NewsofTheWorld_ClosedP1

James Murdoch Faces Possible Jail over his involvement in the News of the World Phoner Hacking Scandal

Hacking Scndal is Britain's Watergate




James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World hacking scandal
Published: Friday, Jul 8, 2011, 14:37 IST
Place: London | Agency: ANI

Readers comment: Cameron is too stupid and arrogant  to say he made a mistake or say sorry.

Media scion James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World engineered phone hacking scandal.

Former editor of News of the World Andy Coulson also faces questioning by the metropolitan police on suspicion that he led the hacking of voice mail messages by the newspaper, The Age reports.

Former British home secretary Alan Johnson suggested that Murdoch's announcement of admission that could expose him to prosecution

Murdoch, News International's chairman, is quoted in a press release as admitting that he personally and wrongly approved out of court settlements to phone-hacking victims.

The constant spew of allegations about News of the World's use of phone hacking reached fever pitch this week, forcing Murdoch to announce newspaper's closure.

News of the World had confessed to and apologised for hacking the message banks of several celebrities, sports identities and politicians two months ago.

There was widespread condemnation of actions taken by the newspaper. But, this week, it was alleged that the paper had hacked the phone of a murdered British teenager and deleted some messages in order to retrieve others - in doing so gave the girl's tortured parents some cause for hope that she was still alive and hindering police investigations.

In response to the scandal engulfing his media empire, Rupert Murdoch ordered the shut down of the News of the World which is Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper with a circulation of over 2.6 million.

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_james-murdoch-may-face-jail-for-news-of-the-world-hacking-scandal_1563629

Rebekah Brooks_LeavingNewsOfTheWorld-AfterAnnouncingClosure_8-07-2011.jpg Rebekah Brooks_Leaving News Of The World After Announcing Closure_8-07-2011
 
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The News of the World, renamed 

The End of the World:

The paper that died of shame

Murdoch’s News International admits role in phone-hacking scandal

James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World hacking scandal
 British cell phone hacking scandal escalates: U.K. companies are pulling ads from the News of the World, a British tabloid caught up in scandal after allegations were made that its employees hacked into the cell phone of murdered schoolgirls and the families of London terror victims.


Rebekah Brooks
Rebekah Brooks has been accused of arrogance during a NoW staff meeting. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Rebekah Brooks was confronted by angry News of the World staff on Friday when she updated them on the decision to close the title and
said that advertisers thought it was a "toxic" brand.

Brooks, who has been removed from a new management committee set up to handle the fallout from the phone-hacking affair by the paper's owner, News International, was accused of arrogance by one employee.

The unnamed employee said: "You're calling our newspaper toxic. There is an arrogance there that you'd think we'd want to work for you
again." He was applauded as he spoke.

Brooks said: "We know there's no toxicity attached to you guys in the room." She added that everyone at the paper had been betrayed by
people they had trusted.

The former News of the World editor, who began her career as a trainee on the title, told the paper's 200 staff: "This is not exactly the
best time in my life" but claimed the paper had become toxic and said advertisers would not support it.

Brooks told staff – many of whom had not been able to use the internet or log on to their computers after arriving for work at the company's
London offices – that the title would have faced two years of upheaval had it remained open, given the forthcoming public inquiries into
press standards and the original police investigation into phone hacking.

She said staff would be found jobs elsewhere in the organisation if possible.

Brooks claimed she wanted to remain as chief executive of the company because she was acting as a "lighting conductor" for the paper's
critics in the wake of the phone-hacking affair.

She spoke of the "team spirit" displayed when she launched the controversial "Sarah's Law" campaign under her own editorship
following the murder of Sarah Payne at the hands of a convicted paedophile.

In one heated exchange, Brooks was asked directly why she hadn't resigned. She replied that staff would understand why she had not done
so in 12 months' time, but added that she understood why people where angry with her.

In an email to all News International staff, Brooks repeated some of what she had told employees in her address in the News of the World
newsroom on the second floor of News International's new offices. The email ended by saying: "The News of the World staff have the toughest
and most important job of all. I know they will produce a final issue that will make us all proud."

She also made clear in the email that News International chairman James Murdoch had instructed the management and standards committee – set up last month to handle the company's response to the hacking scandal – to report directly to two directors at News Corp, its ultimate parent company.

It also emerged that Scotland Yard had requested that no News of the World journalist be allowed back into the building after this week's
paper is produced on Saturday without being accompanied by security.

It is understood that News International resisted that request, but as staff worked on the final edition, they were also scrambling to save
contact details stored on computers in the knowledge they would be lost if they failed to do so.

After staff were told on Thursday that this Sunday's edition would be its last, the TV sets were turned off and the lights went out at the
News of the World's newsroom on the second floor of News International office block in London .

Soon after, executives began to make plans to ensure the paper appears. The Sun's news editor was ordered to cut short his holiday
and come into the office this morning to provide cover in case News of the World journalists didn't report for work.

The National Union of Journalists has been "inundated" with calls from staff at News International titles asking about membership and rights,
despite the fact the company doesn't recognise the NUJ.

A News International insider said staff could see the camera crews gathered outside the entrance to the paper's old building across the
road in Wapping. He said there had been rumours the paper might not publish for one week only, or carry no advertising, but "nothing like
this".

He said that when "[the Sun editor] Dominic [Mohan] came out of his office and addressed everyone [on Thursday afternoon], his voice was
cracking as he told us the news, he was completely shell-shocked like he couldn't believe what he'd just been told".

The insider added: "The whole building feels quite funereal really. It has been pretty quiet and after the huge news of yesterday everyone
seems to be keeping their heads down. It is a very weird atmosphere. The issue really is what happens and how it will be after Sunday when
the last News of the World is run. Everyone wants to know what is going on."

The News of the World's political editor, Ian Kirkby, told Sky News:
"We are committing to the editor, if nothing else. Colin Myler ... deserves a decent farewell."

 
Sienna Miller receives compensation for having her phone tapped by News of the World
 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2011/07/08/the-end-of-the-world-the-paper-that-died-of-shame-86908-23256025/

Jul 8 2011 Torcuil Crichton


RUPERT Murdoch's media empire was reeling yesterday as he was shamed into closing the News of the World.

This Sunday's edition will be the last for the 168-year-old paper rocked by revelations of phone hacking and police bribery.

Former editor Andy Coulson will be arrested today and other senior journalists will follow within days.

It follows claims in the past few days that the News of the World hacked into the mobile phones of murdered Milly Dowler and the families of 7/7 bombing victims.

But Wednesday's revelation that the paper's investigators hacked into the phones of grieving war widows and their families was the last straw.

The under-fire Press and broadcasting baron had his son James issue a statement announcing the closure.

A tearful Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of the paper during phone hacking allegations, told staff at News International's Wapping HQ in London.

But if she was looking for sympathy, she was met instead with anger from staff.

One insider said the 200 workers who are losing their jobs had a "lynch-mob mentality" towards Brooks, who stays on as NI chief executive.

Murdoch has been in America during the recent crisis and yesterday refused to discuss the scandal with US journalists.

Earlier, advertisers ditched the NoW in droves amid a tidal wave of public condemnation.

And the Government bowed to pressure to order independent inquiries into hacking and payments to police officers.

In his statement, News International chairman James Murdoch said the good things the NoW did "have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong - indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company".

He added: "The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself."

Under-fire Brooks told the 200 staff they can apply for other company jobs, but many said they were being sacrificed to protect her and repeated calls for her to resign.

Labour leader Ed Miliband called for Brooks - a friend of PM David Cameron - to take responsibility for the pattern of phone tapping.

Meanwhile, Cameron has admitted there is a case for inquiries into the pol ice handling of phone tapping allegations and behaviour and practices in the newspaper industry.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "What matters is that wrongdoing is exposed and those responsible for these appalling acts are brought to justice.

"As the Prime Minister has made clear, he is committed to establishing rigorous public inquiries to make sure this never happens in our country again."

The hacking scandal also forced the Government to delay the News Corp takeover of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

And the controversy continued to hit BSkyB's share price, which slid 12p yesterday to 815p.

Miliband described the closure decision as "a big act" - but he added: "I don't think it solves the real issues at News International.

"I'm interested in those who were involved being brought to justice and taking responsibility - and that didn't happen today."

Closing the newspaper has allowed the company to streamline their operation and save cash.

A Sunday edition of The Sun will replace the NoW.

Internet domain names for Sunday Sun titles were registered in the last few days.

Labour MP Tom Watson, who campaigned doggedly on phone tapping, said: "It is decent families up and down the country who have shown outrage that have closed the newspaper. This is a victory for decent people up and down the land and I say good riddance to the News of the World."

Watson also renewed calls for Brooks to stand down.

Former deputy PM Lord Prescott, an alleged victim of phone hacking, said closing the paper would not resolve Murdoch's problems.

"Cutting off the arm doesn't mean to say you've solved it," he added. "There is still the body and the head and the same culture and that's why there has be a public inquiry into it.

"I cannot accept that Mr Murdoch - certainly Rebekah Brooks - didn't know what was going on.

"Now some poor suckers on the News of the World are going to be put on the dole because they've decided to make a cost-cutting exercise which they said they were going to do a week ago."

Rose Gentle, whose son Fusilier Gordon Gentle was killed in Iraq in 2004, had called for the News of the World to be closed down amid suspicions that her phones had been targeted.

Yesterday, she said: "The News of the World are the only journalists that we ever had bad dealings with.

"I'm glad that they're gone, but it doesn't mean we're going to give up the fight to f ind out if our families' phones were hacked."

Milly Dowler's family's solicitor Mark Lewis said the closure "won't make any difference at all to anybody's civil claims". He added: "Any crimes, any phone hacking, any other activities that were done weren't done by the News of the World, they were done by people working for it.

"It's sad that other people have been sacrificed but the people who are responsible are still there.

"There are questions about Brooks. She was editor of the NoW at the time the Milly Dowler situation was happening.

"She is still in her post. She might be crying at other people losing their jobs, but perhaps she ought to lose hers."

Publicist Max Clifford claimed the paper was closed to protect the reputation of Murdoch's wider media empire. He said: "The cancer was too deep and had spread too far to be checked so they let the patient die because it couldn't be saved.

"They were obviously aware of not only the tremendous damage done to the News of the World but also News International by recent allegations. My belief is that there is a lot more to come."

A spokesman for First Minister Alex Salmond said: "This is the right decision as the paper was irreparably tainted by these disgraceful and deplorable activities.

"Titles across the newspaper industry have been involved in breaching data protection laws, and that wider issue also needs to be addressed."

Reporting team Torcuil Crichton, Jack Mathieson, Charlie Gall, Craig McDonald and Keith McLeod 

TUESDAY  05 July 2011

NEWS OF THE WORLD TARGETS MET POLICE DETECTIVEExclusive: Channel 4 News learns that a Metropolitan Police detective was put under surveillance by News of the World journalists and his personal details targeted.

The surveillance operation came during a crucial murder investigation which implicated private investigators who had alleged links to News International.

Channel 4 News understands Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the News of the World, was informed of the allegations by Scotland Yard at the time.

It was at a time when Rebekah Brooks - now one of the most powerful figures in the media industry - ran the tabloid News of the World and it was just three months after the alleged hacking into Milly Dowler's phone.

This is a story about a claim that Brooks was confronted by the police over allegations of her journalists targetting a murder detective. An astonishing story which at one point, we've been told, had the police secretly watching the News of the World watching the police.

Channel 4 News can reveal the story for the first time tonight.

At 9pm, 25 June 2002, BBC Crimewatch was about to announce yet another investigation into a notorious, unsolved murder.

The case involved the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was found in the car park of a south London pub 24 years ago with an axe buried in his head.

The case collapsed again recently - for the fifth time - undermined hugely by police corruption in the early years. But it's what happened after this Crimewatch broadcast to the senior detective in charge, Dave Cook, which has never been told before.

Alastair Morgan, the brother of Daniel Morgan, the murdered private investigator spoke to Detective Dave Cook often during the investigation.

He told Channel 4 News: "Dave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didn't realise who the newspaper was at that point."

Within days of the Crimewatch broadcast, it's understood that Dave Cook had been told by colleagues he was being targetted by the News of the World.

Alastair Morgan describes what is supposed to have happened next: "I learned about the surveillance and then I learned that it was the News of the World that was carrying out the surveillance.

"Dave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed."

It's alleged that the police discovered one of the vans was leased to the News of the World. So concerned were the police that a witness protection unit was mobilised - as well as a police counter surveillance team.

When finally confronted, the News of the World apparently said they were interested in whether Dave Cook was having an affair with a Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames. They were in fact married at the time. Jacqui Hames has told Channel 4 News she has been contacted by Operation Weeting Detectives investigating the phone hacking scandal.

What is so disturbing about this allegation is the timing of the targeting of Dave Cook. Because in the murder investigation he was leading, suspects in the case were private investigators who, it's alleged, had close links to the News of the World.

Channel 4 News also understands that Rebekah Brooks - now CEO of News International - knows all about this.

Because, it's claimed, there was a meeting at Scotland Yard in December 2002, in which the police challenged her over this.

We still do not know what the outcome of that meeting was, but both the News of the World and the Metropolitan Police appear never to have spoken about it publicly.

Tonight the News of the World told Channel 4 News: "News International has not been previously aware of these claims but will investigate any allegations that are put to them."

They say they are not in a position to confirm or deny whether any meeting took place or what may have been said if indeed a meeting did take place.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog

  • Tuesday 5 July 2011

  • A News of the World and a Sun logo on the News International Newspapers building in Wapping

    The News International complex in Wapping, London. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

    Bereaved relatives of the 7 July, 2005 bombing victims say police are investigating whether their voicemails were hacked by News of the World journalists in the days after the attacks.

    News of the World phone hacking - Tuesday 5 July 2011

    Bereaved relatives of the 7 July, 2005 bombing victims say police are investigating whether their voicemails were hacked by News of the World journalists in the days after the attacks.

    6.00pm: Good evening and welcome to our live blog on the latest developments and fallout from the Guardian's revelations about how the News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance.

    • The stakes have been dramatically upped in the last number of hours after the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, suggested that Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, should resign.

    • Labour are also demanding an public inquiry into illegality in the newspaper industry, while John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, has approved an emergency three-hour debate on phone hacking in the Commons tomorrow. David Cameron has meanwhile criticised the News of the World - "this is a truly dreadful act", he said.

    • Brooks has told employees it is "inconceivable" she knew that the News of the World hacked into Milly Dowler's mobile phone. The News International chief executive said she was "sickened" by the events, but insisted she was "determined to lead the company" – despite calls for her to resign.

    • Press Complaints Commission chairman Baroness Buscombe has meanwhile said that she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking. She said she did not know the extent of the scandal when she came on board the PCC in 2009, but admitted she had been "misled by the News of the World" – after she had previously concluded just the opposite.

    • Separately from the political fallout, Cambridgeshire police have said that the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the two children murdered by Ian Huntley, were contacted by Scotland Yard detectivesinvestigating phone hacking at the News of the World.

    • Ford has pulled ads, reports the BBC, and the energy firm Npower said it is "reviewing" its advertising in the News of the World following the Milly Dowler revelations. According to Sky News, Halifax are also considering withdrawing advertising from the paper.

    6.21pm: Some companies say they will continue advertising with the News of the World pending police investigations into the voicemail hacking.

    Tesco, responding to customers on Facebook and Twitter, said: "We know that you have a lot of questions surrounding recent News of the World allegations.

    "These latest allegations will cause huge distress to a family which has suffered enough.

    "It's now a matter for the police. Like everyone, we await the outcome of their investigation."

    A Virgin Media spokeswoman said: "We're not taking any action at this point. We're just waiting for the outcome of any investigation and then we will look into what to do."

    6.28pm: Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, has issued a public apology to those upset by his activity. The statement, released exclusively to the Guardian, makes no reference to hacking Milly Dowler's phone, but says he never intended to interfere with police inquiries. He said he had been operating under a "constant demand for results".

    I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done.

    Much has been published in the media about me. Up to now, I have not responded publicly in any way to all the stories but in the light of the publicity over the last 24 hours, I feel I must break my silence.

    I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I've been to court. I've pleaded guilty. And I've gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution.

    Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn't understand that I had broken the law at all.

    A lot of information I obtained was simply tittle-tattle, of no great importance to anyone, but sometimes what I did was for what I thought was the greater good, to carry out investigative journalism.

    I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime.

    I know I have brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself, but I do ask the media to leave my family and my children, who are all blameless, alone.

    6.52pm: Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News tweets:

    Live blog: Twitter

    Did News of the World team up with Sara Payne to campaign for Sarah's Law - and then have her phone hacked? Watch C4News at 7

    7.00pm: Simon Greenberg, News International's director of corporate affairs, is appearing on Sky News to talk about phone hacking.

    7.14pm: News International's Simon Greenberg said he is confident the company can come through the phone hacking scandal.

    Speaking on Sky News he said: "We've found some new information that helps us get closer to the facts of the case about who is involved."

    He added: "I'm not going to be naming individuals. We're liaising with the police. We met with the police this morning... It was a routine meeting... It is going to get us closer to establishing the facts."

    Greenberg said he was not aware of any claims of phone hacking in the case of Sarah Payne.

    "We've not shied away from the fact that when the allegations were made, Rebekah (Brooks) was editor of the NoW... and she's going to lead us through this investigation."

    He said: "There are things in the past that are highly regretful," and described the Milly Dowler incident as an "appalling shocking case".

    He said during his time at the News of the World he had no idea where the phone-hacked stories were coming from.

    7.44pm: Channel 4 News has made claims about how the News of the World placed senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance at a time he was investigating the murder of a private eye with links to individuals who worked for the paper.

    Here's an outline of its report:

    It said a Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, a senior police officer who appeared on Crimewatch, claimed he was told by colleagues that he was under surveillance by News of the World when he was investigating the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator.

    The C4 report said police discovered that vans leased to News of the World had been witnessed tailing Cook. It said NoW was investigating whether Cook was having an affair with Jacqui Hames, a Crimewatch presenter who was in fact his wife.

    C4 says the timing of the NoW surveillance was disturbing because suspects in a case being investigated by Cook were private investigators with close links to NoW.

    C4 added that Brooks was challenged by police over this at a meeting in 2002. News International was quoted saying it was not aware of the claims but would investigate. It said it could not confirm or deny Brooks' meeting with police.

    It said Cook and Hames were informed two months ago about documentation of surveillance found among notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire. It said they were both considering legal action.

    8.04pm: Back to the Milly Dowler Case. Press Association reports Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has written to Brooks and Scotland Yard acting commissioner John Yates asking what prior knowledge there had been of hacking in the Milly Dowler case. This is what Vaz says on the matter:

    These allegations are extremely shocking. It is now essential that any parties involved criminally are prosecuted and that we uncover who knew what at which point in time at both the Metropolitan Police and at the News of the World.

    The committee will be raising this issue with police officers involved in the current and previous investigations. We will also seek to clarify why a significant variance of action was taken by mobile phone companies in the aftermath of the phone hacking revelations.

    8.15pm: More details from the Channel 4 News website on claims that Met detective Dave Cook was placed under surveillance by News of the World.

