The public does not much mind about celebrities, but murder victims are different, writes MARK HENNESSY
FOR YEARS, it titillated the few interested in it. The victims were celebrities, who were happy to use tabloids for their own self-promotion. Now, however, it has worsened dramatically on foot of evidence that the News of the Worldhacked the voicemail of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler.
The emergence of the Dowler link could not have come at a worse time for News International, which moved earlier this year to offer significant, but not overly generous, compensation to some of the Sunday newspaper’s known victims.
The Dowler case, however, is different. Public sympathy is behind the family, following the brutal treatment that Milly’s father received from defence counsel during the trial of her murderer, Levi Bellfield, where his reading of pornographic magazines was used to tarnish his reputation.
Journalists, with the help of private detective Glenn Mulcaire, intercepted Milly Dowler’s voicemail in the days after she disappeared in March 2002, even going as far as to delete messages left by distraught friends so that they could listen to more.
If that is possible, executives concede that matters will get even worse with disclosures that some of its journalists did the same against one of the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, two girls murdered together by Ian Hinkley in Soham in 2002. Forced on to the defensive yesterday, News International drew the wagons around Rebekah Brooks, who edited the newspaper before she passed on the reins to Andy Coulson – David Cameron’s communications chief until he was forced to quit last year.
Brooks is in serious trouble, having told the House of Commons culture committee previously that she knew nothing of the hacking – a position that, it must be said, is greeted with nothing short of hilarity by tabloid journalists.
Brooks, who is now News International’s chief executive, yesterday told staff that she hoped that “you all realise it is inconceivable” that she knew anything about it, while promising the toughest action against the wrongdoers once they are found.
The News of the Worldwas not the only offender, but it may have been the worst. Clive Goodman, the paper's royal correspondent, jailed in 2007 along with Mulcaire for interception, was known as "The Eternal Flame" because "he never went out", staying at his desk to wade through transcripts.
Before the Dowler case emerged, Murdoch had put aside £40 million to pay compensation and kill off the controversy. Today, an end at such a price would be cheap, particularly now that there are demands for a judicial inquiry into media practices in the late 1990s and much of the last decade.
Five years ago, the News of the Worldwas happy to let Goodman and Mulcaire take the blame for everything. Indeed, it held the line up until Christmas when the discovery of e-mails made it clear that the role of others could no longer be denied.
So far, none directly prove that Brooks or Coulson knew, but much investigation remains to be done – particularly since the Metropolitan Police did everything possible up until last year not to delve too deeply into the workings of a Murdoch empire organ.
Faced with demands for extra compensation, Murdoch will pay up. Faced with the loss of senior executives, he may resist, but they will be sacrificed if it proves necessary. For the prize is huge: the unimpeded full takeover of BSkyB.
So far, the British government is keen for the deal to go ahead, subject to some extra conditions that will not trouble Murdoch unduly. But he wants it to go ahead quickly. Already, delays have cost him dearly. Murdoch wanted his parent company, NewsCorp, to buy out the remaining take in BSkyB a year ago because it had lots of free cash in the US, while sterling assets were cheap. Every further delay now adds to the bill.