Hacking lawyer claims new conspiracy

Rebekah Brooks, former News International CEO, leaves Westminster Magistrates Court in London in November. A lawyer for hacking victims says police have uncovered a new conspiracy with hundreds of alleged victims. Picture: AP Source: AP

BRITISH investigators have found hundreds more potential phone-hacking victims of the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, a victim's lawyer has said.

Lawyer Hugh Tomlinson made the announcement at Britain's High Court during legal arguments related to the lawsuits against News of the World publisher News International. Mr Tomlinson did not go into much detail, but hundreds of extra victims could translate into millions of extra damages for the UK newspaper company.

The phone hacking scandal has greatly damaged the reputation of the British tabloid press, which has been found to have hacked into the voicemails of celebrities, politicians, crime victims and others. News International has already paid millions of pounds in settlements, and a national outcry forced British politicians to promise action to make the medial more responsible.

At a court hearing yesterday, a lawyer said journalists at The Sun newspaper - another News Interntaional title - harvested data from a lawmaker's stolen phone.

Lawyer David Sherborne said parliamentarian Siobhain McDonagh has accepted substantial but undisclosed damages from the newspaper after her mobile phone was stolen from a parked car in 2010. Her text messages had later been accessed by The Sun, Mr Sherborne said.

News International lawyer Dinah Rose acknowledged that The Sun was guilty of "serious misuse of her private information".

The revelations of new victims came only hours after British politicians announced they struck a last-minute deal over press regulation, unveiling a new code meant to curb the worst abuses of the country's scandal-tarred media.

The code follows days of heated debate over how to implement the recommendations of Lord Justice Brian Leveson, who held an inquiry that aimed to clean up a newspaper industry plunged into crisis by revelations of widespread phone hacking.

Victims' groups have lobbied for an independent watchdog whose powers are enshrined in law but media groups have said that threatens press freedom.

The deal struck yesterday appears to be a complicated compromise.

"I think we have got an agreement which protects the freedom of the press, that is incredibly important in a democracy, but also protects the rights of people not to have their lives turned upside down," senior opposition leader Harriet Harman told broadcaster ITV.

Unlike the UK's widely discredited Press Complaints Commission, which barely bothered to investigate allegations of phone hacking before the scandal broke, the new regulator being proposed by politicians would be independent of the media and would have the power to force newspapers to print prominent apologies.

Submitting to the regulatory regime would be optional, but media groups staying outside the system could risk substantial fines if they get stories wrong.

And rather than being established through a new press law, which advocates of Britain's media have described as unacceptable, the regulatory body would be created through a Royal Charter, a kind of executive order whose history stretches back to medieval times. Adding to the complexity, a law would be passed to prevent ministers from tweaking the system after the fact.

Ms Harman acknowledged that the charter was "quite a sort of complex and old-fashioned thing" but said it "kind of more or less ... has got legal basis."

Victims' group Hacked Off said it believes the deal will go a long way toward preserving press freedom and protecting the public from fresh abuses. The groups said it remained concerned about how newspaper groups would be cajoled into joining.

News International is owned by News Corporation, which also owns the parent company of this publication.
 

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