    The report quotes Alistair Morgan, brother of Daniel Morgan, whose murder Cook had been investigating at the time of the alleged surveillance.

    "Dave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didn't realise who the newspaper was at that point.
    ...
    "Dave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed."

    8.37pm: More on advertisers reviewing their links to the News of the World. My colleagues Sam Jones and Mark Sweney report that mobile phone firms Orange and T-Mobile are joining Ford, nPower and Halifax in considering their position.

    A spokesman for T-Mobile said: "We're currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation."

    Orange put out a similar statement, saying: "We're currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation."

    The latest advertising boycotts came as companies including Co-operative, WH Smith, EasyJet, Butlins and Renault came under heavy pressure from internet campaigners to sever their links with the Sunday tabloid. A one-stop page has been set up to allow people to automatically tweet their concerns.

    9.09pm: A quick look at how some US news outlets are reporting the phone hacking story.

    Several news organisations run with the Associated Press version of events. In its latest update, AP leads its story on the affair with thegloomy assessment: "Britain's voracious tabloids may have hit a new low."

    The New York Times focuses on how "political pressure" is bearing down on Brooks. (paywall alert).

    The Washington Post also leads with David Cameron's condemnation of the hacks on Milly Dowler's voicemail.

    There's nothing on the website of Fox News, Murdoch's US outlet, although - to be fair - Fox usually focuses its reporting to matters of a direct concern to domestic American audiences.

    MSNBC leads with the statement of apology from Glenn Mulcaire first reported by the Guardian. It also highlights how the "escalation of the scandal comes at a key moment in parent company News Corp's planned multi-billion-dollar takeover of BSkyB, due to be approved by the government after a final consultation this week".

    9.20pm: Nick Sutton at the BBC has tweeted an image of the front page of the Independent's Wednesday paper.

    Indy front pageIndependent front page Weds 6 July 2011.

    The headline reads: "Brooks contacted Dowler private detective herself."

    It's hard to make out the text of the story from this, but another headline suggests it has evidence which challenges Brooks' version of events.

    10.12pm: In response to the Independent's front page, The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh says the story concerns details already reported by the Guardian about Brooks having commissioned investigator Steve Whittamore. However, the work she commissioned was unrelated to the Dowler case. He says News International has acknowledged this and there is nothing to suggest there is anything illegal in this.

    11.01pm: In one indication of the wider impact the phone hacking scandal is having on News International beyond the News of the World, the Mumsnet website says it has pulled an advertising campaign from Sky because of the latest revelations.

    11.11pm: Former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan has appeared on BBC Newsnight saying his former boss Rebekah Brooks was aware of the phone hacking.

    Asked if his former editor knew of the activities, he said: "Of course she did."

    McMullen, who made similar claims in a conversation that was secretly by taped by actor Hugh Grant earlier this year, described the hacking of Dowler's phone as "not such a big deal".

    He said: "The journalists might have helped. The mistake that was made was that [private investigator Glenn Mulcaire] was so keen to get new messages he deleted the old ones."

    McMullan also spokes of the pressure NoW journalists were under -- a reference to a statement made earlier by Mulcaire in which he said their was a "constant demand for results".

    He said: "You're only as good as your next story, they used to do a byline count at the end of the year and if you didn't have enough it was goodbye."

    Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman of Madeleine McCann's parents, has been cropping up in numerous interviews to confirm he has been spoken to by police investigating phone hacking.

    Mitchell, a former BBC journalist, said he had discovered "suspicious" activity on his mobile phone account from February and July 2008 - at a time when Madeleine's parents were being investigated by Portuguese police.

    It appears that a person or persons unknown attempted to seek information about my number in relation to the McCann case.

    In one instance they claimed that I had been phoning them regularly and that they were something to do with 'the McCann CID trial'.

    This is clearly untrue as no such thing exists, nor did I ever make such calls to any number every night.

    11.40pm: Here's an interesting piece by the Guardian's James Robinsonexploring how it would probably take the retirement of Rupert Murdoch to trigger the exit of Rebekah Brooks.

    Senior executives at News International have been saying privately that any number of senior journalists or executives could pay the price for the hacking scandal, but that Brooks won't be one of them. "Anyone but Rebekah," has become their mantra.

    Brooks was at another social event last Thursday, a summer party thrown by BSkyB at the Foreign Office in Whitehall, flanked by Rupert's son and heir apparent, James Murdoch. The two are said to be close and their professional relationship is bolstered by social ties. Brooks and her husband, the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, dine with the younger Murdoch frequently.

    But there is speculation that Brooks may not survive if Rupert Murdoch retires or steps back from the company and James take the reins.

    News Corp directors in the US are alarmed about how the hacking affair has been handled and view Brooks with suspicion.

    11.52pm: The Daily Telegraph is reporting claims that relatives of people killed in the 7 July, 2005 London bombings had their phones hacked by News of the World journalists.

    It said quoted unnamed sources saying police are contacting a "handful" of the 52 bereaved families. The Metropolitan police have refused to comment, the paper said.

    Clifford Tibber, solicitor for some of the families, tells the Telegraph the revelation will cause additional distress as bereaved relatives prepare to mark the anniversary of the attacks.

    "This will cause heartache for all the families involved," he said. "The anniversary is such an emotional moment for everybody who was caught up in the bombings and many of them still struggle at this time of year."

    12.14am: More on the claims that relatives of 7/7 bombing victims had their phones hacked.

    Graham Folkes, whose 22-year-old son David was killed in the attacks, told the BBC he was contacted on by police on Tuesday and told that his phone number had been found in a private investigator's files.

    He said the police contacted him to give him "advance notice" ahead of the bombing anniversary.

    12.30am: Graham Folkes has been talking again to the BBC, to discuss his reaction to the possibility that his phone was hacked in the days after his son David was killed in the 7/7 bombings.

    He said police had found his home address, his ex-directory home number and his mobile phone number in a private investigator's files. He was asked if he believed any news stories could have been sourced to his voicemail.

    I think my memory of 2005 is clearly distorted because we were clearly emotionally upset. All I can tell you that in 2005 the press did descend on us en masse. Some of the press including the Times and the BBC have been very supportive and responsible, but at the other end of the spectrum that wasn't the case.

    Bizarrely my wife and I had looked at the Milly Dowler story yesterday and said just how low can they go... So when a senior police officer phoned me and said 'you too may have been involved in this in 2005' I felt upset, sad and sickened that people would go such extremes.

    Folkes said that because of data protection laws, the police officer was unable to give him details about other relatives who may also have been targeted, but he indicated it was a "handful" of people.

    12.57am: Over on the Guardian Data Blog, Nick Davies has compiled anextensive list of the people believed to have been targeted by phone hacking. Well worth a look, the list identifies three categories of victim: people who have been contacted by police; those who have come forward and made complaints under their own steam; and those identified by phone companies.

    Live blog: recap

    1.26am: We're wrapping things up for the night, but before we go, here's a summary of this evening's main developments:

    Bereaved relatives of victims the 7 July 2005 bombings say police are investigating whether their phones were hacked in the days after the attacks. Graham Folkes, whose son David was killed, said police told him his details were found in files seized from Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the News of the World.

    Police are reviewing every high profile case involving the murder, abduction or attack on a any child since 2001 for possible signs of phone hacking. Cambridgeshire police earlier said the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the two children murdered by Ian Huntley, have been contacted.

    There are claims the News of the World placed a senior Metropolitan police officer under surveillance in 2002. Reports say Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook was watched at a time he was investigating suspects with links to the News of the World. There are further claims News International executive Rebekah Brooks was challenged by police over the case.

    Glenn Mulcaire has issued an apology to those who have been hurt or upset by his actions. In a statement released to the Guardian, he made no reference to the Milly Dowler case but said he had never intended to interfere with any police inquiry. He said he had worked under "constant demand for results" at the News of the World.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/jul/07/news-of-the-world-phone-hacking-live-coverage

News of the World closed down: live

Live coverage of News of the World phone-hacking scandal after James Murdoch makes shock announcement that Sunday's issue will be last edition of the top-selling tabloid.

Rebekah Brooks will not resign but no longer heads clean-up
• Brooks warns NOTW staff of worse criminal revelations to come
• Andy Coulson arrested over phone hacking and corruption
• Jailed former NOTW royal reporter Clive Goodman also arrested
• Police investigate alleged mass deletion of emails by NI exec


Andy Coulson has been bailed after being questioned by police over phone hacking and allegations of corruption at the News of the World Photo: GETTY IMAGES



Police officers arrive at the home of Andy Coulson to search his house following his arrest on phone hacking and corruption allegations Photo: NATIONAL



David Cameron: "Murdoch should have accepted Rebekah Brooks's resignation" 



News International chairman James Murdoch arrives at NI offices in Wapping Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES


A newspaper delivery man delivers newspapers to the home of Andy Coulson Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES



A selection of today's front pages 


News of the World closed down: live

Live coverage of News of the World phone-hacking scandal after James Murdoch makes shock announcement that Sunday's issue will be last edition of the top-selling tabloid.


20.42 @ExNOTWJourno has tweeted

TwitterHere's the situation.x-Notw journalists +friends going to release Blog on Sat night.Inside story of NOTW.Stories we weren't able to tell

20.32 The phone hacking scandal is clearly one of the biggest stories of our time but will it be as big as Watergate which engulfed the presidency of Richard Nixon and led to his resignation? The Independent thinks it might be. Here's the paper's front page tomorrow.

Saturday's front page of The Independent newspaper

20.14 Tony Blair, the former prime minister, has spoken on the phone hacking scandal. Watch the video here: Tony Blair: 'I was vilified for criticising the media'

19.55 Scotland Yard have just released this statement after relasing Coulson and Goodman on bail. It reads:

QuoteTwo men arrested by officers from Operation Weeting together with officers from Operation Elveden this morning have been bailed.

A 43-year old man arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and corruption allegations has been bailed to return to a London police station in October.

A 53-year-old man arrested in connection with corruption allegations has been bailed to return to a London police station in October.

19.52 So, Andy Coulson has been bailed, but what about Clive Goodman? Well, we've just heard that a 53-year-old man, understood to be former News of the World royal editor Goodman, was also released on bail until October after being arrested on suspicion of corruption.

19.51 The former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulsonleft Lewisham police station after being arrested on suspicion of bribing corrupt police officers. Mr Coulson said he had attended the station voluntarily. He added:

QuoteThere is an awful lot I would like to say, but I can't at this time.

19.50 Andy Coulson has been released on bail. He is due to return in October.

Andy Coulson is photographed leaving Lewisham police station

19.32 Listen here to that Secret recording of Rebekah Brooks's address to staff made at Wapping today.

19.22 We have more on Rebekah Brooks' speech to journalists at the News of the World earlier today, which was secretly recorded by one hack and passed to Sky News. The News International chief executive told reporters that she would try to find jobs for them elsewhere in the company. This exchange then took place:

One employee told her: "Can you see that by your actions yesterday, your calling our newspaper toxic, we have all been contaminated by that toxicity by the way we've been treated.

"But can't you see the bigger picture? You're making the whole of News International toxic, and there's an arrogance there that you think we'd want to work for you again."

Mrs Brooks replied that there was "no arrogance coming from this standpoint".

She added: "I don't see there's anyone of you in this room here looking at me now that we wouldn't want to work (with) because we know there's no toxicity attached to you guys in the room.

"I mean that's the sadness. It wouldn't be sad, we wouldn't all be feeling like this if you guys were up to the neck in it like previous colleagues."

She admitted that the company was in "a very bad moment" but declared it would continue to invest in journalism.

18.53 Subscribers to the News of the World website were today sent a message saying the online paywall will be taken down for the final edition of the newspaper, the Press Association reported. Users were each sent a message confirming that the website will be freely accessible to the public on Sunday. The site was put behind a paywall in October last year, meaning that only paying subscribers could view content. The message said:

QuoteIt is with great regret that we write to inform you that after 168 years we will publish the final edition of the News of the World this Sunday.

You will know that the paper has a proud history of fighting crime, exposing wrong-doing and regularly setting the news agenda for the nation.

However, in recent times the good things that the News of the World have done have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong and inexcusable.

As a result, the very difficult decision to close down the paper and notw.co.uk has been made.

Advertising space in this last edition of the paper will be donated to good causes and charities, and all revenues will go to organisations that improve life in Britain and are devoted to treating others with dignity.

As a result of this decision, notw.co.uk will be open to the public for free for our final edition on Sunday 10th July.

If you have already paid for access to the sites for this weekend and have outstanding credit on your account, we will contact you shortly and arrange a refund within the next 28 days.

18.52 More than £1bn was wiped off the value of British Sky Broadcasting on Friday as Ofcom signalled it would monitor News Corp's proposed bid very closely and Prime Minister David Cameron said there would be delays on any deal. Read The Telegraph's extensive report here.

18.45 James Delingpole has blogged for The Telegraph on his annoyance at the liberal-left's "self-righteousness" towards the phone-hacking scandal. The Right-wing commentator writes:

QuotePerhaps the least edifying aspect of the News of the World saga has been the sanctimonious fervour of the liberal-left wallowing in a stew of its own self-righteousness

18.27 Michael Crick, Newsnight's political editor, reports the Downing Street response to the questions at this morning's Cameron press conference about whether he or his staff received specific warnings about Andy Coulson prior to hiring him. Crick says Downing Street say Rusbridger discussed hacking "in general" at breakfast with Steve Hilton on November 12 2009 and Ian Katz called on February 25 2010 regarding revelations in the following day's Guardian.

18.21 Rebekah Brooks: "This is not exactly the best time in my life but I'm determined to get vindication for this paper and for all of you."

18.18 Hats off to whichever News of the World journalist has covertly recorded Rebekah Brooks' Q&A session with staff. One gets applause when he accuses her of arrogance for her offer of trying to find NOTW journalists new jobs in the company - because of her assumption that they would ever want to work for her again.

18.10 So to recap, the key points from Rebekah Brooks' address:
• She warns staff she has "visibility" of worse revelations relating to criminal activity to come, said of the decision to close the News of the World: "In a year you will understand why we made this decision".
• She will not resign, but James Murdoch has stripped her of her role leading News International's internal investigation into phone hacking. This passes to Joel Klein, newly appointed News Corp independent director, in New York.
• She promises staff a "quick" decision over the introduction of a seven-day Sun newspaper but says there will not be a new distinct Sunday title - they are "not going to print the News of the World under a different masthead".

18.07 One of our sources in Wapping says the News of the World office will be sealed like a crime scene.

QuoteThe office is going to be sealed after tomorrow night. No one will be allowed in without supervision. Journalists have to leave all hard copy behind. People saying they're being treated like criminals.

18.02 News of the World sources say Brooks emphasised there will not be a new Sunday tabloid title - it's a seven-day Sun or nothing.

17.54 Rebekah Brooks told staff she was "not going to print the News of the World under a different masthead", sources say.

17.48 Rebekah Brooks promises "quick decision" on the possible introduction of a seven-day Sun newspaper, NOTW sources say. She told staff she had "visibility" about worse revelations relating to criminal activity and said: "In a year you will understand why we made this decision".

17.29 Rebekah Brooks tells News International staff that oversight of attempts to clean up the company has been passed on to Joel Klein, the former US Assistant Attorney General who has been appointed as an independent director of News Corporation. That information in full from The Times liveblog:

QuoteFor the avoidance of any doubt, however, the News Corporation independent directors agree with James Murdoch’s recommendation that the Management and Standards Committee, comprised of Will Lewis, Simon Greenberg and Jeff Palker, report directly to Joel Klein in New York. Joel is leading and directing the Company’s overall handling of this matter. Many of you will know that Joel is a respected former Assistant Attorney General of the United States. Joel and Viet Dinh, an independent director, are giving oversight and keeping our parent Company’s Board advised as well.

17.26 This from the Guardian's media editor Dan Sabbagh on changes to the News International clean-up operation:

Brooks no longer in charge of NI internal clean up committee on recommendation of J Murdoch and *News Corp ind directors*. Serious change.less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyDan Sabbagh
dansabbagh

17.13 Breaking: statement from Rebekah Brooks to News International staff, excerpts as reported by David Rose at The Times on Twitter:

Twitter@DRoseTimes: The Company will focus over the coming months on finding as many jobs as possible for News of the World staff... As a company we welcome the Prime Minister’s calls for broad public inquiries into media standards and police practices... We are working hard to put our own house in order and do the right thing... Change and accountability will come through cooperating with criminal & civil inquiries & respecting due process during tough times ahead...

In response to media coverage, I would like to address several additional points relating to the ongoing police inquiries and my role... News International is not leading an investigation into itself because that could interfere with the work of the Metropolitan Police... What we are doing is assisting the police, who are entirely independent, with their work... We are all clear about one thing: the police will follow the evidence no matter where it takes them. The strongest action will be taken whenever wrongdoing is proven.

People have asked if it is right for me, as CEO of News International and as the Editor of the NOTW until Jan 03, to oversee..our efforts to assess allegations, address serious issues & prevent them from happening again. I’m determined that News Int does this.

16.53 John McTernan blogs: Why did Number 10 let Andy Coulson through the front door? The former political secretary to Tony Blair says:

OpinionBefore you start at No 10 you need to be security cleared or DV-ed (Developed Vetting which allows routine and unrestricted access to material marked “top secret”)...

Which makes me wonder, what were they doing when they interviewed Andy Coulson? I was not a public figure when I joined the No 10 Policy Unit. My press cuttings were my own articles. Coulson, however, had a record – and an audit trail – that the sleepiest cop in the world would have come across. Did they really not ask about it?

16.48 The BBC's Robert Peston on how the Ofcom statement has affected the markets:

BSkyB shares have now fallen more than 8%. Market agrees that Ofcom has put a pretty big obstacle in way of News Corp takeover of BSkyBless than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyRobert Peston
Peston

16.45 More from Rebekah Brooks' NOTW address, via Sky's Sophy Ridge:

Twitter@sophyridge: Rebekah says: you may be angry with me, I understand. But I'm angry at the people who did this and feel bitterly betrayed

16.44 Scottish police to examine dossier of 1,000 News of the World 'victims'

16.34 Sophy Ridge reports comments apparently made by Rebekah Brooks to News of the World staff. Brooks says she is staying on, pays tribute to "talented and untainted" staff.

Rebekah Brooks says the decision to close the NotW was taken because there was another two years plus ahead of troubleless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone  Favorite  Retweet Replysophyridge
sophyridge

16.22 STV report a statement from the Crown Office over Scottish phone hacking allegations. This follows a press conference from Tommy Sheridan's lawyer last night, relating to his perjury conviction involving the News of the World. Crown Office statement:

QuoteIn light of further emerging developments regarding the News of the World the Crown has asked Strathclyde Police to consider and assess specific claims of phone hacking and breaches of data protection in Scotland.

Strathclyde Police will review available information and will liaise with the Metropolitan Police in relation to any Scottish dimension to their current investigations and will thereafter report their findings to the Area Procurator Fiscal at Glasgow.

16.19 Breaking: Strathclyde Police are to investigate phone hacking claims in Scotland following the News of the World scandal.

