SCOTLAND YARD yesterday arrested a senior News of the Worldjournalist and a former news editor of the tabloid on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting mobile phone voicemail messages of well-known people.
The arrests took place as the director of public prosecutions denied police claims that existing legislation had made it impossible for them to undertake more prosecutions when the scandal first broke in 2006.
Former news editor Ian Edmondson (50) and News of the World's serving chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck (42) were arrested after they voluntarily presented themselves at London police stations yesterday morning. Detectives engaged in Operation Weeting searched their homes later in the day. The arrests are the first fruits of the Metropolitan Police's renewed investigation into charges that the News of Worldhad engaged in "sustained" interception. The paper's royal correspondent Clive Goodman was jailed in 2007, alongside private detective Glenn Mulcaire, for illegally intercepting the messages of up to seven people.
Up to recently, the paper – part of the stable controlled by Rupert Murdoch’s News International – had insisted that Goodman was a rogue operator, even though files seized by police from Mulcaire at the time, but not released until recently, show records had been kept on several thousand people prominent in sport, entertainment and politics.
The conduct of the police has been frequently criticised, particularly because they did not interview other reporters or executives at the time of Goodman’s arrest. Last Friday a high court judge in London ordered the newspaper to hand over hundreds of thousands of e-mails to lawyers representing some of those who believe that they were victims.
Edmondson was sacked following a renewed internal inquiry at the newspaper in December. He denies that he was involved in any wrongdoing. Thurlbeck was first interviewed by detectives last autumn. So far, no charges have been brought against either.
Meanwhile, director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer told MPs yesterday that legal advice from his department did not limit the scope of the first police investigation. He said Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates was wrong to have told two parliamentary committees last week that detectives could only find 10 or 12 phone-hacking victims in its first inquiry whose voicemail had been intercepted by the News of the World.
In a letter to the House of Commons’ home affairs committee, Mr Starmer said prosecutors had told police that the Computer Misuse Act established grounds for prosecution regardless of whether the intended recipient had heard the message or not.
“In my view the legal advice given by the crown prosecution service to the Metropolitan Police on the interpretation of the relevant offences did not limit the scope and extent of the criminal investigation,” he told MPs.
The committee chairman, Labour MP Keith Vaz, said the DPP’s evidence was “most astonishing” and that it clearly contradicted the earlier evidence of Mr Yates. He said he would be writing to Mr Yates to ask for an explanation.