POLICE INVESTIGATION:BRITISH POLICE are investigating evidence that an executive at Rupert Murdoch's News International corporation may have deleted millions of e-mails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal that has hit the business and brought about the closure of the News of the World.
The archive is believed to have reached back to January 2005, revealing daily contact between News of the Worldeditors, reporters and outsiders, including private investigators. The messages are potentially highly valuable both for the police and for the numerous public figures who are suing News International.
According to legal sources close to the police inquiry, a senior executive is believed to have deleted “massive quantities” of the archive on two occasions, leaving only a fraction to be disclosed.
One of the alleged deletions is said to have been made at the end of January, just as Scotland Yard was launching Operation Weeting, its new inquiry into the affair. The allegation directly contradicts News International’s claims that it is co-operating fully with police.
The alleged deletion of e-mails will be of particular interest to British media regulator Ofcom, which yesterday said it had asked to be “kept abreast” of developments in the police’s hacking investigation, so it can assess whether News Corp – News International’s parent company – would pass the “fit and proper” test all owners of UK television channels must meet.
This is in light of Murdoch’s efforts to buy the shares in British satellite broadcaster BSkyB he does not own to gain full control of the broadcaster.
It is understood that the suspected deletion of e-mails is one of a number of actions that have infuriated detectives.
News International executives have also: leaked sensitive information in spite of an undertaking to police that they would keep it confidential; and risked prosecution for perverting the course of justice by trying to hide the contents of a senior reporter’s desk after he was arrested earlier this year.
News International originally claimed the archive of e-mails did not exist. Last December, its Scottish editor, Bob Bird, told the perjury trial of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan in Glasgow that the e-mails had been lost en route to Mumbai.
Also in December, the company’s solicitor, Julian Pike from Farrer and Co, provided the UK high court with a statement claiming it was unable to retrieve e-mails more than six months old.
The first hint that this was not true came in late January when News International handed Scotland Yard evidence that led to the immediate sacking of its news editor, Ian Edmondson, and to the launch of Operation Weeting.
It was reported at the time that this evidence consisted of three old e-mails. Three months later, on March 23rd, Mr Pike formally apologised to the high court and acknowledged that News International could locate e-mails as far back as 2005 and that no e-mails had been lost en route to Mumbai.
Police now believe there was an effort to substantially destroy the archive before News International handed over their new evidence in January. They believe they have identified the executive. They have also attempted to retrieve the lost data.
The crown prosecution service is believed to have been asked whether the executive can be charged with perverting the course of justice. – (Guardian service)