16.16 Breaking: Rebekah Brooks told staff that advertisers had told News International the News of the World brand was now 'toxic', Sky News reports

16.15 Renault has become the first advertiser to extend its boycott to all News International titles i.e. The Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun. In a statement the company said: "As a result of the seriousness of the continued allegations of phone hacking by News of the World, Renault is reviewing its media advertising plans, pending the formal investigations. We currently have no advertising planned in any News International press titles in the immediate future."

16.12 Breaking: Rebekah Brooks apologises for 'operational issues' and tells staff that News International is trying to find them jobs elsewhere in the company

16.07 The Daily Star Sunday has issued a statement on today's police search of its office, insisting it related to Clive Goodman, the former NOTW royal reporter, and there was no suggestion he had behaved improperly during his freelance work for the Daily Star Sunday. Detectives were invited to attend its offices in central London and spent two hours there, taking away a disc containing a record of all Mr Goodman's computer activity, it said.

QuoteScotland Yard today sought the help of the Daily Star Sunday as they investigated allegations of police corruption involving the News of the World and its former royal editor Clive Goodman.

They confirmed they were similarly carrying out these routine checks at all places where Mr Goodman has worked as a freelance since he left the News of the World.

Officers formally requested any and all computer material that Goodman had been involved with during his occasional shifts as a freelance reporter at the paper over the last year to cross-check it with his activities in his News of the World role. They were particularly interested to check Mr Goodman's current email contacts to cross-match them with those from his time at the News of the World.

There was no suggestion whatsoever that Mr Goodman had acted improperly during his occasional shifts at the Daily Star Sunday, and we can confirm that no payments of any kind were ever made by the newspaper to Clive Goodman contacts.

16.05 Rebekah Brooks is due to be addressing staff at the News of the World right now. We'll update as soon as anything filters out.

15.55 Brian Paddick, the former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police has told the Guardian: "If Andy Coulson has been arrested, it is inevitable that Rebekah Brooks will get an invitation from the police that she can not refuse."

15.50 Someone claiming to be a former News of the World journalist has been tweeting rumours about Rebekah Brooks' briefing. We cannot substantiate whether they are indeed a former NOTW employee. But here's their latest tweet:

Vibe I'm getting is she'll resign. More as I get it.less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyExNOTWJournalist
ExNOTWJourno

15.29 Daily Star execs to address staff this afternoon on police hacking inquiry following police raid of the newspaper's office, Krishnan Guru-Murthy reports.

15.27 Ofcom has announced that it write to the police asking for "timescales of their investigations" - an indication that the regulator may be considering a probe into News Corporation but is unwilling to prejudice the ongoing police investigation

Their statement is in the form of a letter to John Whittingdale MP, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

15.20 Clive Goodman's desk has been searched by police at the Daily Star Sunday offices, Sky reports.

15.11 News of the World staff have been told to attend 13th floor for the briefing. Security staff on the newsroom floor. Journalists found themselves locked out of their company email accounts, leading to an exodus to the pub, Sky News reports.

15.08 The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh says Rebekah Brooks is not expected to resign in her 4pm address to staff:

Brooks statement at 4pm is an update. "No, she's not going".less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyDan Sabbagh
dansabbagh

14.22 Our business reporter Josie Ensor gives an update on BSKyB and News Corp shares:

Shares in BSkyB have recovered slightly in the past two hours, after falling significantly this morning during Cameron's press conference and as DCMS announced a decision on BSkyB would not be imminent.

The shares are back at 782.5p, from a 11am low of 764.5p - the lowest they've been since February, while News Corp shares were down 3 per cent to $16.90 after five minutes trade in New York.

14.54 More on these newest allegations, from the Guardian's Nick Davies and Amelia Hill:

OpinionPolice are investigating evidence that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive, in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.

The archive is believed to have reached back to January 2005 revealing daily contact between News of the World editors, reporters and outsiders, including private investigators. The messages are potentially highly valuable both for the police and for the numerous public figures who are suing News International.

According to legal sources close to the police inquiry, a senior executive is believed to have deleted 'massive quantities' of the archive on two separate occasions, leaving only a small fraction to be disclosed. One of the alleged deletions is said to have been made at the end of January this year, just as Scotland Yard was launching Operation Weeting, its new inquiry into the affair.

The allegation directly contradicts repeated claims from News International that it is co-operating fully with police in order to expose its history of illegal news-gathering. It is likely to be seen as evidence that the company could not pass a 'fit and proper person' test for its proposed purchase of BSkyB.

14.41 John Prescott reacts to the Guardian's allegations about mass email deletion at the News of the World:

If a News International executive did delete millions of emails in January THIS YEAR there's no way Murdoch can takeover BSkyB now#NOTWless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone  Favorite  Retweet ReplyJohn Prescott
johnprescott

14.39 Met Police confirm that Daily Star offices are being searched.

14.35 Raf Sanchez has written a profile charting Coulson's career from Wapping to Downing Street:

Andy Coulson was once seen as David Cameron's link to the ordinary people of Britain. Today the former News of the World editor is the face of a phone hacking scandal that has made him an ongoing political liability for the Prime Minister.

14.31 Numerous charities have apparently rejected the News of the World's offer of free advertisements in this Sunday's final edition of the newspaper, Celina Ribeiro at Civil Society blogs:

OpinionI discovered that RNLI, RSPCA, The Brooke, Care International, Thames Reach, Action Aid, WaterAid, Salvation Army, VSO, RSPCA, Oxfam and Barnardo’s have all rejected the offer... I personally have yet to find a single charity that is planning to take up the offer.

14.28 Breaking: The Guardian reports police are investigating allegations that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive, apparently in an attempt to obstruct the police's inquiry into the phone hacking scandal.

14.25 Rebekah Brooks to meet staff at the News of the World at 4pm today, Sky News reporting.

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks leaves the offices of The News of The World in Wapping, London. GETTY

14.19 Breaking: Unconfirmed reports that the Daily Star offices have been raided by police. Clive Goodman, who was arrested this morning, currently works for the Daily Star Sunday.

14.10 Sky News' Sophy Ridge, until recently herself a News of the World reporter, says that News of the World staff are expecting to receive letters detailing a redundancy settlement later today - suggesting that any ntroduction of a 'Sun on Sunday', as has been rumoured, wouldn't necessarily help the News of the World's 200 staff.

14.05 Tom Baldwin, Ed Miliband's press chief is now trending on Twitter after Adam Boulton quizzed the Labour leader about what checks he took before appointing him. One question in particular attracting attention:

Adam Boulton on @skynewboulton : "Did you ask Tom Baldwin if he took cocaine and do you mind?"less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  Replydavidhiggerson
davidhiggerson

14.00

PICTURESThe News of the World phone hacking scandal in pictures

13.52 More information on Andy Coulson's current whereabouts, via the Guardian's Shiv Malik:

Confirmed from various sources, Andy #Coulsonis being held at Lewisham Police station, Europe's largest with 96 custody cells #notw#NoWless than a minute ago via TweetDeck  Favorite  Retweet  Replyshiv malik
shivmalik1

13.41 The BBC's Robert Peston reports that Ofcom will rule on News Corp's 'fitness' to own BSkyB:

OpinionIt is likely to make a statement later today, I am told, which will make it clear that it regards evidence that the News of the World's newsroom was out of control for many years as relevant to a judgement on whether News Corporation would be a fit-and-proper owner of British Sky Broadcasting.

13.22 Clive Goodman wasn't given the luxury of a mid-morning arrest by appointment like Coulson. A police spokesperson says that the 53-year-old former royal editor, who currently works for the Daily Star Sunday, was held after a dawn swoop by officers at his home in Surrey. "At 6.11am officers from the MPS' Operation Weeting together with officers from Operation Elveden arrested a man on suspicion of corruption allegations in contravention of Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. The man, aged 53, was arrested at a residential address in Surrey. A search is ongoing at this address." Goodman is not being held at the same police station as Coulson.

13.20 Police arriving to search Couson's home earlier today:

Police officers arrive at the home of Andy Coulson to search his house following his arrest on phone hacking and corruption allegations. NATIONAL

13.12 The Guardian are reporting their sources suggest that Coulson is being held at Lewisham police station. A Twitter user reckons they saw him en route there a couple of hours ago.

#NOTW just seen Coulson walking towards Lewisham police stationless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®  Favorite Retweet  ReplyRosetta 
rosettastone57

13.04 Two arrests so far today. Sources last night suggested five journalists and executives could be arrested.

Andy Coulson and former jailed News of the World royal reporter, Clive Goodman. PA/GETTY

12.58 Tony Blair has weighed in for the first time, saying the phone-hacking scandal is "beyond disgusting" and urging a widespread debate on the media.

"Anyone who has been a political leader in the last four decades knows really that there is this huge debate that should take place about the interaction between the media and politics and the media and public life." He also had warm words for Ed Miliband, saying he showed "real leadership" during the scandal.

The former PM couldn't resist the opportunity to remind listeners at the Progress campaign group that he described the media as "feral beasts" as far back as 2007. And he apparently found time for a joke, The Times'Michael Savage reports:

Blair - in light of what happened it was gooood I got my first mobile the day I left office #notwless than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®  Favorite Retweet  ReplyMichael Savage
michaelsavage

12.55 The Times' Sean O'Neill says that Clive Goodman's home is now being searched too.

Twitter@TimesCrime: Clive Goodman is being held in connection with allegations of illegal payments to police officers; his home in Surrey is being searched

12.51 As our crime correspondent Mark Hughes points out, the Goodman arrest is over allegations of corruption - rather than phone hacking, which is what he was jailed for in 2007.

Clive Goodman was arrested early this morning. His arrest was in relation to illegal payments to police, NOT phone hacking.less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyMark Hughes
Hughes_Mark

12.46 The Hacked Off campaign, which is being coordinated by the well-respected Media Standards Trust, has cautiously welcomed the PM's announcements this morning. But in one of several criticisms, they say that there is no need for the judge-led inquiry to wait until the police investigation has been completed.

Dr Evan Harris, a former Lib Dem MP and a member of the campaign, said: "We see no legal requirement for this to wait until after police enquiries and that to do so could damage its ability to get to the truth."

12.43 BREAKING: Former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for phone hacking, has been arrested over allegations of corruption.

12.41 More on officers searching Coulson's house. Plain-clothed officers carrying evidence bags arrived at Coulson's detached home. One shouted "no comment" to reporters before informing them "nobody crosses this line" as he walked across the driveway. The officers entered the property on the leafy residential street after a woman wearing a dark suit answered the door.

12.37 Lining up to say 'I told you so' to Cameron, alongside Alastair Campbell (see 11.27), is John Prescott, who directs us to a letter he wrote two years ago:

This is the letter I sent to Cameron two years ago tomorrow warning him about Coulson. Never had a reply http://t.co/s6hbpNYless than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyJohn Prescott
johnprescott

12.34 "Has Rebekah Brooks been sacked yet?" asks a dedicated new website. In a word, no.

12.30 Ed Miliband's response to Cameron's press conference thismorning and called on him to delay the decision on BSkyB:

QuoteWe need the Prime Minister not to plough on regardless with the BSkyB decision which could allow Rupert Murdoch to take over even more of the media. What we saw from the Prime Minister this morning was someone trying to get to grips with the issue but I still don't think he understands the public anger out there.

We need people at News International, like Rebekah Brooks who was was editor of News of the World at the time of the allegations, to start taking responsibility.

12.25 Yvette Cooper on BBC News just now has been calling for Cameron to admit that it was a mistake to bring Coulson into Downing Street:

QuoteMy fear is that David Cameron is still talking about giving a second chance to somebody as if Andy Coulson is a 19-year-old who was late for work a few times.

12.22 Our crime reporter, Mark Hughes, is hearing that plain clothes officers have entered Coulson's house:

Being told that a load of "suits" have just gone into Coulson's house. Suggestion is that it is plain clothes detectives.less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyMark Hughes
Hughes_Mark

12.13 Our chief sports reporter, Paul Kelso, says that Coulson has been arrested under the same law that was used to arrest Pakistani cricketers as a result of one of the News of the World's biggest recent scoops:

Coulson arrested under Corruption Act (1906), same ancient legislation used to charge Pakistan cricketers. Do lawyers do irony?less than a minute ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®  Favorite Retweet  ReplyPaul Kelso
pkelso

12.00 Midday update: the political focus has shifted very much this morning away from the wrongdoings at the News of the World, to the judgement of David Cameron in appointing Andy Coulson, who has now been arrested in connection with both phone hacking and corruption. Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007 and was appointed as Cameron's communications director in May 2007. He resigned in January 2011.

Cameron faced repeated questioning on the subject at his press conference earlier and defended his decision. A sample of how the lobby journalists piled on the pressure:

Chris Ship, of ITV, asked Cameron to apologise for the appointment. Cameron did not apologise. The BBC's Nick Robinson challenged Cameron over his judgement, asking: "Why did you believe a man who had resigned over hacking at News of the World and why did you ignore those who warned you it was much more widespread?". The Times'Roland Watson challenged Cameron over what specific questions he asked of Coulson before hiring him.

Patrick Wintour of the Guardian then asked Cameron if he was saying he had had no warning and, when Cameron said he had not, asked him to verify whether his staff had been warned. This follows both Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian and Peter Oborne in the Telegraph saying that Cameron was warned specifically. Michael Crick of Newsnight then asked Cameron whether he had quizzed Coulson again in 2009 when the Guardian broke the story. Cameron was also asked about his recent contact with Coulson.

11.48 Sean O'Neill, The Times' crime editor, says the recent changes to bail conditions mean the Met Police must be very confident of their evidence on Coulson:

The Met has to be v confident in arresting Coulson - operating under changed "Hookway" bail conditions; 96 hours to charge or releaseless than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplySean O'Neill
TimesCrime

11.30 James Murdoch was pictured arriving at News International's offices in Wapping this morning, with a copy of the Sun - open at the page showing David Cameron attending the Sun's Police Bravery Awards last night:

James Murdoch arrives at Wapping today AFP/GETTY

11.27 Alastair Campbell has blogged, claiming he tried to offer Cameron advice about the press and told him that "he would find himself enormously strengthened as Prime Minister if he went in there without worrying about press support". He claims:

QuoteIf he had listened to what I have been saying about the press for some time now, he would not be in this mess now, in which his judgement is being so loudly questioned.

11.24 Scotland Yard do not name Coulson but confirm the arrest of a 43-year-old man, by appointment at a south London police station this morning, in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking. He was held at 10.30am by detectives investigating Operation Elveden - the inquiry into payments to police by the News of the World - and Operation Weeting, the long-running hacking investigation.

He was held on suspicion of "conspiring to intercept communications" and "corruption allegations contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906".

11.22 What did Andy Coulson read this morning? Here's a newspaper delivery man outside his home earlier today:

A newspaper delivery man delivers newspapers to the home of Andy Coulson AFP/GETTY

11.13 Our crime correspondent, Mark Hughes, confirms that Coulson has been arrested over two separate matters: phone hacking, and illegal payments to police, which are being covered by two separate police operations, named Weeting and Elveden:

Coulson's arrest is by officers from Weeting and Elveden, meaning he will be questioned about phone hacking AND illegal payments to police.less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyMark Hughes
Hughes_Mark

11.11 The full text of David Cameron's opening statement is now online.

11.09 Former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson has been arrested on suspicion of corruption and phone hacking.

11.07 BSkyB shares now down almost 6pc, meaning the markets believe there is less than a 30pc chance of Murdoch pulling off this deal, says the Telegraph's City Editor Richard Fletcher:

With BSkyB shares now down 5pc - at 770p - market appears to think there is less than a 30pc chance of Murdoch pulling off this dealless than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyRichard Fletcher
fletcherr


11.05 BREAKING: Andy Coulson has now been arrested, Sky News reports

10.49 The markets did not react well to Cameron's press conference, or to the announcement, at the same time, from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, that the go-ahead for the News Corp/BSkyB deal will take "some time". Shares in BSkyB fell sharply, from 805p at 9.30am down to 767p soon after Cameron finished speaking.

10.43 Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy points out that while Cameron faced intense grilling over Coulson, his early comments suggesting Rebekah Brooks should have gone helped him avoid more questioning about his links to her:

Have to say very skillful of Cameron to dump on Rebekah Brooks at the start - result is he hasn't been grilled about his contacts with herless than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyKrishnan Guru-Murthy
krishgm

10.36 A round-up of key points from the Cameron press conference:

• Cameron says Rebekah Brooks should go: "It has been reported that she offered her resignation over this and in this situation I would have taken it."
• Promises full judge-led inquiry into phone hacking and a second inquiry into press ethics.
• Faces intense scrutiny over appointment of Andy Coulson, insists he was not given specific warnings about appointing him but that he takes full responsibility for the appointment. Says Coulson is a "friend".

10.21 Cameron is challenged by a journalist about whether the Coulson appointment is his equivalent of Tony Blair's Iraq judgment moment. His response sounds rather Blairite to Paul Waugh:

Cameron sounds *very* much like Blair on his Iraq decision: "People will decide..."less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyPaul Waugh
paulwaugh

10.19 Cameron says that Andy Coulson "became a friend and is a friend".

10.18 The three key pledges that Cameron made in his speech:

QuoteOne: action will be taken to get to the bottom of these specific revelations and allegations about phone hacking, about police investigations and all the rest of it.

Two: action will be taken to learn wider lessons for the future of the press in this country.

And three: that there will be clarity – real clarity – about how all this has come to pass, and the responsibilities we all have for the future

10.15 Cameron said Coulson was "doing a very good job" working for him but was finding it impossible because of all the rumours. Says at the time of Coulson's resignation he did not challenge him over whether there were more revelations to come.

10.09 Cameron challenged by the Guardian's Patrick Wintour over his denial that he was given any specific warnings about Coulson, following Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger's claims last night to have passed a specific warning to Cameron's aides. Cameron responds:


QuoteI wasn't given any specific actual information about Andy Coulson. The decision I took was that very bad things had happened at the News of the World, he had resigned, I had given him a second chance.

10.08 The Prime Minister says he is "champing at the bit" to get the inquiries set up. "This is black cloud that is hovering over the press, parliament, police."

10.06 Cameron repeating his defence of his appointment of Coulson: "I asked for assurances, he gave me assurances."

09.59 This from political journalist Paul Waugh:

Cameron reveals he commissioned a company to do a "basic background check" on Coulson. Basic indeed.less than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyPaul Waugh
paulwaugh

09.58 Cameron looks very troubled as faces intense questioning over hiring Coulson. Insists he thought it was right to give Coulson a second chance and that Coulson did nothing wrong in the time that he worked for Cameron.

09.50 Cameron takes full responsibility for hiring Andy Coulson, says Rebekah Brooks should go:

QuoteI decided to give him a second chance. The second chance didn't work out. The decision to hire him was mine and mine alone and I take full responsibility for it.

On the case of Rebekah Brooks... it has been reported that she offered her resignation over this and in this situation I would have taken it.

09.49 "We turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue," says Cameron. Compares extent of scandal to MPs expenses. "You can downplay it and deny that the problem is deep, or you can accept seriousness of situation and deal with it"

09.47 Cameron says governments must follow proper legal procedures on BSkyB. Acknowledges he and other politicians have failed to "grip" this issue.

