Police phones ‘were hacked’

OFFICERS from Surrey Police in Britain are “likely” to have fallen victim to phone hacking as detectives investigated the disappearance of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, a seminar has heard.

The force admitted earlier this month that it had known the teenager’s mobile phone was hacked by someone working for the News of the World in 2002.

Yesterday counsel for Surrey Police said a “number” of officers were also likely to have had their voicemail intercepted during the same period.

Addressing a seminar ahead of Justice Leveson’s inquiry into media ethics and hacking, John Beggs, counsel for Surrey Police, said: “My instructions are that it is likely that a number of Surrey Police officers themselves were victims at the time of the launch of the Milly Dowler investigation, in March nine years ago — were themselves victims of hacking.

“I don’t want to develop that any further.”