Conflict of interest allegations about News of the World’s QC
The former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald QC – who was implicated in the initial inquiry into phone hacking - is representing News International as a paid adviser to aid its legal case over allegations that News of the World journalists paid police for information, according to a report on The Guardian media website.
Windsor-born Macdonald was DPP and head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) during the initial inquiries in 2005-2006 when the CPS privately knew the true scale of the phone hacking but failed to widen the net beyond cases involving investigator Glenn Mulcaire and reporter Clive Goodman.
The Guardian website explained that the appointment was revealed in the House of Commons during a three-hour emergency debate on the hacking allegations, bringing allegations of a conflict of interest.
Labour MPs called on the Liberal Democrat peer to "examine his conscience", while the human rights lawyer Imran Khan said: "It's got trouble written all over it."
Reports The Guardian: “Paul Farrelly, Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme and member of the culture, media and sport select committee, told the chamber: "The former DPP should not only be invited to examine his ethics and his conscience, but also his record in this because the DPP is equally culpable in failing to get to the bottom of this affair."
Khan told the Guardian: "Whatever role he takes, it raises the potential of a conflict of issue. How can he give impartial advice when there is an issue about his own personal involvement? It's got trouble written all over it.
"He has the skills, but is he right given his own involvement? You have to question the motives of why News International is hiring a criminal lawyer rather than a media lawyer."
The Guardian revealed in March the extent of the Metropolitan police and CPS's knowledge of the scale of the hacking problem during their first inquiry. Under Macdonald, CPS paperwork revealed a potential "vast number" of victims, despite Scotland Yard insisting it had found "only a handful" of cases and only a couple of potential prosecutions.
The paperwork also revealed that police and prosecutors adopted a deliberate strategy to 'ring fence' the evidence which they presented in court in order to suppress the names of particularly prominent victims, including members of the royal family. One CPS memo, dated 8 August 2006, said: "It was recognised early in this case that the investigation was likely to reveal a vast array of offending behaviour. However, the CPS and the police concluded that aspects of the investigation could be focused on a discrete area of offending relating to JLP and HA and the suspects Goodman and Mulcaire." The initials refer to Jamie Lee-Pinkerton and Helen Asprey, two of the three Palace employees who were named in court as victims.
John Yates, the current acting commissioner of the Met and Keir Starmer, the current DPP, got into a public spat earlier this year over who was responsible for the narrow remit of that inquiry, which partly hinged on the decision to only investigate cases where voicemails were intercepted before they were listened to.
Farrelly said that the committee had been convinced by Yates's argument that the CPS was responsible for advising the Met to focus in on those cases.
"The DPP's role in this is hardly exemplary in holding the police to account. Under Macdonald's reign the DPP's performance in challenging the police and holding them to account over the inquiry was simply inadequate. They simply rubber-stamped what the police were doing. It's completely wrong on all levels that he has accepted that role. It shouldn't happen. He should be barred and it's a disgrace."
Macdonald was a co-founder of the leading human rights chambers Matrix, and is also on the board of Index on Censorship, which campaigns for freedom of expression. One senior QC said: "It's hard to see how he could stay on at Index on Censorship considering this.
"He carries the can for the complete mess-up of the early inquiry. There is a question about whether he turned a blind eye when he oversaw the investigation into News of the World. Now he seems to be a counsel to News of the World."
News International confirmed the appointment in a statement, which said: "Lord Macdonald QC, the highly regarded former director of public prosecutions, has been appointed by the News Corporation board to advise News International (NI) on the extensive co-operation it is providing to the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) regarding any inquiries into police payments at the News of the World.
"The appointment, which was made in May, is one of a series of measures to address these issues since January 2011 when information was voluntarily disclosed by News International that re-opened the investigation into illegal voicemail interception known as Operation Weeting."