Hacking continued despite jail threat

NEWS International cannot rule out the possibility that News of the World staff continued hacking phones even after one of its reporters was jailed for the illegal practice, the Leveson Inquiry has heard.

But the publisher questioned claims that up to 28 of its journalists commissioned private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to intercept voicemails.

It has emerged that the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was hacked by the News of the World after she vanished in 2002, will be the first witnesses to give evidence to the inquiry into press standards next week.