The press on trial
Evidence implicates 28 Murdoch journalists; The Sun named in phone hacker's notebook; Judge warns press not to victimise witnesses
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Police have uncovered new evidence that phone hacking was endemic at Rupert Murdoch's News International until as recently as 2009 – part of a "thriving cottage industry" of lawbreaking that involved "at least" 28 of the company's employees, the Leveson Inquiry was told yesterday.
The dramatic first proceedings of the judicial inquiry into press standards also heard that notebooks seized in 2006 from the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who carried out phone hacking for the News of the World, suggest he also worked for The Sun and "maybe" the Daily Mirror.
The inquiry has been provided with material from Scotland Yard that suggests "wide-ranging, illegal activity" at Wapping dating back to the hacking of the phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002 and continuing "until at least 2009" – three years after two employees were arrested and later jailed for hacking.
The suggestion that the Yard's Operation Weeting has discovered evidence beyond Mulcaire's notebooks that voicemail interception carried on beyond his imprisonment in 2007 would be devastating for the Murdoch empire. Senior executives vowed repeatedly that the practice was halted in 2006.
If information is uncovered that the Mirror commissioned Mulcaire to hack phones, it would be the first time that a non-Murdoch newspaper has been implicated in the scandal.
The hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London was told that the names of the disgraced NOTW royal editor Clive Goodman and at least 27 other NI employees appeared as so-called "corner names" in notes seized by police from Mulcaire's home in 2006. The private investigator was in the habit of identifying those who commissioned him by writing their name in the top corner of each notebook page.
Lord Justice Leveson warned newspapers not to victimise inquiry witnesses, saying that if they did so he might draw inferences about ethics that would be relevant to his final recommendations.
Explosive evidence on first day of Leveson: Read the in-depth report here
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments