Murdered schoolgirl's parents and JK Rowling given role in phone-hacking inquiry
The parents of a Scottish teenager stabbed to death in her school playground and Harry Potter creator JK Rowling are among those named to give evidence in the first stage of the inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.
JK Rowling
The Scotsman reports today that Margaret and James Watson and Rowling have been named alongside Madeleine and Gerry McCann and actor Hugh Grant on the list of "victims" who will be represented by a barrister and have the right to seek to cross-examine witnesses and make opening and closing statements.
The Watsons' daughter, Diane, was 16 when she was killed at Whitehall Secondary School in Dennistoun on April 1991.
The couple has since campaigned on behalf of victims of crime.
The Scotsman quotes the family's solicitor, Dominic Crossly, as saying their names were being added to the inquiry because they had issues with the way the media treated the families of crime victims - not because they were victims of phone hacking.
The group represented in Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into media conduct will also include former Formula 1 boss Max Mosley; Chris Jefferies, the ex-landlord of alleged murder victim Jo Yeates; ex-England footballer Paul Gascoigne; and Bob and Sally Dowler, the parents of murdered schoolgirl Milly.
Lord Justice Leveson granted core participant status to 46 people for the first part of the inquiry, which will look at the culture, ethics and practices of the press and its relationship with the police and politicians.
The second part, explains The Scotsman, will examine the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International and other media organisations - and consider the police investigation of claims against News International and whether police received corrupt payments.
MPs involved will be Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, Simon Hughes and Denis MacShane, and former MPs Lord Prescott and Mark Oaten, who resigned as the Lib Dem home affairs spokesman in 2006 over an affair with a rent boy.
Celebrities who have been linked to the inquiry and will also be called will be Hugh Grant, actress Sienna Miller, PR guru Max Clifford and model Abi Titmuss, as well as football agent Sky Andrew, Coronation Street actress Shona Gulati and Harold Shipman's son, Christopher Shipman.
Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of The Sun and the News of the World and former chief executive of News International is not expected to give evidence in the inquiry.