Sky boss: Breaking law may be needed

The head of Sky News said journalists have to consider breaking the law to “shed light” on wrongdoing as it emerged the British media regulator was launching an investigation into the broadcaster’s hacking of private email accounts.

The regulator, Ofcom, announced the investigation after Sky admitted it had accessed the accounts of back-from-the-dead canoeist John Darwin and his wife Anne, as well as those of a paedophile.

The watchdog said it was investigating the “fairness and privacy issues” raised by the hacking.

John Ryley, head of Sky News, told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that occasions when journalists would break the law in pursuit of a story would be “very, very rare” but that journalists needed “at times to shed light into wrongdoing”.

Darwin, 61, faked his death in a canoeing accident in 2002 so his wife could claim hundreds of thousands of pounds from insurance and pension schemes. The Darwins, from Hartlepool, were jailed in 2008 for the swindle. The broadcaster said evidence discovered by its correspondent was handed to police and used in the successful prosecution of Mrs Darwin, 60, for insurance and pension fraud.