Panorama outs sixth alleged News of the World hacker
Half a dozen journalists at the News of the World have now been implicated in the ongoing phone hacking scandal engulfing the paper after the BBC’s Panorama show tonight.
Alex Marunchak, the tabloid’s former senior executive editor, is set to be named by the programme as the latest (and most senior) accomplice to the crime.
It alleges that Marunchak hired a private detective to illegally intercept email messages of a former British army intelligence officer before faxing them to the paper.
The latest accusations were made after Panorama obtained a copy of one such fax which they presented to the victim, Ian Hurst. In the episode Hurst confirms on camera that the email must have been obtained from his hard drive and subsequently confronts the alleged hacker in a nearby hotel room.
The latest revelations will make for uncomfortable viewing for News International, the publisher had previously claimed that illicit activity at its title had been limited to a sole rogue reporter, royal correspondent Clive Goodman.