Phone-hacking trial: Three ways to hack a phone, 'Hiccups' postpone trial

Thompson told the court she was tasked to create a schedule of 727 audio messages for Operation Weeting, the police investigation into alleged illegal activities by the now defunct News of the World (NotW). The audio tapes were seized by police from the premises of convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire. As well as recordings of voicemail messages, Mulcaire also recorded himself “blagging”, which the officer defined as attempting to obtain information by fraud. The jury has already heard a recording of Mulcaire calling a mobile telephone service provider and pretending to be a member of staff to have a voicemail PIN number changed.

Another example of “blagging” shown to the jury was a record of a call by Mulcaire to an Audi dealership, attempting to gather information on one of his targets.

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, for Rebekah Brooks, rose to cross-examine the officer and asked why the schedule had no dates of when the calls were made. Thompson told the court she had not been asked to do this and had no direct knowledge that anyone else had. The witness then stepped down from the stand.

The Crown then called another police officer, detective sergeant Guest. He spoke about another document, a schedule of payments made by the NotW to Mulcaire. This was an amended version of a large document seen by the court yesterday. Justice Saunders told the jury that this was not an “agreed document” as the defence had not had an opportunity to look at it. The court then moved on to another part of the evidence, “whiteboards” seized by police from Mulcaire in 2006. The whiteboards were then shown to the jury. Justice Saunders reminded the police officer not to interpret the words on the board as this was the subject of argument.

The first whiteboard contained the word “Voda” and the name of tennis player Venus Williams. Another showed a circle with various “spokes” coming from it. The boards were then passed to the jury with an instruction to handle them carefully as the words could easily be rubbed off. The next board contained the name “Stonewall FC” and further whiteboards were then passed to the jury. These contained various names, telephone numbers and abbreviations. The name Mercury Press appears on two occasions. The prosecution reminded the jury that Greg Miskiw, a former news editor at the NotW, worked for Mercury Press at this time.

The fifth board shown to the jury was headed “project targets" and contained the entries David Ginola/Tony Adams, Bulger inquiry, Royal assessments, Reporters confidential and the name Rebekah Wade, Rebekah Brooks' maiden name.

The court then broke for lunch

When court resumed, the prosecution recalled DS Guest to the stand to present further Mulcaire whiteboards to the jury. These contained acronyms the convicted phone hacker used such as MICE. The jury was then shown a page from Mulcaire’s notebook relating to previous witness Eimer Cook headed “re Colin Montgomerie” and containing various phone numbers related to Cook and people she knew; the next listed “most favoured calls!” and the password “driver". Guest then stepped down from the stand.

Another police officer, detective constable Fitzgerald, then gave evidence. Andrew Edis QC, for the Crown, told the court that Fitzgerald would give details of how phone hacking was done from 2002 and 2006 and how evidence from phone billing records should be interpreted. The jury was shown a diagram of how hacking could happen across various service providers. The police officer told the court there were three ways to hack a phone. The first was to dial the mobile phone number of the target – if it is not answered or it is engaged you are transferred to voicemail which you can interrupt by pressing star and then you can enter a PIN number to access the voicemails. This would show on a telephone record as indistinguishable from a normal call.

The second method used during this period, according to the officer, was to dial a “bespoke voicemail number” which was unique to each mobile phone – the “Unique Voicemail Number” (UVN). In practice each phone at that time came with two numbers, the mobile number and the UVN. Again the caller would enter a PIN to access the voicemails. In this case however the telephone call record would show a call to the UVN not the mobile number. The advantage to the hacker is that there would be less risk of the target answering the phone, or of the person calling having their number identified.

The third method was for the hacker to call a “Generic Platform Number” which allowed users to dial one number and enter their mobile phone details and PIN; this was mainly used by Orange for their Pay As You Go customers who were not allocated a UVN. This would show on a phone record as a call to the platform number. Hackers could also, Fitzgerald said, use two mobile phones to dial the target’s number simultaneously. The first phone would “jam” the signal allowing the second to access the voicemail system.

The prosecution then brought into evidence Mulcaire’s phone records. The police officer confirmed these were incomplete as they did not have full information on all of the telephones Mulcaire owned during the period in question. There were therefore gaps in the evidence being presented. Calls from a landline confirmed to belong to Mulcaire to a mobile phone belonging to former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson were shown to the court. These used method one described above which means the call appears as the same as any mobile call. Records of former minister Tessa Jowell however show the use of method two with calls to the UVN shown on the records.

DC Fitzgerald was then asked about a number that appears on the records of a number of alleged phone hacking victims. The officer told the court this was the News International (NI) “private wire” that could be used by NI staff to call out to mobile numbers via a “private branch exchange” so any desk-based phone calling a mobile phone would be routed through this system. It meant phone records would always show this number as the caller no matter where in News International’s Wapping offices the call originated. Records of calls from this number to a UVN were shown which, the police officer said, showed evidence of attempted hacking directly from the News International offices. On one day alone, 18 May 2006, there were 49 such calls made from Wapping. One of those hacked was Neil Wallis, the News of the World's deputy editor.

The court was then shown further call records of contact between Mulcaire and one of the defendants, former News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson. Laidlaw then rose to cross-examine the witness. He brought into evidence an article from the Independent from July 1995 called “how to hack a mobile phone” and another from the Mail on Sunday from 2000 making the same point. Laidlaw put it to the witness that the ability to access voicemails illegally was the subject of publicity before 2002. Fitzgerald confirmed it was.

The witness then left the stand and a statement from publicist Max Clifford was read to the court. Clifford's statement said he always had a good relationship with the NotW until June 2005 when Andy Coulson and Clifford “fell out” Over a story about one of his clients. After this, Clifford claimed Coulson directed the company not to do business with him and he sent stories to other papers. He added that during this time stories appeared about his clients that he had not given them. Clifford confirmed that audio tapes found at Mulcaire’s house were of voicemails left for him. The statement then ended and the court took a short break.

When court resumed Justice Saunders addressed the jury. He told them there were “hiccups” in the case that he wanted to “get rid of". He told them they would not be required until Wednesday of next week and would also have next Friday off giving them a two-day week next week. He then thanked the jury for their punctuality and attention, at which point the court adjourned.

The trial continues and our coverage will resume next week.