09.46 "The Press Complaints Commission has failed," Cameron says. Describes it as "ineffective and lacking in rigour" and may be institutionally conflicted. Inquiry will recommend what system looks like, but he assumes new regulatory body should be truly independent of the press and also of government.

09.45 Cameron says there will be a second inquiry, led by a panel of respected figures, to look at the culture, practices and ethics of the British press, how newspapers are regulated, and make recommendations for the future.

09.44 Cameron says a judge needs to be in charge of the inquiry into the phone hacking scandal. "The witnesses will be questioned by a judge, under oath, and no stone will be left unturned".

09.43 "It is clear that there have been some illegal and utterly unacceptable practices taking place at the News of the World and possibly elsewhere," says Cameron. Calls earlier police investigation "inadequate". Separate, specific allegation of officers taking payments has "full independent oversight".

09.40 Here comes Cameron. "The whole country has been shocked by the revelations about the phone hacking scandal," he says. Describes hacking Milly Dowler's phone as "truly despicable".

09.37 Telegraph sources confirm Andy Coulson not yet in police custody, contrary to earlier reports, but he is expected there later today.

09.30 David Cameron due to face the press to tackle tough questions over Coulson and his handling of the phone hacking scandal any minute now. The BBC's Nick Robinson says this will be "one of the defining moments of the Cameron premiership".

09.23 Update from The Times newsdesk who first said Coulson was at a police station this morning. Now saying he is not yet there:

UPDATE: Coulson is not yet in custody. Due to be questioned at West End Central Police Station this morning. #notwless than a minute ago via TweetDeck  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyDavid Rose
DRoseTimes

09.22 Aamer Anwar, Tommy Sheridan's solicitor, tells the BBC he has handed a dossier to police. He adds that if Coulson is found to have known about phone hacking then the jury in Sheridan's perjury trial would have been "blind sided".

09.18 Shares in rival newspaper groups on the rise. Trinity Mirror saw shares climb 10 per cent after News International yesterday announced the end of the News of the World, while the Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) was up 3 per cent.

09.15 The popular News of the World politics editor, David Wooding,says that just three people of the 200 News of the World staff who have lost their jobs were even employed by the newspaper when hacking took place. He told BBC Breakfast:

QuoteWe walked out with our heads held high last night because we have done nothing wrong

There are 200 people there, I think there are three who were there during the hacking time.

09.12 A round-up from Roy Greenslade over at the Guardian of what the papers say this morning.

09.10 Rumours abound that the News of the World could relaunch as the Sun on SundayEd Miliband picked up on this earlier, when he said: "Closing the News of the World, possibly to reopen as the Sunday Sun, is not the answer. Instead those who were in charge must take responsibility for what happened. And politicians cannot be silent about it."

09.07 It emerged last night that Scotland Yard is considering the allegation that emails were also hacked. It was understood that officers had not yet been decided whether the matter would fall under Operation Weeting. Tom Watson MP told Channel 4 News that he believed that journalists had hacked computers, as well as phones.

09.00 At David Cameron's press conference at 09.30 he will face tough questions over the appointment of Andy Coulson, who is reportedly at a London police station now, and over the government's handling of the phone hacking scandal. Ed Miliband has called on him to apologise for his "appalling error of judgment" in appointing Coulson.

The Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, disclosed on BBC Newsnight last night how he had warned Cameron to 'beware' over the appointment of Coulson.

OpinionWe knew that there was this big murder trial coming which involved one of the investigators that Coulson had used, who had been in jail for seven years.

It seemed reasonable to try and warn Cameron, before he took Coulson into 10 Downing Street, he should just ask some inquiries about this. I know I am not the only figure Fleet Street who got this warning through to Cameron to say 'beware'.

Nothing came back from Cameron. But I just wonder what sort of vetting had gone on because a lot of this stuff had been published in The Guardian in 2002.

Cameron was either very naive to accept Coulson's word or he didn't go through the proper vetting processes.

08.46 An update from the impact of the News of the World closure on News Corp share prices from Kamal Ahmed, the Sunday Telegraph business editor:

Twitter@kamalahmed1: BSkyB share price climbs a little this morning. Market thinks shutting News of the World makes News Corp/BSkyB deal more likely #notw

08.43 Andy Coulson is at a London police station, being interviewed this morning, The Times' assistant news editor David Rose tweets:

Andy Coulson is now at West End Central Police Station, on Saville Row, to answer questions over#hacking & paying police. #notwless than a minute ago via TweetDeck  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyDavid Rose
DRoseTimes

08.40 Key quotes from Ed Miliband's speech:

QuoteFor too long, political leaders have been too concerned about what people in the press would think and too fearful of speaking out about these issues. If one section of the media is allowed to grow so powerful that it becomes insulated from political criticism a nd scrutiny of its behaviour, the proper system of checks and balances breaks down and abuses of power are likely to follow. We must all bear responsibility for that. My party has not been immune from it. Nor has the current government and Prime Minister. All of this is difficult because of his personal relationships and the powerful forces here.

Putting it right for the prime minister means starting by the appalling error of judgement he made in hiring Andy Coulson. Apologising for bringing him in to the centre of the government machine. Coming clean about what conversations he had with Andy Coulson before and after his appointment about phone-hacking.

08.37 Here's James Murdoch explaining the decision to close the News of the World last night:

08.14 BBC political editor Nick Robinson says on the Today programme that Ed Miliband has "found his voice" over the phone hacking scandal.

OpinionHe found a cause and united a party that for a long time has been hugely frustrated at being seen to pay homage to the Murdoch empire.

08.07 The Telegraph's Kate Day is tweeting from Ed Miliband's press conference.

Twitter@kate_day . @Ed_Miliband "We must deal with immediate issues but use crisis of trust as catalyst"

08.05 James Kirkup, our Political Correspondent, writes this morning onhow Prince's knee led to fall of a giant:

Under Brooks and then Coulson, the News of the World was a paper at the peak of its powers, trampling over its competition with a string of classic tabloid exclusives: from David Beckham's alleged affair with his nanny to Prince Harry's drug-taking, it consistently landed the stories that shocked, titillated and scandalised.

Yet for all the agenda-setting front pages, it was two tiny, innocuous stories tucked away on an inside page that began the chain of events that destroyed the newspaper.

In November 2005, Clive Goodman, the paper's royal editor, wrote a brief story revealing that Prince William had strained a tendon in his knee and sought medical advice.

08.00 Ed Miliband is just about to begin a speech where he will call for the Press Complaints Commission to be scrapped. Most of his comments have been released ahead of time so here's what he's expected to say:

QuoteThe Press Complaints Commission has totally failed. It failed to get to the bottom of the allegations about what happened at News International in 2009.

Its chair admits she was lied to but could do nothing about it. It was established to be a watchdog. But it has been exposed as a toothless poodle. It is time to put it out of its misery. The PCC has not worked. We need a new watchdog.

A new body would need far greater independence of its board members from those it regulates, proper investigative powers, and an ability to enforce corrections.

07.57 Robert Winnett, the Telegraph's Deputy Political Editor has our lead story on the closure of the News of the World.

Britain's biggest-selling newspaper was shut down last night by the Murdoch family in a surprise move designed to bring an end to the phone hacking scandal engulfing the News of the World.

James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, which owns the newspaper, announced that the final edition would be published this weekend, citing the “inhuman” alleged behaviour of some staff as prompting the decision.

07.50 David Cameron is to hold a press conference on the News of the World phone hacking scandal at 09.30 this morning, Sky News reports.

07.40 Chris Bryant MP tells the BBC that News International executives "are not fit and proper people to be running a media organisation in this country".

07.37 Here's how America has been reacting to the news of the demise of the News of the World. The New York Times, which is locked in a readership battle with News Corp's Wall St Journal, ran the story on its front page:

OpinionThe scandal exposes a web of relationships between the Murdochs’ empire on the one hand and the police and politicians on the other. And it poses new challenges for Mr. Murdoch, a media tycoon who has at times seemed to hold much of Britain’s political establishment in thrall, cultivating connections to both Labour and Conservative governments and using the prospect of his support — or its withdrawal — to help drive his political agenda.

The Washington Post seems to be taking some satisfaction in Rupert Murdoch's distress:

OpinionMurdoch, 80, has weathered criticism and crises before, most notably the near-bankruptcy of News Corp, in 1990. But the phone-hacking scandal is easily the most dire public-relations debacle of the Australian-turned-American’s storied business career.

07.28 Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP and novelist, formerly known as Louise Bagshawe, tweets:

This also reminds me of early days of the MPs expenses scandal. Suggest rest of press don't get too pious on News Int. Think more to comeless than a minute ago via web  Favorite  Retweet  ReplyLouise Mensch
LouiseMensch

07.24 Over at Telegraph blogs, Daniel Hannan argues that the News of the World has been closed by market forces.

In the end, the News of the World was brought down by consumer pressure: a combination of the withdrawal of advertising and the likelihood of a popular boycott. Where lawsuits, libel actions, PCC rulings, government regulations and commercial rivals had failed, Adam Smith’s invisible hand succeeded.

07.19 Here's a brief history of the News of the World by our very own Conrad Quilty-Harper.

07.13 No comment from David Cameron yet, but the Sun - the News of the World's sister paper - has a picture of the Prime Minister attending their annual Police Bravery Awards at the Savoy last night.

07.01 Key developments in the past 24 hours:

• The News of the World is to close, with Sunday's edition the last in the newspaper's 168-year history, James Murdoch, chairman of News International, announced yesterday afternoon. James Murdoch said: “The good things the News of the World does have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company.”

• Andy Coulson, the News of the World's former editor and David Cameron's former Director of Communications, is expected to be arrested today. Coulson, who edited the paper from 2003 to 2007, is thought to have been contacted by Operation Weeting detectives and asked to present himself at a central London police station.

• The announcement followed the disclosure that Milly Dowler's phone was hacked and allegations that the relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, victims of the July 7 terror attacks and other murder victims may have been hacked. The list of alleged victims continues to grow. Ministry of Defence sources said at least six families of dead soldiers had been contacted by the Metropolitan Police and Anthony Philipson, the father of the first soldier to die in Helmand, said he believed his son's email had been hacked. Detectives said there could be more than 4,000 victims.

• The News of the World's 200 staff will be laid off, in a move condemned by the National Union of Journalists.

• Rebekah Brooks, NI's chief executive, is keeping her job, despite reportedly having offered her resignation and widespread calls for her to go including from Ed Miliband, the Labour leader.

• Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's bid to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting is expected to be delayed until September. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to make the call in the wake of a deluge of submissions as a result of the phone hacking scandal.

• News Corp has lost 2.6 per cent of its value, around £250m, since the phone hacking scandal roared back to life this week. Shares in British Sky Broadcasting are down around 5 per cent, or £666m.

• And here's how the Telegraph and other newspapers reported the developments on this morning's front pages, courtesy of Nick Sutton:

   

07.00 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the News of the World phone hacking scandal. We will to bring you all the breaking news on the story, as it happens.

News of the World phone hacking: July 7, as it happened

News of the World phone hacking: July 6, as it happened

Milly Dowler News of the World phone hacking: July 5, as it happened

There is far more to this phone hacking caper than simply accessing voice-mail with passwords.  

Cell phones can be activated remotely, loaded with software that; takes control of the phone, records text messages, records calls, uses the inbuilt microphones as a listening device/bug, takes all GPS location data, address-book data, call logs, web-history, everything - current and historic - and transmit all, as and when required, to the hijacker and can receive new instructions.  

The cellular network transmitter/station local to a target phone can be replaced with a decoy transmitter that relays the signal on to the real network.  The phone must give the transmitter a code to prove who it is to the network but the network does not have to give the phone any code to prove it is the real network.  The phone can be told to transmit without encryption and the false cell transmitter can gain control of the phone in such a way, to download hijack software to take permanent covert control of the phone.  

A 'virus' can be sent to the phone to similarly take control of it or the phone can be infected if it is in the possession of the hacker for a very short time.  It is possible to hack a phone via it's wireless connection, blue-tooth or even via a text message. 

 This is the reason why the 'authorities' do not want phone intercept intelligence used in court.  Because they do not want to admit plainly what can be done and what is being done.  Perhaps this is why the police have been reluctant to further investigations into this matter.
http://www.networkworld.com/ne...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...
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http://www.mobilespytool.com/

kiml
I was watching Sky News and an editor at the NOTW said that Yummy Mummy's drinking their fair trade coffee and their twitter campaign had as much to do with the closing of the NOTW than "events".

What a load of ludicrous and sanctimonious deluded and utterly evil rubbish.  In a sentence, this man summed up the arrogance of power and the problems at News Corp. They go deeper than the skin, this is DNA deep and needs to be completely rooted out.

People, citizens & readers, have the ability to communicate and care about their community, country and planet and peoples rights. How dare he slam them, slam us. They deserve to go.

Newspapers are dying, new media and convergence is changing everything and soon TV and papers will no longer be that relevant.
Football teams can stream their own matches, news comes from many sources and some even better and more trustworthy!

Politicians have been kissing their arses for far to long and have to stand up and clean out the muck.

But you were "watching Sky News" . If Murdoch is to be completely "rooted out" that needs a massive boycott of Murdoch media .
EnglishMadness

And so it begins.Endless enquires after enquires.It is going to be like a soap opera.Total coverage by the TV media.In the meantime, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.The fate of Gaddafi's invisible army in Libya.The financial destruction of the western world.The rise of Iran as the main protagonist and source of all anti western and pro Islamic extremism.The up and coming vote on a Palestinian state.The Israeli shenanigans with regard to an aid flotilla.And of course linking it all, the true dimension of the so called Arab spring.All of this will be gone from view.Whilst our media pontificate on unheard of individuals, what they did to obtain mostly stories of utter celebrity tripe.Their will be meetings , meetings about the meetings and all in all it will be the biggest pile of guff yet.To distract people and hide the truth.The truth that things are not good to say the least.

Have just read that Coulson was appointed the Tory party's Head of Communications  in 2007 on a salary of £475,000- have they got money to burn or what?
First of all, Rebekah (can't her parents' spell) Brooks obviously knows too much to be sacked, or have her purported resignation accepted, by News International.

Secondly, if Millie Dowler's phone was hacked into when she was missing and potential evidence destroyed, victims and families of the 7th July bombings and soldiers' families were all hacked; all of which id despicable, then what 'worse' revelations are to come?
Simple_Simon_says holmemoss
Could this all be a war between the Zionist and none Zionist, well banks are fighting, we are being starved of cash as the Zionist threaten to do once.

Has our whole world been bought down by a fight between Zionist and none Zionist Jews?

 
Can I suggest you don't waste your time posting on here as the hospital knows you have escaped and are looking for you.
wehappyfew
A word of friendly advice.

Take a leaf out of the Zionists' (that you are so obsessed with) playbook and learn to keep your cards close to your chest.

sweeney999

Can anyone enlighten me as to Cameron's history in giving non-Murdoch people a 'second chance' in life?

'Rebekah Brooks has "visibility" of worse criminal activity and says: "In a year you will understand why we made decision"'

In a year, Ms Brooks, you will be behind bars. Section 79 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.
taxfodder

Rebekah looks like one hard nosed bitch.
You would have to be,  to work for scunners like the Murdochs and have any hope of surviving.
Simple_Simon_says
What could be worst, not taking out contracts, if she says worst then it maybe she means worst for the government and not her so much, could it be brown paper bags to MP's again.

Who wants Murdoch taken down, is this part of the Rothschild/Rockefeller war over Israel.
Simple_Simon_says
that to.
I got a gut feeling that we may finally get to the truth about Dr David Kelly's
  "SUICIDE"

fourth5
Can you expand on that, El
Think about it.
Simple_Simon_says
yes, contract killing, if the US were behind it then she is an endangered species
Be good to hack into some NI voicemails now - find out what's really going on. Anyone know Mulcaire's number??
Simple_Simon_says
Is this what you mean Rebekah by "worse revelations to come" ? -http://www.veteranstoday.com/2... .

What proof is there that he is Israeli, if that is true then he is part on the Zionist movement, and that group is worse than Hitler.
No proof . I thought he was a Scottish Methodist . He does have a Jewish ancestor apparently . However what does Rebekah ( old Hebrew spelling ? ) mean ?
Artistic_expression
Previoust
That's interesting!

Social Media Reactions

Smartsengland
07/06/2011 09:55 AM
 From twitter
After News Of The World's lack of professionalism, is it time for a public inquiry into phone hacking allegations? http://t.co/5WN5jAj #notw
Math_Delahousse
07/06/2011 09:29 AM
 From twitter
Totalement effrayant : http://t.co/z8eJ6XZ #presse #GB #police
fernahnah
07/06/2011 08:54 AM
 From twitter
RT @Rob_Hull: RT @SimonNRicketts RT@TomChivers relatives of 7/7 victims 'had phones hacked' by News of the World, police believe http://t.co/BNY7tto
ISFProject
07/06/2011 08:25 AM
 From twitter
Milly Dowler News of the World phone hacking: live - Telegraph http://t.co/flqlyXd via @Telegraph
Ooopsydaisy
07/06/2011 08:06 AM
 From twitter
RT @SimonNRicketts: RT @TomChivers Bereaved relatives of 7/7 victims 'had phones hacked' by News of the World, police believe http://t.co/BNY7tto
Jbroks86
07/06/2011 03:19 AM
 From twitter
RT @Amy_Willis BREAKING reports that Rebekah Brooks will resign in the morning (via @TomChivers) http://t.co/zBwcJMP
jsdhenderson
07/06/2011 01:33 AM
 From twitter
RT @DavidCloke: Can they sink any lower? “Bereaved relatives of 7/7 victims 'had phones hacked' by News of the World, police believe http://t.co/4T5jTHz
bjmiller4262
07/06/2011 12:25 AM
 From twitter
RT @bettycan_: So interesting!! http://tgr.ph/lsY8rr #saynotoNOTW
bettycan_
07/06/2011 12:23 AM
 From twitter
So interesting!! http://tgr.ph/lsY8rr #saynotoNOTW


Users' Comments (24)
User Image
Solidstone wrote:
I don't know why the big debate. Put them in jail, the lot of them who are involved! If it was the ordinary man on the street there would be no debate!

On the other side of the coin, surely a chance for Trinity Mirror to move in on the territory here now the NOW is going and the backlash The Sun may feel over all this!
8/7/2011 7:49 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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snowy2001 wrote:
As usual it's the ordinary workers that will suffer, while those at the top protect their own positions.
8/7/2011 8:08 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Cedric wrote:
In the last few days the name 'The Sun' has been registered as a name for a sunday newspaper. The end of the News of the World could be nothing more than an exercise on paper.

8/7/2011 8:15 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Good riddance to bad rubbish, the tabloids have been doing their best to dumb down Scotland for years... wait a minute sounds like the DR... if you think The Mirror newspapers aren't going to be implicated then welcome to Cloud Cukoo land (mid wipe your feet!)
8/7/2011 8:20 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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AndyA wrote:
I don't think anybody is buying this. They were going to shut the News of the World anyway. This means he cuts out all the double jobs in both papers, like HR and admin. He saves a fortune, his prodigy Wade keeps here job and the unions can't complain because it is done on the back of a scandal. This could not have worked out better for News International. Wade needs to be fired then arrested, the BSB deal has to be killed and Murdoch needs to be fined to billions to teach him a lesson. Will any of that happen, not a chance!
8/7/2011 8:25 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Rebus1 wrote:
Has anybody noticed the uncanny resemblance with Rebekah Brooks and Carries mum in the movie.

