Prescott seeks access to 'sealed' hacking evidence

Former British deputy prime minister John Prescott today sought to gain access to “sealed” evidence relating to allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World.

Mr Prescott said his solicitors were writing to the British Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer urging him to apply to open material which was reportedly “sealed” in a case the paper’s publishers settled with Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association (PFA).

Last night, News International, the paper’s publishers, issued a statement denying reports by The Guardian newspaper that its journalists – or private investigators working for them – had hacked into the voicemails of hundreds of public figures, including Mr Prescott.

Writing on his blog, Mr Prescott said: “I’ve consulted with lawyers and feel the best way to really establish what the News of the World was really up to is to access the evidence file they paid £700,000 (€814,000) to Gordon Taylor to effectively ’seal’ from the public.”

Meanwhile The Guardian reported that the News of the World’s owners had also paid damages to the PFA’s legal adviser, Jo Armstrong.

In a statement last night, News International said that following an internal investigation, it was confident that there were no fresh cases of News of the World journalists hacking into voicemails.

It also denied that the newspaper or its journalists had instructed private investigators or other third parties to access voicemails or that there had been “systemic corporate illegality” to suppress evidence.

It said that apart from the case of the paper’s former royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007, the only evidence connecting its reporters to the accessing of voicemails was that which emerged during the case brought by Mr Taylor.

“It goes without saying that had the police uncovered such evidence, charges would have been brought against other News of the World personnel,” it said.

“Not only have there been no such charges, but the police have not considered it necessary to arrest or question any other member of News of the World staff.”

In a statement, The Guardian said that the News International statement marked the first acknowledgement by the organisation that it had reached a settlement with Mr Taylor.

“We are pleased that News International has, for the first time, confirmed its out-of-court settlement with Gordon Taylor over the illegal interception of his phone,” it said.

“We note that the company claims to have known about the Taylor phone hacking since April 2008.

“It is surprising that – having assured Parliament, the Press Complaints Commission and the public – that jailed royal reporter Clive Goodman was an ’aberration’ and a one-off, the company chose to conceal this discovery, which involved other journalists, rather than put the record straight.”

Earlier this week, The Guardian began reporting that the News of the World had accessed the voicemails of hundreds of public figures, including Mr Prescott, London mayor Boris Johnson and actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

In its statement, News International accused the Guardian of being “selective and misleading” in its coverage.

It said that when its then chairman Les Hinton had told the Commons Culture Committee in 2007 that he was not aware of anyone else in the organisation apart from Mr Goodman who had been involved in phone hacking, he had not known of the details which emerged during Mr Taylor’s case.

However, it said that it was “untrue” that police had found evidence that News International staff had either themselves, or using private investigators, hacked into “thousands” of mobile phones or accessed individuals’ voicemails.

It said also that it was “untrue” that its reporters had hacked into the voicemails of the various footballers, celebrities and politicians named in this week’s reports – including Mr Prescott – or that News of the World executives had knowingly sanctioned payments for illegal phone intercepts.

“All of these irresponsible and unsubstantiated allegations against News of the World and other News International titles and its journalists are false,” the statement said.

In its statement, the Guardian said: “News International’s statement contains many denials of allegations which have not been made by the Guardian.”

Meanwhile Mr Prescott said that he had also written to the News of the World editor Colin Myler under the terms of the Data Protection Act to find out what information the paper had obtained about him.

He has also written to the Information Commissioner Chris Graham asking for his assessment of the case under the terms of the act.