Murdoch aides alerted to hacking in 2008

AIDES to Rupert Murdoch were warned as far back as 2008 that there was a culture of illegal voicemail hacking at the News of the World tabloid, according to documents released in Britain yesterday.

The warnings by a senior legal adviser to the British newspaper arm of Murdoch’s empire cast doubt on the company’s insistence at the time that it only knew of a single rogue reporter involved in hacking.

A Commons committee investigating the scandal that led to the closure of the tabloid in July released a copy of legal opinion by top barrister Michael Silverleaf that was given to the company and its lawyers.