarence House by journalists from the News of the World, the officer in charge of the investigation reported to Andy Hayman.  Hayman told the Home Affairs Select Committee in July 2011 that he had met with News International executives during the investigation, something he considered as not unusual as it would have been odd if he had cancelled the dinner.

The Guardian reported that some police sources said it was “unfortunate” that Andy Hayman went on to work for News International as a columnist for The Times, where even with his knowledge of Operation Caryatid he wrote that there were “perhaps a handful” of hacking victims.

John Yates - A former Assistant Commissioner in the London Metropolitan Police Service, who resigned in July 2011 over criticism of a July 2009 review of Operation Caryatid, in which he decided in one 8 hour sessions that there was no fresh material that could lead to convictions. 

John Yates began to receive criticism when the House of Commons home affairs committee began to look into the way in which the review had been carried out, with a number of statements made by John Yates about the review were contradicted by the evidence of the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer.  He received further criticism when it was revealed that he, Sir Ian Blair, Andy Hayman, and Paul Stephenson had attended a number of meals with representative from various News International newspaper titles around the time of the review. 

In a July 9^th 2011 interview with the Sunday Telegraph he expressed “extreme regret” for failing in the initial phone hacking inquiry, but dismissed any suggestion of corruption or improper relationships on his part.  On July 18^th 2011 he announced his resignation in a brief statement.

In May 2012 a report into phone hacking by the House of Commons select committee found that John Yates and Keri Starmer were culpable for failing to properly investigate evidence of phone hacking when it was first brought to their attention during the Operation Caryatid investigation.  The report concluded: "The police at that time had no interest or willingness to uncover the full extent of the phone-hacking which had taken place."

Paul Stephenson – The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, who resigned after questions were asked about his relationship with former News International journalist Neil Wallis, who was arrested in July 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.

Paul Stephenson first met Wallis in 2006 during his time at the News of the World, and hired Neil Wallis to provide “strategic communication advice and support” to the Metropolitan Police on a part time basis from October 2009 to September 2010 while the Met's Deputy Director of Public Affairs was on extended sick leave.  Among other things this involved advising the assistant commissioner at the time, John Yates, who had recently reviewed Operation Caryatid in July 2009.

Questions about Neil Wallis’s relationship with the Metropolitan Police began went it emerged that he had worked for the police.  It was revealed that Paul Stephenson had met or dined with Neil Wallis on eight separate occasions between 2006 and 2010, more than any senior executive or journalist on any other newspapers, and that he had accepted £12,000-worth of hospitality at a health spa for which Wallis worked as a PR consultant, and where Rebekah Brooks’ husband Charlie Brooks runs an alternative medicine "kriotherapy" centre.

On July 14^th 2011 Neil Wallis was arrested as part of Operation Weeting, and on July 17^th 2011 Paul Stephenson made a lengthy statement announcing his intention to resign as commissioner, saying that questions surrounding his integrity would otherwise become detrimental to the Met as a whole.

Ray Adams – A former Metropolitan police commander who left the Metropolitan Police and joined the News Corp owned subsidiary NDS UK Ltd after a brief stint at Kroll. 

In July 1987 Adams was being interviewed by police corruption investigators when his close associate DC Alan “Taffy” Holmes shot himself.  DC Holmes was the corrupt police officer who Michael Gillard and Laurie Flynn claim in their book on police corruption “The Untouchables” had been working with the recently murdered Daniel Morgan to expose claims of police corruption that possibly involved passing information to the News of the World.

Later on Ray Adams would be involved with the Stephen Lawrence murder inquiry, and the Macpherson report into the Lawrence murder detailed suspicions held by the Lawrence family about Adam’s alleged links with Clifford Norris, the father of one of Lawrence’s murderers David Norris, and Kenneth Noye, also noting that Adams’ evidence had “strange features” to it.

In March 2012 BBC Panorama claimed that Ray Adams had worked closely with a hacker, Lee Gibling, to set up the website The House of Ill-Compute (THOiC), which was intended to gather cable and satellite hackers to one site run by Lee Gibling, and therefore under the control of Ray Adams.  Lee Gibling claimed that Ray Adams provided him with software and instructions to hack their major rival ONDigital.  Those claims were supported by documents passed on to Panorama.

Later Lee Gibling would also allege that Ray Adams used information from the THOiC website to strong arm a number of cable and satellite companies into giving up internal operational security to NDS UK Ltd, claiming that hacks on THOiC showed those companies weren’t providing adequate security to protect BSkyB’s revenue, and that unless they handed over their operational security operations to NDS BSkyB would remove their channels from those companies.  Once NDS took over operational security they used the information from THOiC to arrest various individuals hacking those companies.

[Index]

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

Visualised Connections Between Operation Russia and Others Involved With Hackgate

Something Awful forum member Firing Cirrus has been working on a visual representation of links between individuals, groups, and investigations described in my earlier post on Operation Russia, which relates to a large number of figures, past and present, involved with the wider Hackgate Scandal.

In the below chart individuals are marked in red, groups and organisations in green, police operations in blue, and government reports in yellow.  Firing Cirrus explains how to read the chart:

This graph, unlike the previous ones is directional. By that, I mean that a tie between two nodes tells us information about the nodes, beyond just being connected. For example, John Yates links to Operation Russia and Operation Russia links to Ray Adams. By this, I'm aiming to indicate that John Yates is the investigator and Ray Adams is the investigated. There are other directional arrows such as employment etc. On top of this there are dotted lines indicating an alleged connection between people.

 You can read the full story on Operation Russia here.

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

Operation Varec - The Forgotten Andy Coulson Phone Hacking Investigation

One police operation that was mentioned several times by various witnesses at the Leveson Inquiry was Operation Varec.  There’s very little information on Operation Varec online, so I’ve decide to put together what information I can find on it, mostly gathered from statements from the Leveson.

