Fresh probe into paper’s phone taps ruled out

SCOTLAND YARD will conduct “no further investigation” of allegations of phone tapping by the News of the World, assistant commissioner John Yates said last night.

Mr Yates also said detectives had found no evidence that John Prescott’s phone was tapped.

England’s most senior policeman had ordered an inquiry yesterday into reports that journalists at Rupert Murdoch’s bestselling British newspaper conspired to hack into the phones of celebrities, legislators and public figures.

London police chief Paul Stephenson had said a senior officer would investigate allegations in the Guardian newspaper that News of the World reporters worked with private investigators to access “two or three thousand” private mobile phones.

The publisher of the News of the World, Sun and Times newspapers has made no comment.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, US actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Australian model Elle Macpherson were among those targeted by reporters seeking exclusive stories for the tabloid, the report claimed.

“These are serious allegations . . . the Metropolitan Police will examine them,” Home Office Minister David Hanson told parliament. “We await the investigation and examination.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s official spokesman said Brown was aware of the reports, adding, “[He] believes those people in public life should act with honesty and integrity.”

Assistant commissioner John Yates had previously investigated the so-called “cash for honours” scandal that overshadowed the end of Tony Blair’s premiership.

The Guardian claimed private investigators working for the News of the World intercepted voicemail messages and gained access to personal data such as itemised phone bills and bank statements.

Labour Party politicians yesterday called for an inquiry into the role of the police, Murdoch’s newspapers and the opposition Conservative Party, which hired former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as its communications chief in May 2007.

Coulson resigned as the paper’s editor after royal reporter Clive Goodman was jailed a few months earlier for hacking into the phones of members of the royal family’s household.

News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of media company News Corp, has already paid £1 million (€1.16m) to settle court cases with three people – including football executive Gordon Taylor – whose phones were violated, the Guardian said.

“The enormity of this is just unbelievable and raises many, many questions,” Prescott told the BBC.

The country’s newspaper watchdog, the Press Complaints Commission, and parliament’s media committee must investigate and the police have to explain why they made no arrests over the claims, Prescott added.

Former home secretary Charles Clarke said Conservative leader David Cameron, who leads in the polls with an election less than a year away, should sack Coulson. Cameron said he would not do so, adding, “I believe in giving people a second chance.”

Privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office, said, after receiving a court order asking for any evidence it had, it released evidence to Taylor’s lawyers last year of News International reporters buying and selling personal information.

“This included material that showed that 31 journalists working for The News of the World and The Sun had acquired people’s personal information through ‘blagging’,” assistant information commissioner Mick Gorrill said in a statement.

“Blagging” is a form of deception where a person pretends to be someone else in an attempt to obtain information from sources such banks or telephone companies, the watchdog said.