'News of World' hacked 45 Prescott messages

CLOSE TO 50 messages left on voicemail by former British deputy prime minister John Prescott were intercepted, transcribed and sent to the News of the Worldby a private investigator, the high court in London has been told.

Mr Prescott’s lawyers insist that he has been the victim of an “unfortunate history of misinformation” as the Metropolitan police told him repeatedly he had not been targeted by the Sunday tabloid.

However, the High Court was told that investigator Glenn Mulcaire intercepted 45 voicemails left by Mr Prescott on the mobile of his chief of staff Joan Hammell and sent their contents to a News of the Worldexecutive, with instructions on how to continue listening in. Lord Prescott, along with Labour MP Chris Bryant and former senior Metropolitan police officer Brian Paddick have been deeply critical of the police investigation into the hacking scandal and are demanding it be judicially reviewed.

In February Mr Justice Mitting rejected such an application, saying they did not have grounds to argue that the police were obliged under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights to notify them in 2005 that they could have been targeted.

Mr Mulcaire and the tabloid’s royal correspondent Clive Goodman were jailed in 2007 for intercepting messages left for, or by, a number of well-known people, including model Elle Macpherson. The newspaper then said they had acted alone.

It later emerged, largely due to investigations by the Guardiannewspaper, that others were involved. The police finally reopened its investigation in January. Since then, three more journalists have been arrested. In a bid to stem the damage, the News of the World'sparent company, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News International, has apologised, admitted liability and offered compensation to some victims.

Representing the Met, James Lewis QC said the appeal by the three for a judicial review should be rejected because it is now “academic” since the investigation has been reopened and arrests have been made. He said a review would lead to intense factual investigation into what the police knew or did not know at the time.