Survivors of the 2005 London bombings have asked lawyers to investigate allegations that Scotland Yard "sold" or passed on the confidential contact list of the 7 July victims to reporters working for News International.
Beverli Rhodes, chair of the Survivors' Coalition Foundation, said that a number of 7/7 victims suspected that personal contact details, including mobile phone and ex-directory landline numbers as well as home addresses, were passed by officers to News of the World journalists.
The former security consultant, who specialised in counter-terrorism, said she had been contacted by a number of survivors of the bombings who said they had been approached by News of the World reporters with bogus stories of how they obtained their details, which they believe may have originated with the police.
Their concerns have been discussed with the London law firm McCue and Partners. A spokesman said the survivors were considering their next step, having made requests for the Met to provide answers.
Rhodes said: "Scotland Yard had the full list of survivor contact details. I am pretty sure that is how the News of the World got my home address. I had only moved there maybe three or four weeks before News of the World reporters turned up. The only place where my new details were stored were the post office, bank, doctor and Scotland Yard.
"The suspicion is that the full list was given or sold on to the newspaper or News International or fell into someone's lap when visiting the Yard. One of the survivor's phone numbers is not listed and only known to me and family, but they had addresses to homes, home phone numbers, mobile phones."
She said that after the hacking scandal gathered momentum following the Milly Dowler revelations, several survivors approached her asking if she had provided their personal details to News of the World reporters.
"Two News of the World reporters told them they had got their details from me. They asked: 'Did you give my number to these reporters?', and I said: 'No, never'. These reporters knew an awful lot of specific information and asked very detailed questions."
Rhodes is now demanding that McCue and Partners officially request details from the Metropolitan police to establish if their concerns are substantiated. Scotland Yard has started to contact the relatives of 7/7 victims to warn them they were targeted by the News of the World.
It is understood that bereaved family members may have had their mobile phone messages intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper, in the days following the London bombings.
The Dowler revelations are likely to increase pressure on Andy Coulson, the paper's former editor, and David Cameron, who hired him as his spokesman. Last week recently resigned News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, in response to questions from Paul Farrelly MP, said she was away when Dowler's phone was hacked and the paper was edited by her deputy, Coulson, or associate editor, Harry Scott. Sources have indicated Coulson was editing the paper then. "It was the Milly Dowler revelations that broke the camel's back," Farrelly said. "Rebekah Brooks has let it be known that she was away at the time, so this brings it all back to Coulson."
Brooks's comments will raise further questions about the cache of emails exchanged between senior editors on the paper which have now been handed to police. There is speculation that they will show who on the paper commissioned the hacking of Dowler's phone.
Although Rhodes has not been contacted by the Met, she has spoken to other survivors. She was one of more than 700 victims of the attacks, which killed 52 people, and was severely injured by the bomb that hit the Piccadilly line tube near King's Cross.
Rhodes, from Ashford, Kent, said the request from reporters involved sensitive details on compensation claims and the nature of injuries. She provided the names of two News of the World reporters who previously had not been connected to the phone-hacking scandal.
A McCue and Partners spokesman said the firm was evaluating the allegations and "considering their position".
Among those known to have been contacted by officers working on Operation Weeting, the Met's investigation into phone hacking, are Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed at Edgware Road tube station. He said they told him his mobile phone number, ex-directory landline number and address had been found in records made by Mulcaire. Another is Sean Cassidy, father of a victim, and Paul Dadge, famous for helping victims during the attack, who has also been reported to have been emailed by the Met and told his name was in Mulcaire's records.
Last week Scotland Yard was asked to investigate claims that News of the World reporters paid officers to obtain people's locations by tracking their cell phone signals – known as "pinging".
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