This New York Times article carried claims made by former News of the World entertainment journalist Sean Hoare that his former close friend and News of the World editor Andy Coulson "actively encouraged" him to hack phones.  At the time of Operation Varec Andy Coulson was Director of Communications for the government at 10 Downing Street.  It was reported that Hoare’s statement resulted in him being interviewed under criminal caution by Scotland Yard, meaning that his statements could be used against him in possible future prosecution.

DAC Sue Akers described Operation Varec in her witness statement to the Leveson Inquiry as a “review (of) claims made in the New York Times newspaper on 1 September 2010 that Andy Coulson had in fact known more about phone hacking than he had admitted publicly.”

DAC Akers went on to say that Operation Varec “had been undertaken by the Counter Terrorism Command in Specialist Operations. However, in view of their workload in early 2011 and the continuing severe terrorism threat level, it was decided that it would not be appropriate to divert that unit from its core business and responsibilities.”

Operation Weeting was then set up on 26 January 2011 to follow on from Operation Varec and the earlier Operation Caryatid, and DAC Akers was appointed lead within the Specialist Crime Directorate.

Sir Paul Stephenson provided more information at the Leveson Inquiry about Operation Varec, which took place during the period he was Metropolitan Police Commissioner

On 1 September 2010 an article was published in the New York Times, in which apparently fresh allegations were made about phone hacking. I understood that AC (John) Yates undertook a scoping exercise at this time and put a new team in place to complete this task. This was known as Operation Varec. In December 2010 I was aware that the results of this work were referred to the CPS. I am told that they concluded there was insufficient evidence to mount a prosecution. Again, there was no reason for me to think the issue had not been satisfactorily dealt with. However, it was in December 2010 that I took a leave of absence due to ill-health.  The investigation team, AC Yates or Tim Godwin, who was Acting Commissioner, would have had any further knowledge of the outcome of Operation Varec from this point onwards.

He goes on to say:

Although I was aware from these discussions and AC Yates’ public comments that a strategy for dealing with people who may have been exposed to the practice of phone hacking had been developed by the original investigating team and service providers, I was unaware that this strategy had not been implemented as expected. I was also unaware that there was substantial material that had not been satisfactorily dealt with by that original investigation. Indeed my belief, based upon discussions with, and assurances from, AC Yates, was that the original investigation and prosecution strategy had successfully tested relatively new legislation covering a somewhat technical and now illegal practice..

It was only after the reopening of the investigation through the establishment of Operation Weeting during my absence from office on sick leave that I became aware that there were issues of substance for further investigation. Up until this point I had no reason to suspect that the initial investigation was other than entirely successful.

I do not recall having any substantive or detailed discussions about phone hacking with anyone else during this period. Indeed, it is fair to say that set against the other issues facing the MPS (including counterterrorism issues, the investigation into the "night-stalker", the reinvestigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, very real budgetary challenges, the Olympic security preparations, Government proposals for significant changes to the governance arrangements for the police and national structures for dealing with serious and organised crime) phone hacking was not a matter which I prioritised. I was satisfied that it was being overseen by a highly experienced and very senior officer. I was reassured by the fact that to my knowledge the  case had been reviewed by the CPS and by counsel.

Keir Starmer QC also appeared at the Leveson Inquiry and submitted extensive evidence relating to Operation Varec.  First of all it reveals that Operation Varec covered more than just the New York Times article:

In addition to the "fact-finding exercise" in relation to matters raised in the article, there was a further case involving Kelly Hoppen, who claimed that her phone had been hacked by a NOTW reporter named Dan Evan.

He then talked about Sean Hoare’s evidence:

Amongst other things, D/Supt Haydon told Simon Clements that Sean Hoare had been interviewed under caution and had said nothing.

Later on in his evidence in a section dedicated to Operation Varec he goes on to describe what happened next:

The next development was the formal request from the police for advice as to the prospects of prosecuting anyone as a result of the "fact-finding" exercise conducted by them following the NYT Article. This was received on 12th November 2010. I attach a copy of the request prepared by D/Supt Haydon at annex 72. In it D/Supt Haydon makes clear: "I must stress that my task was not to re-open or re-investigate the R v Goodman and Mulcaire case but clearly there were links and crossovers or both."

I am unclear whether I was actually shown this document at the time or merely told of its content.

The request for advice concluded thus:

"I accept that the evidential position does not meet the threshold for a referral to the CPS but in view of the vast media, public and political scrutiny in this case and due to both the MPS and CPS involvement to date, 1consider a referral is appropriate in order to agree a joint current and future position in this case... "

On 10th December 2010, Simon Clements delivered his advice on Operation Varec to the police. He concluded that as no one had been prepared to provide evidence, the case did not pass the evidential stage of the test contained in the Code for Crown Prosecutors, namely that there must be sufficient evidence to establish that there is a realistic prospect of conviction. I attach a copy of Simon Clements’ advice as annex 74.

On 22nd December 2010 Simon Clements completed his second advice, this time in relation to Dan Evans. I attach a copy of that advice at annex 76. In it he states that officers have asked for clarification in relation to the law, and Mr Clements set out the advice detailed in my letter to the Home Affairs Committee. As far as further investigation of this allegation was concerned, he concluded that the evidence in this case fell far short of the threshold for prosecution, but the police should keep a watching brief on this and the other civil cases in case any further evidence should emerge.

This concluded the phone hacking case for 2010.

And so Operation Varec came to a close, and with Sean Hoare’s death in 2011 it seems we’ll never know if he could have proven his claims about Andy Coulson, and he certainly would have made an interesting witness at the Leveson Inquiry.  The question does remain of why he didn't appear to give the police any useful evidence they could have worked with when they interviewed him.

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