Aside from that she should have walked a long time ago, she didnae know aye right she sanctioned it.
She has something on Cameron her buddy, right back to the fitba.
8/7/2011 8:27 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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There are disturbing suggestions that the closure of the NOTW will allow Murdoch's people to destroy documents and other evidence.
8/7/2011 8:34 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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Sorry Daily Record - you are ALL guilty by association.

You are meant to bring us news and facts - you will have been well aware of Murdochs and Brooks illegal regime and yet you hoisted Sheridan by his own petard.

Poor show Daily Record - no more will we believe what you print - yesterday was the last day I bought a copy of your comic.

It is a black day for Scottish meeja since Scottish meeja did nothing to oust Murdoch and Brooks.
8/7/2011 8:49 AM BST on dailyrecord.co.uk
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British cell phone hacking scandal escalates: U.K. companies are pulling ads from the News of the World, a British tabloid caught up in scandal after allegations were made that its employees hacked into the cell phone of murdered schoolgirls and the families of London terror victims.


James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World hacking scandal
Published: Friday, Jul 8, 2011, 14:37 IST
Place: London | Agency: ANI

Readers comment: Cameron is too stupid and arrogant  to say he made a mistake or say sorry.

Media scion James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World engineered phone hacking scandal.

Former editor of News of the World Andy Coulson also faces questioning by the metropolitan police on suspicion that he led the hacking of voice mail messages by the newspaper, The Age reports.

Former British home secretary Alan Johnson suggested that Murdoch's announcement of admission that could expose him to prosecution

Murdoch, News International's chairman, is quoted in a press release as admitting that he personally and wrongly approved out of court settlements to phone-hacking victims.

The constant spew of allegations about News of the World's use of phone hacking reached fever pitch this week, forcing Murdoch to announce newspaper's closure.

News of the World had confessed to and apologised for hacking the message banks of several celebrities, sports identities and politicians two months ago.

There was widespread condemnation of actions taken by the newspaper. But, this week, it was alleged that the paper had hacked the phone of a murdered British teenager and deleted some messages in order to retrieve others - in doing so gave the girl's tortured parents some cause for hope that she was still alive and hindering police investigations.

In response to the scandal engulfing his media empire, Rupert Murdoch ordered the shut down of the News of the World which is Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper with a circulation of over 2.6 million.

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_james-murdoch-may-face-jail-for-news-of-the-world-hacking-scandal_1563629

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/tabloid-tricks-as-news-of-the-world-burns-the-rest-of-britains-media-feel-the-heat/2011/07/08/gIQAVMw23H_story.html

Tabloid tricks: As News of the World burns, the rest of Britain’s media feel the heat


LONDON — As Britain’s most powerful Sunday newspaper crashes and burns, newsrooms across London are feeling the heat.

Media watchers and former journalists say the practices that felled the News of the World were common across the industry in Britain. With 200 tabloid journalists out of work, two people sentenced to jail, and a former editor-in-chief under arrest, those behind the headlines are wondering whether they’ll soon be in them.
“It’s a warning for Fleet Street,” public relations guru Max Clifford said Friday, using the nickname for the national newspaper industry. “A lot of journalists were up to similar things for many, many years.”

Clifford should know. Besides being one of the nation’s best-connected media operators, he was also among the tabloid phone hacking scandal’s most prominent victims.

It was his hefty settlement with the News of the World — a reported $1.6 million (1 million pounds) — that whet other lawyers’ appetites for suing the paper over the practice. That litigation turned up revelations so damaging they proved fatal.

Newsrooms across the country are waiting to see if their publication could be next. Prime Minister David Cameron hinted more heads would roll, saying at a hastily called news conference that there had been “some illegal and utterly unacceptable practices at the News of the World and possibly elsewhere.”

Within hours, Scotland Yard was at the central London offices of the Daily Star Sunday — a downmarket tabloid with a circulation of about 300,000. They walked away with a disc full of computer material relating to Clive Goodman, the former News of the World journalist who served a jail term in 2007 for hacking into the phones of royal aides, setting the scandal in motion.

Goodman was arrested again Friday, this time over allegations he bribed police for scoops. Former News of the World Editor and Downing Street insider Andy Coulson was also taken into custody. Both were released on bail.

The Daily Star Sunday said in a statement that it had never carried “any story that might have stemmed from phone hacking.”

But the cloud of suspicion hangs heavily over many tabloids.

Fleet Street reporters have long been known for stopping at almost nothing to score a scoop, whether it be rooting through trash cans, fast-talking their way past police or handing out checks for hard-to-get interviews.

In one celebrated case, the Daily Mirror — once edited by CNN star Piers Morgan — sent a reporter undercover to work at Buckingham Palace.

In another, News of the World reporter Mazhar Mahmood, posing as a Middle Eastern potentate dubbed the “Fake Sheik,” tricked scores of prominent figures, including sports stars and royalty, into embarrassing indiscretions.

These included getting Princess Michael of Kent to vent some sensational opinions, including an assertion in 2005 that Princess Diana was “bitter” and “nasty.” In 2001, the Fake Sheik drew indiscreet comments from Sophie, Duchess of Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, that ended her public relations career.
( Oli Scarff, Pool, file / Associated Press ) - FILE - In this April 13, 2010 file photo, Andy Coulson, formerly editor of the tabloid News of the World, and later David Cameron’s director of communications, speaks on a mobile phone in London. London police on Friday, July 8, 2011, arrested Andy Coulson, the former News of the World

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/rebekah-brooks-confronted-news-of-the-world-staff

Rebekah Brooks confronted by furious News of the World staff
Former editor, accused of arrogance by one employee, said staff would know in 12 months time why she had not resigned
James Robinson and Mark Sweney
guardian.co.uk,     Friday 8 July 2011 20.34 BST
Article history


Rebekah Brooks has been accused of arrogance during a NoW staff meeting. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Rebekah Brooks was confronted by angry News of the World staff on Friday when she updated them on the decision to close the title and said that advertisers thought it was a "toxic" brand.

Brooks, who has been removed from a new management committee set up to handle the fallout from the phone-hacking affair by the paper's owner, News International, was accused of arrogance by one employee.

The former News of the World editor, who began her career as a trainee on the title, told the paper's 200 staff: "This is not exactly the best time in my life" but claimed the paper had become toxic and said advertisers would not support it.

The unnamed employee said: "You're calling our newspaper toxic. There is an arrogance there that you'd think we'd want to work for you again." He was applauded as he spoke.

Brooks said: "We know there's no toxicity attached to you guys in the room." She added that everyone at the paper had been betrayed by people they had trusted.

Brooks told staff – many of whom had not been able to use the internet or log on to their computers after arriving for work at the company's London offices – that the title would have faced two years of upheaval had it remained open, given the forthcoming public inquiries into press standards and the original police investigation into phone hacking.

She said staff would be found jobs elsewhere in the organisation if possible.

Brooks claimed she wanted to remain as chief executive of the company because she was acting as a "lighting conductor" for the paper's critics in the wake of the phone-hacking affair.

She spoke of the "team spirit" displayed when she launched the controversial "Sarah's Law" campaign under her own editorship following the murder of Sarah Payne at the hands of a convicted paedophile.

In one heated exchange, Brooks was asked directly why she hadn't resigned. She replied that staff would understand why she had not done so in 12 months' time, but added that she understood why people where angry with her.

In an email to all News International staff, Brooks repeated some of what she had told employees in her address in the News of the World newsroom on the second floor of News International's new offices. The email ended by saying: "The News of the World staff have the toughest and most important job of all. I know they will produce a final issue that will make us all proud."

She also made clear in the email that News International chairman James Murdoch had instructed the management and standards committee – set up last month to handle the company's response to the hacking scandal – to report directly to two directors at News Corp, its ultimate parent company.

It also emerged that Scotland Yard had requested that no News of the World journalist be allowed back into the building after this week's paper is produced on Saturday without being accompanied by security.

It is understood that News International resisted that request, but as staff worked on the final edition, they were also scrambling to save contact details stored on computers in the knowledge they would be lost if they failed to do so.

After staff were told on Thursday that this Sunday's edition would be its last, the TV sets were turned off and the lights went out at the News of the World's newsroom on the second floor of News International office block in London .

Soon after, executives began to make plans to ensure the paper appears. The Sun's news editor was ordered to cut short his holiday and come into the office this morning to provide cover in case News of the World journalists didn't report for work.

The National Union of Journalists has been "inundated" with calls from staff at News International titles asking about membership and rights, despite the fact the company doesn't recognise the NUJ.

A News International insider said staff could see the camera crews gathered outside the entrance to the paper's old building across the road in Wapping. He said there had been rumours the paper might not publish for one week only, or carry no advertising, but "nothing like this".

He said that when "[the Sun editor] Dominic [Mohan] came out of his office and addressed everyone [on Thursday afternoon], his voice was cracking as he told us the news, he was completely shell-shocked like he couldn't believe what he'd just been told".

The insider added: "The whole building feels quite funereal really. It has been pretty quiet and after the huge news of yesterday everyone seems to be keeping their heads down. It is a very weird atmosphere. The issue really is what happens and how it will be after Sunday when the last News of the World is run. Everyone wants to know what is going on."

The News of the World's political editor, Ian Kirkby, told Sky News: "We are committing to the editor, if nothing else. Colin Myler ... deserves a decent farewell."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/rebekah-brooks-confronted-news-of-the-world-staff
Media
Rebekah Brooks ·     Phone hacking ·     News of the World ·     Newspapers & magazines ·     National newspapers · Newspapers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8627000/News-of-the-World-phone-hacking-scandal-hits-No.-10.html

News of the World phone hacking scandal hits No. 10
David Cameron struggled to distance himself from the News of the World hacking scandal after he faced questions over his decision to hire Andy Coulson as his director of communications.


Mr Cameron’s intervention came 24 hours after the announcement that the News of the World would close, and on the day detectives arrested both Mr Coulson and a former reporter at the News of the World over allegations of phone hacking and illegal payments to police


In a press conference minutes before Mr Coulson, the paper’s former editor, was arrested by police, the Prime Minister repeatedly stressed that the appointment was “his responsibility” but declined to apologise or acknowledge a mistake had been made.
He admitted that the relationship between politicians and the media had become too close.
He said the current system of press regulation needed to be overhauled and ann-ounced two inquiries, one into phone hacking and one into the conduct of the media.
Mr Cameron’s intervention came 24 hours after the announcement that the News of the World would close, and on the day detectives arrested both Mr Coulson and a former reporter at the News of the World over allegations of phone hacking and illegal payments to police.
Mr Coulson was editor when most of the alleged hacking is said to have taken place but was given a “second chance” with the job for Mr Cameron.
RELATED ARTICLES
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Cameron is not out of the sewer yet 08 Jul 2011
Barry Fitzpatrick: 'NUJ members are devastated' 08 Jul 2011
Secret recording of Rebekah Brooks's address to staff 08 Jul 2011
In other developments:
:: The Prime Minister said that James Murdoch, the chairman of News International and the son of Rupert Murdoch, had “questions to answer” after he admitted making mistakes in his handling of the scandal. He also indicated that Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International and also a friend, should have resigned.
:: Media regulators suggested they may intervene to stop BSkyB being run by News Corp, the Murdoch family’s main company, on the grounds that the directors are not “fit and proper”.
:: Mrs Brooks told staff at the paper that it had to be shut down because worse revelations about its activities were imminent. She was stripped of her role investigating the scandal.
:: Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, faced growing questions over his hiring of a former News International employee accused of wrongdoing, which he denies.
Mr Cameron sought to seize control of the scandal which has dominated the news agenda for a week. The Prime Minister indicated that the alleged criminality at the newspaper would lead to major changes in the entire media industry.
“Because party leaders were so keen to win the support of newspapers we turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue, get on top of the bad practices, to change the way our newspapers are regulated,” he said.
The Prime Minister described the News of the World scandal as a “wake-up call”, adding: “Over the decades, on the watch of both Labour leaders and Conservative leaders, politicians and the press have spent time courting support, not confronting the problems.
“Well, it’s on my watch that the music has stopped and I’m saying, loud and clear — things have got to change.”
Mr Cameron’s pledge to intervene in the crisis has been criticised by opposition politicians because of his decision to bring Mr Coulson into Downing Street.
He repeatedly refused to apologise for that decision, saying he had received “assurances” from Mr Coulson that he had no knowledge of phone hacking at the newspaper.
Asked at a press conference if he had “screwed up” by employing Mr Coulson in the wake of his resignation from journalism, Mr Cameron said: “People will decide.” He added: “I decided to give him a second chance but the second chance didn’t work. The decision to hire him was mine and mine alone.”
He said a company had run a “basic background check” on Mr Coulson before he was employed while the Tories were in opposition. He had received no “actionable” information about the former editor and was unaware of “specific” warnings.
Mr Coulson resigned from Downing Street in January after News International passed new evidence to the police on alleged phone hacking. Mr Cameron said he had spoken to and met Mr Coulson since then. He said: “I think he did his job for me in a very effective way. He became a friend and he is a friend.”
Downing Street sources said that the Prime Minister was currently giving Mr Coulson the “benefit of the doubt” until any evidence emerged proving that the assurances he gave were misleading.
Mr Miliband demanded that Mr Cameron apologise for the decision. The Labour leader said: “His wholly unconvincing answers of what he knew and when he knew it about Mr Coulson’s activities undermine his ability to lead the change that Britain needs.”
Mr Cameron said that a reported resignation offer from Mrs Brooks, also a good friend, should have been accepted.
Comments
What Cameron has done is too little too late. He has reacted after events forced him to react rather than pro-actively dealing with the problem.

He is fatally flawed and I have not the slightest confidence in yet more useless "inquiries" given what we saw on WMD and cliamtegate.

There is more to to this phone-hacking caper than just accessing voice-mail-boxes with passwords. 

To say the truth you cant trust anybody inouer Country Cameron, Police and some of the the Papers we live in the Europien Country was has the most coraptien and lies. I dont trust nobody, in this Country Money talks and Cameron has got a lot to ancer for what a shumble.

Tabloid journalists are the scum of the earth.  Bottom feeders, always seeking to stir up muck.  Their editors try to influence public opinion, usually for the worse - such as the papers attacks on the royal family.  The NOWT should have been closed years ago.

Cameron and other politicians need to be very careful about dealing with such deplorable people, if they must do so.

DC's looking like a right fool. Lucky for him that Labour has a socket puppet in charge. Anyone with a brain could take our Dave to the cleaners.


My Google Voice number has been awfully quiet lately!  Those mysterious unknown Satellite phone numbers and overseas hucksters just seemed to get awfully quiet in the past week. 

Coincidence?

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/22376/end-of-the-world-for-news-of-the-world

End of the world for News of the World

12:43 am | Saturday, July 9th, 2011

LONDON—The Murdoch media empire has unexpectedly jettisoned the News of the World after a public backlash over the illegal guerrilla tactics it used to expose the rich, the famous and the royal and remain Britain’s best-selling Sunday newspaper.
The abrupt decision on Thursday stunned the paper’s staff of 200, shocked the world’s most competitive news town and ignited speculation that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. plans to rebrand the tabloid under a new name in a bid to prevent a phone-hacking scandal from wrecking its bid for a far more lucrative television deal.
“This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World,” James Murdoch, son of the media magnate, announced in a memo to staff.
Mushrooming allegations of immoral and criminal behavior at the paper—including bribing police officers for information, hacking into the voice mail of murdered schoolgirls’ families and targeting the phones of the relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and the victims of the London transit attacks—cast a dark cloud over News Corp.’s multibillion-dollar plan to take full ownership of British Sky Broadcasting, an operation far more valuable than all of Murdoch’s British newspapers.
Public outrage
Faced with growing public outrage, political condemnation and fleeing advertisers, Murdoch stopped the presses on the 168-year-old newspaper, whose lurid scoops have ranged from Sarah Ferguson’s claims she could provide access to ex-husband Prince Andrew to motor racing chief Max Mosley’s penchant for sadomasochism.
James Murdoch said all revenue from the final issue, which will carry no ads, would go to “good causes.” The paper has been hemorrhaging advertisers since the phone-hacking scandal escalated this week, with companies including automakers Ford and Vauxhall, grocery chain J. Sainsbury and pharmacy chain Boots pulling ads from the paper.
Police say they are examining 4,000 names of people who may have been targeted by the tabloid, which sells about 2.7 million copies a week.
Hacking admitted
The paper has acknowledged hacking into the messages of politicians, celebrities and royal aides but maintained for years the transgressions were confined to a few rogue staff. A reporter and a private investigator working for the paper were jailed for hacking in 2007.
But in recent days the allegations have expanded to take in the phone messages of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who disappeared in 2002 and was later found murdered, as well as the families of two other missing schoolgirls.
James Murdoch said if the allegations were true, “it was inhuman and has no place in our company.”
“Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad,” he said, “and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.”
“While we may never be able to make up for distress that has been caused, the right thing to do is for every penny of the circulation revenue we receive this weekend to go to organizations—many of whom are long-term friends and partners—that improve life in Britain and are devoted to treating others with dignity,” he said.
Shock waves
The announcement sent shock waves across the British media establishment, and among News of the World staff. Features editor Jules Stenson said the news was met with gasps and some tears.
“No one had any inkling,” he told reporters outside the company’s London headquarters. “There was no lynch mob mentality, there was just a very shocked acceptance of the decision.”
Some suspected shutting the paper was a ploy to salvage Murdoch’s British media empire as well as the job of Rebekah Brooks, the trusted chief executive of his British news operation.
“News Corp. has taken a bold decision to stop printing the News of the World and close the title. Mr. Murdoch was clearly not willing to jeopardize his bid for BSkyB,” said markets analyst Louise Cooper of BGC Partners in London. “Murdoch has shown what a brilliant operator he really is.”
‘Cynical decision’
Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son David was one of the 52 people killed in the 2005 London transit bombings—and who suspects his phone may have been hacked—said the paper’s closure was “a cynical decision” by Murdoch.
“The only language (Rupert) Murdoch speaks is the dollar and this must have hit him hard,” Foulkes said.
The 43-year-old Brooks, editor of News of the World at the time of the eavesdropping allegations, has maintained she did not know about it. James Murdoch said he was “satisfied she neither had knowledge of nor directed” the phone hacking.
News International spokesperson Daisy Dunlop denied rumors that The Sun, the News of The World’s sister paper that publishes Monday through Saturday, would now become a seven-day operation. Still, she seemed to leave room for further developments.
“It’s not true at the moment,” she said.
Same culture
According to online records, an unnamed UK individual on Tuesday bought up the rights to the domain name “sunonsunday.co.uk.”
Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, one of the tabloid’s alleged hacking victims, said closing the paper would not resolve the problems at News International.
“Cutting off the arm doesn’t mean to say you’ve solved it,” he said. “There is still the body and the head and the same culture and that’s why there has to be a public inquiry into it. I cannot accept for a moment that at the top of the company, Mr. Murdoch—and certainly Rebekah Brooks—didn’t know what was going on.”
But Charlie Beckett, director of the POLIS media institute at the London School of Economics, said it was a bold move aimed at resolving a situation that had gotten out of control.
The long-running hacking saga exploded on  Monday with the revelation that the News of the World had hacked into Milly Dowler’s voice mail soon after her 2002 disappearance and deleted some messages, giving her parents and police false hope the girl was still alive and hampering their investigation. Her body was discovered months later. AP

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/former-tabloid-editor-arrested-pm-cameron-promises-full-investigation/2011/07/08/gIQAlujP3H_story.html

Cameron vows inquiry into tabloid scandal


By Karla Adam and William Booth, Published: July 8 | Updated: Saturday, July 9, 5:22 AM
LONDON — The government of Prime Minister David Cameron was engulfed in a rapidly spreading scandal that saw his former spokesman arrested on allegations that when he served as top editor of Britain’s most popular tabloid newspaper his staff hacked into cellphone accounts and bribed police for confidential information.

