The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the personal details of the families of
servicemen who died on the front line have been found in the files of Glenn
Mulcaire, the private detective working for the Sunday tabloid.
The disclosure that grieving relatives of war dead were targets for the
newspaper prompted anger among military charities, who said it was a
“disgusting and indefensible assault on privacy”.
The Metropolitan Police is facing growing calls from the families of murder
victims, those killed in terrorist attacks and those who died in natural
disasters, such as the Indonesian tsunami, to disclose if they were targets.
Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and now chief
executive of News International, its parent company, faced calls from Ed
Miliband, the Labour leader, to step down.
Yesterday The Daily Telegraph disclosed that families of victims of the July 7
bombings were targets for Mulcaire in the days after the atrocity in 2005.
Last night it emerged that among the 7/7 victims who may have had their phones
hacked was Paul Dadge, who appeared in one of the most memorable images of
the London bombings as he helped Davinia Turrell with a bandaged face at
Edgware Road Tube station.
Mr Dadge said he thought his phone may have been hacked because Mrs Turrell
would not speak to journalists. “The girl in the photo, Davinia Turrell,
because she wasn’t talking to the press, they tried to get at her through
me,” he said.
He is one of six relations and victims of the attacks who allegedly had their
phones hacked. Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in the Edgware
Road bomb and Sean Cassidy, whose 22-year-old son Ciaran was killed in the
King’s Cross blast, have also been contacted by Scotland Yard. Yesterday
other victims said to have been hacked by the newspaper were named by MPs in
Parliament.
Chris Bryant, a Labour front bencher, named Danielle Jones, a 15-year-old
murdered by her uncle in June 2001, as a potential victim. He also suggested
that the phones of individuals linked to the cases of Madeleine McCann,
Sarah Payne, and Scotland Yard detectives who worked on the first
investigation into phone
hacking had been targeted.
Last night soldiers’ charities demanded that the police release the names
contained in Mulcaire’s 9,200 pages of records so they can discover whether
they were targets.
Col Douglas Young, the chairman of the British Armed Forces Federation, said
police were failing families by leaving them in the dark about whether or
not they had been targets.
He said he would seek a meeting with the Metropolitan Police Commissioner if
families were not told within days whether or not they may have been hacked.
“It is now imperative that the police do follow up and do say as quickly as
possible 'we have now contacted everybody involved’ because otherwise it is
going to leave a lot of worry and concern,” he said.
A spokesman for the Army Families Federation added: “Families who have endured
the loss of their soldier will find this privacy assault disgusting and
indefensible, as will all serving personnel who will question the sanctity
of their precious phone calls home.”
The disclosure that the News of the World phone hacking involved victims of
crime began earlier this week with the revelation that Milly Dowler’s mobile
phone voicemails had been intercepted in the days following her
disappearance.
Police also confirmed that the families of 10-year-olds Holly Wells and
Jessica Chapman, who were murdered by Ian Huntley in Soham in 2002, had been
contacted by detectives in Operation Weeting, the Met’s investigation into
phone hacking.
Mr Dadge received an email from the Metropolitan Police informing him that his
name had appeared in their records. He said: “I’m disappointed on a personal
level to be honest. I have always co-operated with the media in anything
they wanted and now to find they might have violated my personal life, it’s
not nice.”
Linda Jones, the mother of Danielle, said: “The police have promised to
investigate on our behalf and we’re waiting to hear back.
“If we have been targeted then obviously we think we deserve to be told
exactly why it was allowed to happen, when it happened and who was
responsible.
“This has come out of the blue for us and caused me so much stress. There has
to be transparency and there needs to be answers.”
A spokesman for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian man
mistakenly shot dead by police after the July 7 bombings, last night
confirmed they have asked detectives whether there was any evidence they had
been targets. Fiona MacKeown, the mother of 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling,
who was raped and murdered in India in 2008, said she had called Scotland
Yard to ask if there was any evidence her phone had been hacked.
“It’s ridiculous that people have to go to the cops and ask them for
information. If you have been a victim of a crime then you have the right to
know, they should just tell you,” she said.
Last night it also emerged that Sion Jenkins, the foster father of murdered
Billie-Jo Jenkins, had contacted police believing his phone had been hacked
and had been given only a vague answer. Mr Jenkins’s wife, Tina, said: “It’s
ridiculous because all the people who have had it confirmed that their
voicemails have been broken into have all had money or expensive lawyers. We
just want to know the truth.”
Families of the 153 Britons killed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami are also
considering contacting police to find out whether they were targets.
Relations discussed their concerns about the News of the World when they met
in London yesterday for the dedication of a memorial to the victims. “If
they have broken the law to get details of victims of the July 7 bombings it
is obviously a very small step to do the same for the victims of the
tsunami,” said Steve Gill, co-chairman of Tsunami Support UK.
He said that the organisation was considering contacting Scotland Yard
collectively to find out whether victims had been targets.
The latest revelations came as Mrs Brooks, who was editor of the News of the
World at the time, faced growing pressure to step down. She also edited The
Sun, another News International title, which championed Help for Heroes, the
military charity, and started a military awards ceremony known as “the
Millies”.
Colin Myler, the current editor of the News of the World, yesterday told
journalists that the paper faced an “extremely painful period ahead”.
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