Phone-hacking trial: Five things you might have missed
The trial of former editors of the now defunct News of the World is still going on, but the jury is out of court while legal argument takes place. While we wait for proceedings to resume, here is a list of some facts you may have missed.
Glenn Mulcaire
1. There was a whole lot of hacking
Early in the case Andrew Edis, lead counsel for the prosecution, remarked that convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire earned over £100,000 from the News of the World, adding that the jury might come to believe he was worth it. He was certainly busy: nearly 700 alleged victims of illegal interception of voicemails have been identified by police through Mulcaire’s notes, and many were hacked on multiple occasions. Mulcaire even worked on holiday, hacking Kerry Katona’s voicemail on Christmas day 2005.
2. It wasn't just Mulcaire though
Phone records found by police show that many hacks were carried out not from Mulcaire’s house but from a private line inside the News of the World’s Wapping headquarters. Because of the way the switchboard was set up it is impossible to know which extension this came from, but we know that on just one day, 18 May 2006, there were 49 hacking calls made from that number.
3. Or even just celebrities
Mulcaire was very much an equal opportunity hacker. Celebrities and actors were alleged victims – Kerry Katona, Jude Law, Sienna Miller and Delia Smith – and there were politicians too – David Blunkett, Theresa May and Charles Clarke. However he did not always get it right. A hairdresser called Laura Rooney had her voicemail intercepted, it appears because someone thought she is related to footballer Wayne Rooney. She isn’t.
4. They spied on each other too
The prosecution allege that some of the most hacked phones belonged to other journalists. For example Mail on Sunday reporters had their phones hacked so the News of the World could steal a story that paper was working on about John Prescott. Even working for the News of the World itself did not give you immunity. People named in court as having had their phones hacked by Mulcaire include the defendants Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks.
5. Not every story came from hacking
It would be wrong to think that intercepting voicemails was the only way the News of the World got stories. The court heard from Lorna Hogan, a former model. She was paid by an agency to go to London clubs with the aim of meeting famous men. If she got a story she would meet a News of the World journalist in his car to pass on the information. A good one could net her up to £10,000.
James Doleman has been inside the Old Bailey for The Drum for the duration of the phone-hacking trial so far. You can read an archive of his detailed daily reports, and continued coverage which will resume when the jury returns, at /columns/inside-the-rebekah-brooks-and-andy-coulson-trial.