Just a year into office, Cameron fought to assure angry Britons that he was as appalled as they were by allegations that one of Rupert Murdoch’s flagship newspapers had snooped on ordinary citizens -- including victims of the London transit bombings in 2005 -- using the tabloid “dark arts.”
The Conservative Party leader announced two separate inquiries into the revelations, saying “no stone will be left unturned” and “the investigation will go where it goes.”

At a press conference, reporters asked Cameron how he could have hired a former tabloid editor as the public face of his administration, who resigned in January after persistent revelations that his former newspaper had engaged in widespread phone hacking.

The Friday arrest of Andy Coulson, former spokesman for 10 Downing Street, was a stunning development in a fast-moving story that has rocked the British media and political world. It follows the announcement Thursday that the salacious News of the World will publish its final edition on Sunday, after 168 years in print.

Leaving a south London police station late Friday night, Coulson, 43, told a scrum of jostling reporters that there was a lot he wanted to say “but I can’t.”

Coulson was editor of the News of the World when the newspaper allegedly engaged in illegal hacking of the cellphones and voice mails of aides to the royal family, celebrities, politicians and relatives grieving from the loss of loved ones from the London transit bombing in 2005.

In his remarks, the prime minister said he remained a loyal friend of Coulson but promised to support both the police investigation and others that seek to learn how widespread was the illegal eavesdropping. Police sources say as many as 4,000 mobile phone accounts could have been hacked.

Cameron also faced questions about his ties to James Murdoch, and his father, Rupert, whose newspapers loom large in British politics. The Murdoch’s News Corp is also trying to purchase the remaining 60 percent of the United Kingdom’s most popular pay-TV satellite channel, a move which requires government approval.

Coulson has denied any knowledge of the hacking. Top executives at Murdoch’s News Corp have described the illegal snooping as the work of a rogue reporter and a private investigator.

That reporter is Clive Goodman, 53, the former News of the World royal reporter, who was arrested again on Friday over “allegations of corruption.” Goodman was jailed in 2007 after he pleaded guilty to hacking into private phone messages in connection with pursuing stories about the British monarchy.

The scandal emerged after Goodman wrote stories in 2005 about Prince William that contained details about the young royal arranging a meeting with his knee surgeon – something known to very few people. The articles raised alarm bells in the royal household.
Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief was arrested Friday, the latest to be swept up by Britain's rapidly evolving media scandal over phone hacking and bribing police. (July 8)
Phone hacking scandal closes News of the World
British phone hacking scandal widens
UK journalist arrested in widening phone hacking scandal
Murdoch's News International admits role in phone-hacking scandal

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/murdochs-news-international-admits-role-in-phone-hacking-scandal/2011/04/08/AFpNkh4C_story.html

Murdoch’s News International admits role in phone-hacking scandal

Rupert Murdoch’s powerful U.K. news arm reversed course and admitted its role Friday in a long-running phone-hacking scandal that has thrown into question the prime minister’s judgment and threatened Murdoch’s biggest-ever deal.

News International, parent company of Britain’s top-selling News of the World tabloid, had vigorously denied that it knew journalists were hacking the phones of politicians, celebrities and members of the royal family, blaming a handful of “rogue reporters” for the scandal.
But in a major turnaround for the company, News International — part of Murdoch’s global media empire News Corp. — said Friday it would admit liability and pay compensation in eight cases — although many more people believe they were targeted.

Those who will receive an “unreserved apology” from the group include actress Sienna Miller and politician Tessa Jowell.

The scandal brought into question the judgment of Prime Minister David Cameron, who appointed former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his head of communications. Coulson ran the paper at the time of the hacking scandal.

Although Coulson has denied knowledge of the hacking scandal, he was forced to resign as Cameron’s media manager this year, saying the focus on the controversy was too great a distraction.

Analysts said the move was an attempt to limit potential financial costs as News Corp. tries to complete its planned $14 billion purchase of pay-TV operator BSkyB — a deal that has angered other British news operators who fear the group’s growing influence over Britain’s media.

“Following an extensive internal investigation and disclosures through civil legal cases, News International has decided to approach some civil litigants with an unreserved apology and an admission of liability,” it said in a statement.

“We have also asked our lawyers to establish a compensation scheme with a view to dealing with justifiable claims fairly and efficiently. . . . We will, however, continue to contest cases that we believe are without merit or where we are not responsible.”

Lawyer Mark Lewis of Taylor Hampton Solicitors, which represents four individuals suing the News of the World — including horse jockey Kieren Fallon — said that he had yet to receive any settlement offers but welcomed the development.

“This is a good stab in the right direction, but it is a long way from being over,” he said. “There are people who don’t even know at this stage that they are victims.”

“This is being driven by business considerations because clearly the reputational damage is just mounting,” media consultant Steve Hewlett said. “The price that they will pay for admitting liability is way lower than the consequences of fighting on all fronts.”

A spokesman for Britain’s Department of Media said the admission would not affect News Corp.’s planned takeover of BSkyB, which is set to be given the green light in the next few weeks by Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/uk-journalist-arrested-in-widening-phone-hacking-scandal-turned-herself-in-at-police-station/2011/06/27/AGBRYgnH_s

UK journalist arrested in widening phone hacking scandal; turned herself in at police station

By Associated Press, Published: June 28
LONDON — Britain’s Press Association news agency said Monday one of its reporters was arrested by detectives investigating a widening phone hacking scandal.

Scotland Yard said that detectives questioned the 34-year-old on suspicion of intercepting private communications, after she turned herself in at a central London police station. She was released on bail hours later.
Press Association identified the journalist as royal reporter Laura Elston, but did not provide any more details.

Dozens of celebrities and public figures in Britain have claimed their phones were hacked by reporters, but so far the scandal has only involved the Rupert Murdoch-owned The News of the World tabloid newspaper.

In 2007, the tabloid’s former royal reporter Clive Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for intercepting messages from members of the royal household.

Three of the paper’s journalists have been arrested and questioned since police reopened a probe into its practices, but no new charges have been brought.

The paper’s owners have apologized, admitted wrongdoing and reached cash settlements with some of the victims, including actress Sienna Miller.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/more-alleged-victims-in-phone-hacking-by-uk-tabloid-pm-cameron-urges-new-investigation/2011/07/06/

Report: tabloid’s phone hacker targeted relatives of dead soldiers


By Associated Press, Published: July 6 | Updated: Thursday, July 7, 5:18 PM
LONDON — A published report says that the telephone numbers of relatives of dead military personnel have been found in files amassed by a detective employed by a Sunday tabloid newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph’s report in Thursday’s edition could not be independently verified, and the newspaper did not identify the source of its information. There was no indication whether any of those telephones had been hacked.
The BBC reported that relatives of some soldiers say they have not been contacted by police, but that a newspaper had asked them about possible hacking.

The News of the World, the newspaper which is the focus of a criminal investigation, issued a statement saying it would be “absolutely appalled and horrified” if there was any truth in the allegation.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday he was deeply shocked by charges that a tabloid newspaper hacked into the phone mail of an abducted teenage girl and may have hampered the investigation into her disappearance. (July 5)

Posted at 12:26 PM ET, 06/07/2011
Sienna Miller receives compensation in phone hacking case
By Jen Chaney


Sienna Miller now has that phone hacking case behind her.


Sienna Miller has settled her claim against the tabloid News of the World in a phone hacking case and will receive 100,000 pounds in compensation.

Reuters reports that Miller — star of “Factory Girl,” “Alfie” and a lengthy, rocky relationship with Jude Law — also was granted an injunction that will prevent further illegal access to her voicemails and publication of personal information.

Miller is one of several high-profile individuals who have pursued lawsuits — including Law, who filed a test case — against News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that owns News of the World, for hacking into their phones and using information obtained from personal voice mails in published articles.

According to the Financial Times, Miller changed her cell phone number three times in three months when she became concerned that someone was tapping into her phone. Articles containing private information about Miller that was allegedly obtained via hacking were published in the News of the World back in 2005 and 2006.

Scotland Yard is currently investigating the phone hacking case, which has grown wide in scope and will likely involve compensation being paid to additional people, including Miller’s stepmother, interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

As the Guardian notes, Rupert Murdoch’s News International recently issued a public apology that acknowledged phone hacking is a rampant problem at the News of the World, as opposed to bad behavior committed by one reporter as the company originally claimed.

“Past behaviour at the News of the World in relation to voicemail interception is a matter of genuine regret,” the statement said. “It is now apparent that our previous inquiries failed to uncover important evidence and we acknowledge our actions then were not sufficiently robust.”






The Innoncense Project
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Kenny Waters with the help of his dedicated sister
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 Betty Ann Waters
freed from a wrongful convection after wrongly spending 17 years in Jail
 because of a corrupt police officer who just wanted a conviction at all costs just to help her career




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Contact Us

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Innocence Project
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To submit a case to the Innocence Project

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/conviction/About-Kenny-Waters.php

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/conviction/About-Betty-Anne-Waters.php

http://www.innocenceproject.org/know/non-dna-exonerations.php

The Causes of Wrongful Conviction

Each of the 266 wrongful convictions overturned through DNA testing is unique, but they all originate from common flaws in the criminal justice system. Innocence Project research into wrongful conviction cases helps pinpoint weaknesses within the system. Learn about the major causes of injustice, including misidentification, improper forensics, false confessions and informant testimony.

As the pace of DNA exonerations has grown across the country in recent years, wrongful convictions have revealed disturbing fissures and trends in our criminal justice system. Together, these cases show us how the criminal justice system is broken – and how urgently it needs to be fixed.

We should learn from the system’s failures. In each case where DNA has proven innocence beyond doubt, an overlapping array of causes has emerged – from mistakes to misconduct to factors of race and class.

Countless cases
Those exonerated by DNA testing aren’t the only people who have been wrongfully convicted in recent decades. For every case that involves DNA, there are thousands that do not.

Only a fraction of criminal cases involve biological evidence that can be subjected to DNA testing, and even when such evidence exists, it is often lost or destroyed after a conviction. Since they don’t have access to a definitive test like DNA, many wrongfully convicted people have a slim chance of ever proving their innocence.

Common Causes
Here you will find further information about seven of the most common causes of wrongful convictions:

These factors are not the only causes of wrongful conviction. Each case is unique and many include a combination of the above issues. Review our case profiles to learn how the common causes of wrongful convictions have affected real cases and how these injustices could have been prevented.

To stop these wrongful convictions from continuing, we must fix the criminal justice system. Click here to learn about Innocence Commissions, a reform that can help identify and address the fundamental flaws in the criminal justice system that lead to wrongful convictions.

The chart below represents contributing causes confirmed through Innocence Project research. Actual numbers may be higher, and other causes of wrongful convictions include government misconduct and bad lawyering.

 

Click for previous examination of cases based on other criteria.


The Innocence Project is not equipped to handle case applications or inquiries by email or over the phone. All case submissions and follow-up correspondence will be handled by mail or overnight delivery services only.

If you are seeking legal assistance, please read the following guidelines for submitting your case.

All cases for consideration should be mailed (to the address above) with a brief factual summary of the case, including the specific charges and convictions and a list of the evidence used against the defendant. No other documents should be submitted for initial review. The Innocence Project is not equipped to handle telephone or electronic (email) applications.

The Innocence Project only accepts cases on post-conviction appeal in which DNA testing can prove innocence. If the case does not involve biological evidence or DNA, visit the Other Innocence Organizations page to see if there is a program in your area that provides broader legal and investigative assistance.

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Kenny Waters
Kenny Waters

Incident Date: 5/21/80

Jurisdiction: MA

Charge: Murder, Robbery

Conviction: Murder, Robbery

Sentence: Life

Year of Conviction: 1983

Exoneration Date: 6/19/01

Sentence Served: 18 Years

Real perpetrator found? Not Yet

Contributing Causes: Informants/Snitches

Compensation? Yes





About Kenny Waters

Kenny Waters served 18 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, put herself through college and law school in order to help with her brother’s case. She worked with the Innocence Project to bring about his exoneration in 2001.

Sadly, Waters passed away six months after his release. He was 47 years old and had spent more than a third of his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Kenny Waters’ case is the subject of the film “Conviction,” in which Sam Rockwell plays Waters.

Read more on Waters’ wrongful conviction and his exoneration.

Watch the trailer and find showtimes in your area.

View key documents from the case, inlcuding Waters’ mugshot, a photo of the murder weapon and more.

See a slideshow of Waters family photos.

About Betty Anne Waters


Betty Anne Waters was 29 years old when her brother Kenny Waters was convicted of a murder in Ayer, Massachusetts. He swore he was innocent and Betty Anne vowed to do everything she could to help overturn his wrongful conviction.

For two decades, she fought for justice in Kenny’s case, putting herself through college and law school in her pursuit. Finally, in 2000 Betty Anne and the Innocence Project obtained access to DNA testing on evidence from the crime scene in Kenny’s case. The results proved his innocence and led to Kenny’s release in March of 2001.

Today, Betty Anne lives in Bristol, Rhode Island, and works as the general manager of a pub. She works to help the Innocence Project spread the word about wrongful conviction by speaking out about her story and the cause of wrongful conviction.

Read Betty Anne’s first letter to the Innocence Project seeking assistance with Kenny’s case.

See a slideshow of Waters family photos.

Read more about Kenny’s case and the true story behind “Conviction.”

Kenny Waters served 18 years in prison for murder he didn’t commit before DNA testing proved his innocence. His sister, Betty Anne Waters, put herself through college and law school in order to help with her brother’s case. She worked with the Innocence Project to bring about his exoneration in 2001.

Sadly, Waters passed away six months after his release. He was 47 years old and had spent more than a third of his life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

Waters’ case is the focus of the film “Conviction,” which was released in October 2010.

Visit our “Conviction” page for videos, resources and the story behind the film.

View a slideshow of Waters family photos and pictures from the day Kenny was freed

• View original documents and images from the case

• Watch a 3-minute video on the story behind “Conviction,” featuring Betty Anne Waters, Kenny Waters and Innocence Project Co-Director Barry Scheck

More on Kenny Waters’ wrongful conviction and exoneration:

The Crime
On the morning of May 21, 1980, Katherina Reitz Brow was stabbed to death in her Ayer, Massachusetts, home. Her body was found at 10:45 a.m. — she had been stabbed more than 30 times and her linen closet had been ransacked. There were bloodstains throughout the house and the kitchen faucet was running. Her purse, some jewelry and an envelope where she kept cash were all missing.

The Investigation
Investigating officers responded to the victim’s house shortly after her daughter-in-law discovered her body. Crime scene investigators recovered hairs, blood and fingerprints in the house, including two fingerprints in blood — one on a toaster in the kitchen and the other on the running faucet — that were considered potentially tied to the perpetrator. The apparent murder weapon, a bloody paring knife, was collected from a wastebasket in the house.

Kenny Waters became a suspect because he lived next to the victim, with his girlfriend, Brenda Marsh. He worked at the Park Street Diner in Ayer, where Brow was a frequent customer. It was apparently known to diner employees that Brow kept a large amount of cash in her home.

Waters was questioned by police on the day after the crime and provided an strong alibi that he had worked until 8:30 a.m. on the day Brow was killed and a coworker had driven him home. He changed clothes and had been in the Ayer courthouse for a 9 a.m. appearance with his attorney. He said he left the courthouse after 11 a.m. and returned to the diner, where he stayed until 12:30 p.m. Officers examined his clothes and body and did not see any apparent blood stains or cuts. He was fingerprinted and questioned further but not charged. Four months later, officers asked Waters to submit to a voice stress test, which he did voluntarily and passed.

The case remained open for more than two years. In October 1982, a man named Robert Osborne, who was living with Marsh, Waters’ ex-girlfriend, approached the Ayer Police Department and allegedly offered to provide information on the murder in exchange for money.

Osborne said Marsh had told him that Waters confessed to her that he had killed a woman. It is unknown whether Osborne was ever compensated for the information he provided. Officers then interrogated Marsh and allegedly threatened to charge her as an accessory to murder and take away her children if she didn’t corroborate Osborne’s claim. She initially refused, saying Osborne’s statements were untrue. Eventually, however, she agreed to corroborate the details provided by Osborne. She told police that Waters had returned home on the morning of the murder with a long, deep scratch on his face. Based on these statements, Waters was charged with murder.

The Trial
Waters’ trial began in Ayer in May 1983. Although police had collected and analyzed fingerprint evidence in the case and had used fingerprints from the toaster and faucet to exclude Waters and several other suspects during the investigation, these records were apparently not provided by police to prosecutors. Therefore, the prosecution and defense proceeded with the trial under the false assumption that no fingerprints of value had been collected at the scene of crime.

The state’s case relied heavily on the statements of three witnesses. Marsh testified that she had seen the defendant with a scratch on his face and that he had admitted to her that he had killed Brow. Roseanna Perry, another former girlfriend of Waters’, also initially told police that she had no information about the crime but after more than three hours of interrogation and threats of arrest, told them Waters had told her something about stabbing a woman and stealing her money and jewelry. She testified to this statement. A friend of Brow’s who worked with Waters at the Park Street Diner said Waters had sold her a ring that had belonged to the victim. She said she paid $5 for the ring and gave it to police. Workers from the packing company where Waters had previously worked stated that a knife similar to the one found at the crime scene had gone missing. The knife was manufactured by the company where the victim’s husband worked, however.

A forensic analyst also testified for the state about test results on blood from the crime scene. Blood types O and B were found in the apartment. The victim was type B and Waters and the victim’s husband were both type O. The analyst told the jury that 48% of the population has Type O blood. The analyst also testified that three hairs collected from the crime scene — including one in the victim’s hand and one on the murder weapon — did not match the victim or Waters.

Waters raised an alibi defense, saying that he was at work at the Park Street Diner until 8:30 a.m. and then at court until 10:45 a.m. His time card from that week, however, had gone missing and wasn’t presented as evidence. Although it has been revealed that police indepently confirmed Waters’ work schedule during the investigation, this evidence wasn’t presented during trial.

Waters was convicted on May 11, 1983, and sentenced to life in prison.

