7,000 mobile phones hacked in Britain
April 11th, 2011 - 1:18 pm ICT by IANS
London, April 11 (IANS) Nearly 7,000 mobile phones, including those of actress Sienna Miller and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, were hacked by a British tabloid, a lawyer has claimed. Without accepting the numbers, the newspaper has since apologised.
Lawyer Charlotte Harris, who is representing several of the celebrities involved, said 7,000 people may have had their mobile phone voicemail messages intercepted by The News of the World.
The daily has now apologised to the victims, saying: “We publicly and unreservedly apologise to all such individuals. What happened to them should not have happened. It was and remains unacceptable.”
The hacking took place between 2004 and 2006, the Daily Express reported.
Harris said her clients will not accept a settlement from the newspaper until they have received full disclosure.
“What we have at the moment is an apology and an admission. We haven’t even got near the truth yet,” she said.
“If you hack into one person’s phone, you have access to everyone who has left a message for them. And then if you go into the person who has left a message, you get all of theirs.
“You have got to be running into several thousand, just from that methodology. It is certainly not a handful - maybe 4,000, 6,000, 7,000, a huge amount of people,” Harris said.
Cabinet minister Danny Alexander described the phone hacking as “outrageous”, while London Mayor Boris Johnson called on all newspaper editors to declare any hacking carried out by their staff.
- News of the World apologises publicly to phone hacking victims - Apr 10, 2011
- News of the World to compensate phone hacking scandal victims - Apr 09, 2011
- News of World journalists arrested over phone hacking scandal - Apr 06, 2011
- Miller, Law's phone hacking approved by top News of the World executive - Dec 16, 2010
- Thank you and goodbye, says News of the World - Jul 10, 2011
- I failed to probe phone hacking: British cop - Jul 10, 2011
- Murdoch to launch Sun on Sunday next week - Feb 20, 2012
- News of the World publisher pays phone-hacking victims - Jan 19, 2012
- News of the World ex-editor arrested over phone hacking (Lead) - Jul 08, 2011
- Julianne Hough's phone hacked - Aug 31, 2011
- Final News of the World issue costs 30 pounds on eBay - Jul 11, 2011
- UK tabloid, Scotland Yard in fresh legal trouble over high profile phone taps - Jul 10, 2009
- Those involved in phone hacking must be prosecuted: Cameron - Jul 13, 2011
- Rebekah Brooks terms phone hacking 'abhorrent' (Lead) - Jul 20, 2011
- Murdoch urged Brown to curb Brit Govt. pressure in phone hacking case - Apr 10, 2011
Tags: apology, boris johnson, britain london, british tabloid, cabinet minister, charlotte harris, culture secretary, daily express, danny alexander, full disclosure, handful, london mayor, methodology, mobile phones, news of the world, newspaper editors, phone hacking, several thousand, sienna miller, tessa jowell