Appeals and DNA Testing
Waters appealed his conviction several times between 1983 and 1999. Although Roseanna Perry recanted her trial testimony that Waters had admitted guilt, his appeals for a new trial and for federal habeas corpus relief were denied. Several times during this period, Waters and his representatives requested complete documents in the case from the Ayer police department, but were given the same incomplete documents used at trial. Critical evidence of Waters’ innocence, including the fingerprints and the timecards, was withheld.

After Waters’ conviction, his sister, Betty Anne Waters, sought to prove his innocence. She put herself through college and law school, all with the goal of exonerating her brother. In 1999, she located the Type O blood evidence collected from the scene of the crime and obtained a court order to preserve the evidence for possible DNA testing. In 2000, she began working with the Innocence Project on the case. Together Betty Anne Waters and the Innocence Project reached an agreement with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office to allow a private lab to conduct DNA testing on the evidence. The results excluded Waters and the victim’s husband, proving that Waters was not the perpetrator.

Reinvestigation and Exoneration
In March 2001, the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab verified the DNA results, and Waters’ conviction was vacated two days later. After nearly 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Waters was freed while prosecutors considered whether to retry him.

The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office opened a new investigation of the case to determine whether to retry Waters. The reinvestigation was led by a state police officer, who found the police reports to be incomplete, and contacted Ayer police officers who had been involved in the original investigation. At this point, for the first time, the police turned over complete records from the case — including a police report confirming Waters’ work schedule and extensive documentation on the fingerprint evidence that had been collected before trial.

On June 19, 2001, the District Attorney’s office dropped all charges against Waters and his exoneration became official. Sadly, after only six months of freedom, Waters died in a tragic accident on September 19, 2001. He was 47 years old.

Since his death, representatives of his estate have settled a civil lawsuit with the town of Ayer, and the case was the subject of a 2010 feature film, “Conviction.”

Non-DNA Exonerations

The Innocence Project provides pro bono legal representation on behalf of people seeking to prove their innocence post-conviction. Since its inception in 1992, the Innocence Project has only taken cases where DNA testing can prove innocence. For more on our criteria for taking cases and the process for submitting a case for consideration, click here.

In some rare circumstances, however, the Innocence Project has helped exonerate clients through evidence other than DNA testing. We often have to close cases because the biological evidence is missing or destroyed, making DNA testing impossible. In some of those cases, strong evidence of innocence is discovered during the search for biological evidence, and we are able to secure our clients' freedom without DNA testing. In other cases, DNA test results alone are not enough to free our clients, but can help exonerate people when coupled with other evidence of innocence. In all of these cases, new evidence of innocence resulted in our clients' convictions being vacated and indictments against them being dismissed, fully exonerating them.

These cases underscore a critical point: DNA testing alone cannot overturn most wrongful convictions. In fact, experts estimate that DNA testing is possible in just 5-10% of all criminal cases. That is why a growing number of organizations in the Innocence Network handle cases regardless of whether DNA testing is possible. For a directory of these organizations, click here.

Below is a list of five Innocence Project cases, with links to full profiles, in which clients were exonerated through evidence other than DNA testing.


Ralph Armstrong

Incident Date: 09/02/1984

Jurisdiction: WI

Charge: First-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault

Conviction:First-degree murder, first-degree sexual assault

Sentence: Life plus 16 years

Conviction Date: 03/24/81

Exoneration Date: 08/19/09

Sentence Served: 25.5 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification, Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science

Compensation? Not Yet


Ralph Armstrong served more than 28 years in Wisconsin prisons for murder before a judge overturned his conviction in 2009 based on evidence that a prosecutor had deliberately withheld evidence of his innocence more than a decade earlier.

The Crime
On the afternoon of June 24, 1980, Charise Kamps, a 19-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin was found strangled to death in her Madison, Wisconsin, apartment. She was naked and face-down in her bed with a bathrobe belt draped across her back.

The Investigation
Investigators collected clothing and other evidence from the victim's apartment, including fingerprints and hairs.

The victim had drunk alcohol and used drugs with Ralph Armstrong, his brother Steve Armstrong and others on the night she died. Ralph Armstrong told police that he had used cocaine with Kamps that night and that the two had been in her apartment alone for a short time around 9:15 p.m. before joining friends elsewhere. Police learned that Armstrong owed Kamps's boyfriend $400, and witnesses said they saw him hand her cash on the night of the crime.

The Identification
A neighbor of Kamps' told police he was sitting on his porch that night and saw a lean, muscular man with long, dark hair drive up to the area in a black and white vehicle around 12:30 a.m. and park out of sight. The witness said the man ran into and out of Kamps' building three times before finally disappearing to the area where his car may have been parked.

Before an identification procedure was conducted, police arranged for the witness to be hypnotized. A detective and the hypnotist viewed photographs of Armstrong and his car during the videotaped hypnosis session, but the detective testified that the witness did not see the photos. The witness later disagreed, saying he did see Armstrong's photo in the hypnosis room. The witness allegedly described the perpetrator as having a long nose and bushy eyebrows, and said the perpetrator was 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 5 inches tall. He changed the height estimate to six feet at the prodding of the hypnotist. Armstrong, who had long, dark hair at the time, is six-feet, two-inches tall.

Ten days after the crime, police conducted a "pseudo re-enactment" lineup near the crime scene with Armstrong and four other participants who were police officers wearing wigs. At the advice of his attorney at the time, Armstrong passively resisted what his attorney felt was a rigged lineup, so he went limp during the lineup and had to be carried by two officers. The witness identified Armstrong as the perpetrator, but also pointed out to police that the other participants were clearly wearing wigs. He would later confirm that he said at the time the lineup was "fixed."

The Trial and Physical Evidence
Armstrong was arrested and charged with raping and killing Kamps. He was tried before a jury in 1981. The state's case rested on forensic evidence, eyewitness identification testimony and an alleged motive involving the money Armstrong owed Kamps' boyfriend.

A forensic analyst testified that several head hairs collected from the bathrobe belt draped across the victim's body and the bathroom sink were "consistent" or "similar" to Armstrong's hair. She also identified several pubic and head hairs that she said came from neither Kamps nor Armstrong. In closing arguments, however, the prosecutor exaggerated the importance of her findings, saying "two of the defendant's hairs were on this robe."

Similarly, a forensic analyst found a positive reading for the presence of chemicals in human blood on several of Armstrong's fingers and toes, but she wasn't able to determine any characteristics of the blood. The prosecutor exaggerated this finding as well in his closing argument, saying "that was Charise Kamps' blood."

Armstrong's fingerprints were also found on a bong in Kamps' apartment, but the defense argued that Armstrong had moved the bong when he was in the apartment earlier on the night of the murder.

The forensic analyst testified that semen was detected on the bathrobe, and that it came from a Type-A secretor (a person whose blood type is found from bodily fluids like semen). Armstrong is a Type-A secretor.

The eyewitness who been hypnotized identified Armstrong in court as the man he saw run in and out of the victim's apartment building for ten minutes around 12:30 a.m. on the night of the crime.

Prosecutors also sought to show that Armstrong's claimed whereabouts on the night of the murder were unrealistic. They said he could not have been at the victim's house at 9:30 p.m. because the route he said he drove allegedly could not have allowed for a stop at the victim's apartment. Instead, they argued that he came to her apartment after midnight, saying that was when he left the fingerprints and murdered the victim.

The state argued that Armstrong had allegedly paid the victim $400 in cash toward a loan her boyfriend had given Armstrong on the night in question. The cash was not discovered in the apartment the next day, and Armstrong deposited $315 into his bank account the next day.

Armstrong's defense attorneys challenged the prosecution's case on many fronts — from the timeline of the night to the eyewitness identification and the forensic evidence. Defense attorneys called an expert in hypnosis and questioned the validity of the eyewitness identification, presented evidence that the hair and blood evidence were being used improperly and offered a timeline of the night's events according to Armstrong. The defense argued that Armstrong had received $315 from his brother on the day after the crime.

Despite these efforts, Armstrong was convicted and sentenced to life in prison plus 16 years.

Post-Conviction Appeals
Armstrong filed several unsuccessful appeals in the years after his conviction. In 1991, he sought a new trial based on DNA test results showing that he could not have been the source of the semen on the bathrobe belt. His appeals were denied, however, with a state appeals court calling the semen evidence "an insignificant piece of circumstantial evidence linking Armstrong to Kamps and to her apartment."

The Innocence Project became involved in Armstrong's case in 1993, working with Wisconsin attorneys Jerome Buting and Keith Belzer. More advanced DNA testing was conducted in 2001, excluding Armstrong and the victim's boyfriend as the source of the head hairs on the bathrobe belt, and finding that the semen stain used against Armstrong at trial was connected to the victim's boyfriend. Based on these results, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 2005, granting him a new trial.

While a new trial was pending, a woman testified at a hearing that she had called Dane County Assistant District Attorney John Norsetter in 1995 to report that Armstrong's brother, Steve, confessed that he, not Ralph, was guilty of the crime, and that he feared Ralph would be exonerated by DNA and come after him if he found out Steve was the real guilty party. The woman said she described Steve's gruesomely detailed confession to Norsetter, who did not report this evidence to defense attorneys and did not pursue the lead. Steve Armstrong had disappeared shortly after the crime and never again contacted his brother Ralph. Steve died in 2005.

In 2006, more forensic testing was done on the crime scene evidence — including mitochondrial (mtDNA) tests, an advanced technique that can develop DNA profiles from degraded samples and hair follicles. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests of hairs from the crime scene excluded Ralph Armstrong. Because mtDNA is inherited from one's mother, Ralph and Steve Armstrong would be expected to have the same mtDNA profile.

Six forcibly removed pubic hairs, found on the bedspread on which the victim's body lay, were tested for mitochondrial DNA. Those tests proved they did not come from Ralph Armstrong , the victim or her boyfriend. Another semen stain was found, this time on the bathrobe belt found draped across the victim's body. Further DNA tests of the semen stain from the robe belt excluded Ralph Armstrong again, as well as the victim's boyfriend. Despite those exculpatory results, the state announced it would retry Armstrong for the crimes. Then, despite a court order requiring prosecutors to notify defense attorneys any time evidence in the case was moved or analyzed, Norsetter secretly ordered additional DNA tests. These illegal tests used up the biological evidence, preventing any further testing. Moreover, the Y-STR DNA testing Norsetter ordered in 2006 focuses on the Y chromosome and would not have distinguished genetic material between males with the same father.

The defense did not learn about the woman's 1995 call to Norsetter until 2007. At that point, the defense argued that Norsetter's decision to order Y-DNA tests may have indicated that he was trying to get a conviction against Ralph even if his brother's indistinguishable Y-DNA was found. At a subsequent court hearing Norsetter admitted under oath that he did get a call in 1995 from a woman claiming to have heard a confession in a big case, and that it could have been about Ralph Armstrong, but his memory was vague. He admitted he never told the defense or any court because, in his opinion, the information wasn't credible enough to do so.

Based on the destruction of evidence and the prosecutor's suppression of potentially exculpatory evidence for more than a decade, there was proof that Armstrong's due process rights had been irreparably compromised. A state circuit court judge dismissed the case against Armstrong in July 2009, saying it was clear that the prosecutor in the case had acted "in bad faith." Prosecutors announced in August 2009 they wouldn't appeal the dismissal, and Armstrong was officially cleared. As of October 2009, Armstrong was incarcerated in New Mexico on a parole violation.

Levon Brooks
Levon Brooks

Incident Date: 9/15/90

Jurisdiction: MS

Charge:Capital Murder, Sexual Battery

Conviction:Capital Murder, Sexual Battery r

Sentence: Life

Conviction Date: 1/20/92

Exoneration Date:03/13/2008

Sentence Served:16 Years

Real perpetrator found?Yes

Contributing Causes: Government Misconduct, Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science

Compensation? Not Yet


Levon Brooks served 16 years in Mississippi prisons for a 1990 rape and murder of a three-year-old girl he didn't commit. In 2008, DNA testing cleared another man, Kennedy Brewer, who had been sentenced to death for a nearly identical murder that happened in the same town less than two years after the crime for which Brooks was convicted. The DNA results implicated the perpetrator of that crime, and he confessed to committing both murders, clearing Brooks.

The exonerations of the two men, both Innocence Project clients, revealed troubling problems with autopsies and forensic oversight in Mississippi, and the underlined the shortcomings of bite mark comparison evidence.

The Crime
Late at night on September 15, 1990, three-year-old Courtney Smith was abducted from her Brooksville, Mississippi, home. The girl shared a bedroom with her two sisters, ages six and one. Her 26-year-old uncle was asleep in the next room when she disappeared.
Her body was found two days later in a pond 80 yards from her house. She had been sexually assaulted and murdered.
The Investigation
Levon Brooks became a suspect because he was an ex-boyfriend of Smith's mother.

Another man, Justin Albert Johnson, was also briefly a suspect in the case. His ex-wife and son lived next to the Smith residence and he had been inside the Smith house on the day of the abduction.

Dr. Steven Hayne, a Mississippi pathologist, performed an autopsy on the victim shortly after her body was found. He determined that she had been sexually assaulted. He also found possible bite marks on her wrist and referred the case to Dr. Michael West, a forensic dentist in Mississippi who had worked with Hayne on other cases in the past.

West determined that the marks on the victim's body were indeed from human bites, and he took dental impression samples from 12 possible suspects -- including Justin Albert Johnson but not including Levon Brooks.

Ten days after the victim was killed, police interviews the victim's six-year-old sister. The girl's sister said she had seen the perpetrator abduct the victim and identified the perpetrator as Levon Brooks, her mother's ex- boyfriend. Based on the girl's identification, Brooks was arrested.

On the same day, September 25, West took a sample of Brooks' teeth at the local jail. West testified at Brooks' trial that he compared Brooks' sample to the marks on the victim's body and found that two of Brooks' teeth "matched" the marks on the victim's body. He said Brooks made the marks with his two top front teeth. Brooks was charged with capital murder.

The Trial
Brooks was tried before a jury in Noxubee County, Mississippi, in January 1992. The victim's sister testified that she saw Brooks abduct her sister, although her testimony had several contradictions. In addition to the child's unreliable testimony, the state's case rested on the bite mark evidence presented by Dr. West, who testified that "it could be no one but Levon Brooks that bit this girl's arm."

Brooks' defense attorneys presented an alibi defense, that he was working a club on the night of the murder and did not have an opportunity to commit the crime. The defense also challenged West's credentials and findings. After deliberating for about nine hours, the jury convicted Brooks of capital murder. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration
Just four months after Brooks was convicted, another young girl was abducted, raped and killed in Brooksville. The facts were startlingly similar, a three-year-old girl taken from her home at night and found in a creek. But the similarities between the cases did not end there. Police focused on Kennedy Brewer, the boyfriend of the victim's mother. Dr. Steven Hayne conducted the autopsy and said he found bite marks on the victim's body. West was called to analyze the bite marks. He confirmed that the marks were from a human bite, and determined that they came from Brewer. Based on this evidence, Brewer was convicted in 1995 and sentenced to death.

The Innocence Project became involved in Brewer's case in 2001, consulting with Brewer's attorneys on DNA testing issues. DNA test results showed that semen from the victim's body excluded Brewer as the perpetrator of the crime and his conviction was overturned. He remained behind bars for six more years, however, awaiting a new trial. Another round of testing matched the profile of Justin Albert Johnson, who had been a suspect during the initial investigations of both Brewer's and Brooks' cases. Johnson was interviewed by law enforcement officials and he admitted to committing both murders, but adamantly denied biting either victim. Following his confession, Brewer and Brooks were both freed on February 15, 2008. Brooks was officially cleared on March 13.

Forensic Fallout
In the wake of the exonerations of Brewer and Brooks, the Innocence Project and several other organizations and individuals began to call for investigations into the work of Hayne and West. For years, Hayne claimed to conduct 1,200 to 1,800 autopsies a year across the state of Mississippi (six times the professional standard), earning him more than a million dollars a year.

Hayne had served as Mississippi's chief medical examiner in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but couldn't fill the position permanently because the state required the official to be properly board-certified, which he is not. The position has been vacant for more than 15 years, however, and Hayne was essentially filling the role on a de facto basis. In August of 2008, just months after the Brewer and Brooks exonerations, the state announced that it was severing all ties with Hayne.

Investigations into several other cases involved Hayne and West are ongoing


Barry Gibbs
Barry Gibbs

Incident Date: 11/04/86

Jurisdiction: NY

Charge: Second-degree murder

Conviction:Second-degree murder

Sentence: 25 Years to Life

Conviction Date: 03/25/88

Exoneration Date:9/29/05

Sentence Served:17.5 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Government Misconduct, Eyewitness Misidentification, Informant / Snitch

Compensation? Yes


Barry Gibbs was convicted in New York City of committing a murder he didn't commit based on misconduct by a NYPD detective later convicted of arranging and committing several murders and cover-ups on behalf of an organized crime family. Gibbs served 17 years in prison before new evidence led to his release.

The Crime
On the afternoon of November 4, 1986, the body of an African-American woman was found lying under a blanket near a busy Brooklyn highway. She had been strangled to death.

The Investigation and Identification
The lead New York Police Department detective assigned to the case was Louis Eppolito.

A witness told Eppolito that he had been jogging on the day of the crime and had seen a white man and a black woman sitting in a gray car parked by the highway. The man said he then watched the white man walk to the passenger side of the car and pull out a body, lay it on the ground and place a blanket over it. The jogger said the perpetrator noticed him after just three seconds and ran back to the driver side.

Eppolito apparently learned that Barry Gibbs knew the victim. Gibbs voluntarily participated in a line-up and consented to a police search of his apartment. During the search, police found a pair of red jeans that matched eyewitness testimony of what the perpetrator was wearing during the crime; however, the jeans did not fit Gibbs. Police also discovered that Gibbs owned a gray car similar to the perpetrator's car but Gibbs' car was inoperable, had two flat tires, and had not been driven for a substantial amount of time.


During the police lineup, the witness who observed the perpetrator dispose of the victim's body identified Gibbs as the perpetrator despite physical differences in stature and weight. Additionally, a park police officer told responding officers he had seen the perpetrator but was never asked to identify the suspect in a police line-up.


An autopsy was performed on the victim's body. Testing conducted on hair samples found on the victim revealed Caucasian characteristics.


The Trial

The prosecution's case was based on both eyewitness testimony and snitch testimony.

The jogger testified about seeing a white man dump the body. Another state witness was a jailhouse informant who had a very close relationship with a criminal investigator in the Department of Corrections and an extensive arrest record. The informant, who had testified for the state in several other cases, testified that he spoke to Gibbs while he was in jail awaiting trial and Gibbs admitted to killing the victim. A defense witness, who was also incarcerated with Gibbs pre-trial, offered contrary testimony that in conversations with Gibbs over a 4-month period, Gibbs always maintained his innocence. Based on the eyewitness and snitch testimony, Gibbs was convicted and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.


Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration

Nine years after his conviction, Gibbs contacted the Innocence Project for assistance in obtaining DNA testing to prove his innocence. In response to an Innocence Project motion, a Brooklyn judge ordered the State to search for the evidence — including the caucasion hairs and rope used to strangle the victim, DNA testing on any found items. Despite repeated searches for physical or biological evidence in the case, none could be found. Some of the evidence in the case had been reported as destroyed, other items were never found. Read more about New York City's problems with evidence storage and retention here.

Gibbs' police investigation file was also missing at the time. In 2004, after exhausting all possible searches for evidence, the Innocence Project began the process of referring the case to another project. The next year, police began investigating Eppolito, who had retired from the NYPD, for alleged ties to organized crime. In a search of Eppolito's house in Las Vegas, officers found Gibbs' police file. The Innocence Project once again began working on his case, and requested the US Attorney's office investigate Gibbs' claim of innocence. That re-investigation led to further evidence of Gibbs' innocence.


Eppolito and another former NYPD detective have
since been convicted of eight murders and several other charges based on evidence that they plotted and carried out murders on behalf of the Mafia.

In 2005, the eyewitness who had testified at Gibbs' trial that he had seen the perpetrator while jogging in the area recanted his testimony. He said Eppolito had threatened his family if he didn't identify Gibbs in the lineup and again in court.


Based on the witness's recantation, Gibbs was freed from prison in 2005 and cleared. He had served more than 17 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

Paul House
Paul House

Incident Date: 7/13/1985

Jurisdiction: TN

Charge: First-degree murder

Conviction:First-degree murder

Sentence: Death

Year of Conviction: 1986

Exoneration Date:05/12/099

Sentence Served: 22 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Unreliable/Limited Science, Forensic Science Misconduct, Bad Lawyering

Compensation? Not Yet


Paul House served 22 years on Tennessee's death row before evidence of his innocence — and the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court — cleared him of murder and led to his release.

The Crime
In the summer of 1985, Carolyn Muncey was found dead near her home in rural Luttrell, Tennessee. Dressed in a nightgown and house coat, her bloodied body was found under some brush on the bank of a creek. She had been raped and beaten.

The Arrest
A few months before Muncey's murder, Paul House had moved into his mother's nearby home. Almost immediately after the incident, police suspected that House, an outsider with a criminal record, was responsible for Muncey's death.

The Conviction
At trial, two witnesses for the state testified that they had seen House wiping his hands on the night of the crime near where Muncey had been found. A pair of jeans collected from House had blood on them, and a forensic expert testified at trial that the blood matched Muncey's ABO blood type. A forensic expert also testified that that House's blood type matched the semen found on Muncey's underwear.

In February 1986, the jury convicted House of first-degree murder, sentencing him to death.

Post-Conviction
While House's attorneys were appealing his conviction, several witnesses came forward with evidence that the victim's abusive husband had killed her. Two women claimed that Mr. Muncey had confessed to the crime at a party one night. A third woman saw him hitting his wife at a dance. A fourth said he had asked her to provide an alibi for him on the night his wife was killed.

Further analysis of the blood on House's jeans cast doubt on whether the blood was actually deposited during the course of the crime. This included testimony from a former Tennessee State Medical Examiner, who stated that in his view, the the blood on the jeans showed enzyme decay — which, he testified, was consistent with blood taken at Mrs. Muncey's autopsy and transported in vials without preservative or refrigeration. The decay would not be expected to be found in blood that came in direct contact with House's pants while the victim was alive.

Additional evidence supported the theory that blood collected at Muncey's autopsy had spilled on House's jeans after they were collected as evidence, whether accidentally or deliberately. The blood vials were not sealed, and were driven 10 hours to the FBI lab by two law enforcement officers. The blood spoiled during the trip due to heat exposure, and FBI records showed that a significant amount of blood from the autopsy vials was missing when the officers arrived at the lab.

More exculpatory evidence came in the late 1990s, after House had spent over a decade in prison. Advanced DNA testing revealed that the semen from Muncey's underwear and nightgown belonged to her husband, not House — contrary to the testimony of an FBI expert at trial, who had incorrectly told the jury that only House's blood group antigens could have been the source of the semen stains.

Release and Exoneration
House's appeals, which called for his conviction to be overturned in light of the array of new evidence, was rejected by several courts before his case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The Innocence Project filed a friend-of-the-court brief on his behalf in the Supreme Court. On June 12, 2006, the court ruled that any "reasonable juror" would probably not have convicted House had they been aware of the new evidence in his favor, and sent his case back to the district court in Tennessee for a full review.

In Tennessee, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Mattice Jr. overturned House's conviction and ordered the state to either release House or to retry him within 180 days. The state appealed the decision, but lost. Bail was set at $500,000 — then reduced to $100,000. An anonymous donor paid the 10% bond, and House, who suffers from chronic multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, was released from the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility on July 2, 2008. He had served 22 years on death row.

Prosecutors requested permission to conduct further DNA testing in the case while House was on bail. The results, from testing conducted on a hair found at the crime scene, material from under the victim's fingernails and other items, pointed to at least one other unknown suspect. Additional investigation conducted by House's new trial team (Assistant Public Defender Dale Potter of Tennessee and Linda Kenney Baden of New York, who agreed to assist House pro bono) cast further doubt on the state's evidence against House. In light of the DNA test results and other evidence, Prosecutors dropped all charges against House on May 12, 2009.

Walter Swift
Ronald Cotton

Incident Date: 09/02/1984

Jurisdiction: MI

Charge: 1st degree criminal sexual conduct, robbery

Conviction:1st degree criminal sexual conduct, robbery

Sentence: 20-40 Years

Conviction Date: 11/10/82

Exoneration Date: 5/21/08

Sentence Served: 25.5 Years

Real perpetrator found?No

Contributing Causes: Eyewitness Misidentification, Unvalidated or Improper Forensic Science, Government Misconduct, Bad Lawyering

Compensation? Not Yet



Walter Swift served 26 years in Michigan prisons for rape before evidence of his innocence led to his exoneration and release in 2008. He was wrongfully convicted based in part on a highly questionable eyewitness identification and incomplete forensic testimony.

The Crime
On September 2, 1982, a woman was playing with her seven-month-old son in her Detroit home when an intruder grabbed her from behind. He dragged her to her upstairs bedroom, where he removed her clothing and raped her. He allowed her to cover herself with a robe before leading her downstairs to locate her purse. He took $60 from her purse, as well as her wedding band and another $100 in cash from the house. The perpetrator raped the victim again on a rug on the first floor. He then told the victim to close her eyes and fled.

The Investigation
When police arrived at the victim's house, they collected the robe she was wearing and the sheet from her bed. She was taken to a local hospital, where a rape kit was collected. The victim described the perpetrator as a clean-shaven African-American man between 15 and 18 years old, about 5'10'' tall, with an unusual hairstyle with very small braids.

Eight days after the crime, the investigating officer, Janice Paavola, showed the victim several hundred photos of black men between 15 and 25 years old. The victim selected seven photos based on various characteristics in common with the perpetrator. At this time, Paavola decided that the person in the next photo the victim chose would be included in a live lineup. Walter Swift's photo happened to be the eighth she chose, saying his eyes were similar to those of the perpetrator. Paavola wrote in a 2003 affidavit that the victim did not say Swift was the perpetrator and didn't place any emphasis on his photo compared to the other seven photos. The officer "was confident that she would not identify Mr. Swift as the perpetrator in the lineup."

Officers learned that Swift did not have braids, had a mustache and had a black eye at the time of the crime. Despite these inconsistencies, the lineup was conducted a few days later. Swift and four other men participated; they ranged in age from 20 to 34 and ranged widely in height and build. The officer told the victim that the man whose photo she chose would be included. The victim tentatively selected Swift, saying "I believe it is number 2." In her 2003 affidavit, the officer said she did not consider this a positive identification and scheduled a polygraph test for Swift to further investigate his possible role in the crime.

Paavola scheduled the polygraph examination, but would soon learn that it had been cancelled by a sergeant and a warrant had been issued for Swift's arrest. The sergeant told Paavola that "Mr. Swift may not have done this crime but [the sergeant] was sure that he did some crime before and had gotten away with it." Based almost exclusively on the victim's questionable identification, Swift was charged with sexual assault and robbery.

The Trial and Forensic Evidence
Swift was tried before a jury in Detroit two months later. He was represented by a court-appointed attorney.

The state's case focused on the victim's identification of Swift and presented an incomplete account of how the victim identified him. Most critically, during trial, the jury was led to believe that the victim was shown hundreds of photographs at the police station of men who fit her description of the perpetrator, that she selected only Walter Swift's photo out of that photo array, and that she later confirmed the selection in a live lineup. As a result of suppression by state witnesses, and defense counsel's failure to investigate, the jury never learned that the victim selected the photographs of seven other men as well and only identified Swift as the perpetrator after a highly tainted lineup.

Strong biological evidence of Swift's innocence that existed before trial was also never presented to the jury. Prior to trial, defense counsel was provided with a report showing that Swift was a secretor (an individual whose blood group is evident from bodily fluids like semen and saliva) and that testing on semen stains from the robe and the sheet indicated that the semen stains may have been deposited by a non-secretor. Prosecutors called one of the two forensic analysts who conducted tests in the case. The analyst testified that semen was detected on the victim's robe and sheet, but that he did know whether the person who deposited the semen was a secretor. He said that the other analyst on the case had knowledge of this result. The defense did not cross-examine the analyst presented at trial, and waived the testimony of the other analyst entirely.

Swift's attorney, however, was not solely responsible for the failure to provide the jury with complete information about the forensic analysis. A second version of the lab report, which included additional lab results, was withheld by the police and never released to the prosecution or defense. The updated report provided further evidence that the source of the semen was likely a non-secretor and therefore unlikely to have been Walter Swift.

Swift's defense consisted mainly of an alibi. His girlfriend at the time testified that he was with her when the crime occurred. Swift's defense attorney, Lawrence R. Greene, failed to reveal serious flaws in the identification procedure, declined to cross-examine the forensic analyst who testified and did not call the other analyst as a witness. The attorney has been suspended from practicing law several times in the last decade based on misconduct and inadequate representation in other cases and his license was eventually revoked in Michigan.

After a two-day trial, Swift was convicted. Before his sentencing, Officer Paavola visited the judge to explain that she thought he had been wrongfully convicted. Later the same week, Paavola was transferred from the Sex Crimes Unit to patrol duty. Swift was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.

Post-Conviction Appeals and Exoneration
The Innocence Project accepted Swift's case in 1998 and began requesting searches for the biological evidence in the case. Although all evidence in the case had been lost or destroyed, the investigation began to uncover solid evidence of Swift's innocence. In addition to staff attorneys and clinic students at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, a student from Ireland named Niamh Gunn was assigned to work on the case in 2003, and she would play a significant role in Swift's exoneration.

Gunn won a competition at her college in Ireland to work at the Innocence Project in the summer of 2003; she extended her stay as she became more involved in Swift's case and continued to work on his case for five years after returning to Ireland. In part because of her efforts, the police officer and lab analyst who worked on the case before Swift's trial supported his quest for exoneration.

The cooperation that brought about Swift's exoneration was unprecedented. The prosecutor who originally convicted him and Janice Paavola, the former police officer who testified at his trial, filed affidavits in support of vacating his conviction. The Innocence Project presented all of the evidence it had developed in the case to Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney Kym Worthy, whose office investigated the case thoroughly. Worthy's office joined the Innocence Project on May 21, 2008, in asking a Michigan judge to vacate Swift's conviction and dismiss the indictment. He was freed that afternoon after 26 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Innocence_Project_MidAtlantic_Innocence_Project_and_Hogan_Lovells_US_
LLP_Ask_Virginia_Appeals_Court_to_Exonerate_a_Richmond_
Man_Who_Has_Served_Nearly_27_Years_for_Rapes_He_Didnt_Commit.php

Innocence Project, Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP Ask Virginia Appeals Court to Exonerate a Richmond Man Who Has Served Nearly 27 Years for Rapes He Didn’t Commit

a Richmond Man Who Has Served Nearly 27 Years for Rapes He Didn’t Commit-haynesworth.jpg

Attorney General and Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth Attorneys Support His Claim of Innocence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 3, 2011

The Innocence Project, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP is filing legal papers before the Virginia Court of Appeals today asking the court to exonerate a Richmond man who has been incarcerated nearly 27 years for three rapes that DNA and other evidence now show were committed by the notorious “Black Ninja” rapist.  After an extensive investigation that included DNA testing, an exhaustive review of the evidence and polygraph tests, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Wade Kizer are both calling for Mr. Haynesworth’s exoneration and return to freedom.  Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has also announced that he is supporting the writ seeking a declaration of innocence.

“This a tragic miscarriage of justice that occurred because law enforcement let the pressure of making an arrest in high profile crimes get in the way of finding the real perpetrator,” said Shawn Armbrust, director of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.  “What’s particularly upsetting in this case is that after our client was arrested and behind bars, rapes matching the same MO continued, yet it didn’t occur to anyone that our client could have been innocent even though he insisted on his innocence throughout four trials.” 
 
Peter Neufeld, Co-Director of the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law, added, “Forty years of social science research—much of it available when these crimes occurred—has concluded that identifications are often unreliable, especially in cross racial crimes.  We hope this case will spur the legislature to demand that all departments across the state enact formal policies that are designed to prevent misidentification. ”

Between January 3 and February 1, 1984, five white women were the victims of rapes or attempted rapes by a young black male in the East End of Richmond, a small area overlapping both the City of Richmond and Henrico County.  On February 5, 1984, Thomas Haynesworth, an 18-year-old Richmond resident with no prior record, was arrested after one of the victims identified him.  The other four victims later picked his photo out of a photo array. Haynesworth was eventually convicted for crimes that occurred on January 3, 30 and February 1, 1984 and sentenced to 36 years in prison.  He was acquitted of the crime that occurred on January 21, and the charges were dropped in a January 27 incident. 

Rapes in the same general area continued throughout 1984 after Haynesworth was arrested, with more than 10 young white women being attacked by a young black male who began to refer to himself to his victims as the “Black Ninja.”  On December 19, police arrested Leon Davis, who was charged with about a dozen rapes that took place during the last nine months of 1984. Davis was eventually convicted of at least three of those crimes and sentenced to multiple life terms. 

After five men were exonerated through DNA testing of biological evidence in the case files of the Department of Forensic Science, Gov. Mark Warner ordered a review of all the cases between 1973 and 1988 where there was evidence suitable for DNA testing.  As a result of this review, it was discovered that the semen recovered from the victim of Haynesworth’s January 3 rape conviction matched Davis, not Haynesworth. 

At this point, the Innocence Project, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project and Hogan Lovells US LLP reached out to the Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorneys to review Haynesworth’s other convictions.  While there was no physical evidence for his two remaining convictions, DNA testing proved that Davis was the perpetrator in the case for which Haynesworth was acquitted.

After additional review, the Richmond and Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorneys now agree that Haynesworth is also innocent of the other two crimes.  Haynesworth and Davis are similar in appearance – DNA evidence now proves that the victims in two of Haynesworth’s cases misidentified him as Davis.  However, Haynesworth is not quite 5’7” in height, while Davis is 5’10”.  The victims in the two cases without physical evidence described their attacker as 5’9” or 5’10”.  (Interestingly, after he was convicted, Haynesworth ran into Davis in the Richmond County Jail, and Davis asked him to appear at his trial in hopes of confusing the victim of his identity.  Haynesworth refused.)  Haynesworth also passed polygraph tests about both of the cases that were administered in the presence of the respective Commonwealth’s Attorneys.  Additionally, the MO (modus operandi) in all of the cases is strikingly similar, including:
• Davis committed his crimes either in the early morning or early evening.

• Davis would generally approach his victims casually on the street and then force them to a secluded area. 

• All of Davis’ victims were white females between 15 and 30.  (According to U.S. Department of Justice data only 12% of forcible rapes are committed by perpetrators who rape women of other races.  http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/ascii/SOO.TXT /)

• Davis robbed each of his victims, usually before sexually assaulting them.

• Davis typically engaged in the same sex acts with his victims.

• Davis was unusually talkative during his attacks.

• All of Davis’ attacks occurred in close proximity. The crimes that we now know he committed in the beginning of 1984 occurred within a five block radius of his then address on National Street in the East End of Richmond.  Most of his later attacks occurred further west in the Fan District and the Museum District, consistent with the fact that he married and moved to Parham Road in Henrico.  His wife worked at 2900 Kensington Avenue in Richmond, which is in the Fan District.  

• Davis was armed during his attacks, usually with a knife. The attacker in the Henrico case used a gun but told his victim that he usually used a knife, and 36 hours later the attacker in the Richmond case matching the same description used a gun.
In the papers that will be filed today, Haynesworth asks the court to grant him a Nonbiological Writ of Actual Innocence.  Even though his petition is supported by the Attorney General and both Commonwealth’s Attorneys now believe he is innocent, Haynesworth will likely remain incarcerated while the court decides the case.  There are no mandatory deadlines for the court to reach a decision.  

Misidentification is the cause of 75% of the wrongful convictions that have been overturned because of DNA testing.  In 2005, the Virginia legislature passed a law requiring that each law enforcement agency in the state adopt written eyewitness identification policies, but the Virginia State Crime Commission found that, as of November 2010, at least 25% of the 134 departments across the state still did not have written identification policies and many of the departments with policies use procedures that fall short of best practices. While the Virginia State Crime Commission has vowed to continue seeking improvements, this case demonstrates why the legislature should act now to implement uniform, best practices across the state. Identification procedures that eliminate suggestion by requiring that the identification procedure be administered by an officer not assigned to the case, telling the witness that the perpetrator may not be in the lineup or photo array and asking the witness their level of confidence in the identification have proven effective in reducing wrongful convictions.  Additional information about misidentification is available at www. http://www.innocenceproject.org/fix/Eyewitness-Identification.php.

 “After five years of delay, it’s clear we need the legislature to step up and demand action.  Mistaken identifications don’t just hurt the people who are wrongly identified.  They hurt all of us because the real perpetrator goes uncaught,” said Olga Akselrod, a staff attorney with the Innocence Project.  

Haynesworth would be the fourth person to be exonerated from the state’s review of 210 cases that occurred between 1973 and 1988 where there was sufficient evidence to conduct DNA testing.  (There is also an exoneration pending for a Newport News man before the Virginia Supreme Court.)  Funding for the review is being paid for largely through money from the federal government. 

Download a copy of the writ filed today.
 
Review a timeline of the case

The legal team includes Hogan Lovells US LLP partner Ellen Kennedy and associates Thomas Widor and Aaron George.

##

CONTACTS:  Paul Cates,pcates@innocenceproject.org
Alana Salzberg, asalzberg@innocenceproject.org

(Photo: Jay Paul)

About “Conviction” The Movie

“Conviction”_TheMovieAboutKennyWaterWongfulconviction.jpg
“Conviction,” an inspiring new film about a woman’s two-decade fight to overturn her brother’s wrongful conviction, opened in select theaters October 15, 2010 and will expand to screens around the world through the month of October.

Learn more about the true story behind the movie here.

The film, directed by Tony Goldwyn and written by Pamela Gray, was eight years in the making. Watch an interview with Goldwyn below, see media coverage of the film, read reviews or visit imdb and Fox Searchlight for more on the making of the film.
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