News International could face prosecution
Hacking admission will put pressure on Scotland Yard inquiry to pursue corporate criminal charges
News International has issued a statement offering an 'unreserved apology' to some victims of phone hacking by one of its UK tabloids. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
News International as a corporation could face a criminal prosecution following its admission that the phones of celebrities were hacked into by its staff.
Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (Ripa), a corporate body can be charged with the unlawful interception of voicemail messages if it is found to have "connived" or "consented" with the commission of the offence, or if it is proved that the hacking was attributable to "any neglect on the part of a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate" or "any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity". Lawyers say, however, that proving consent, connivance or neglect on behalf of a corporation could be difficult.
The unprecedented admission by the company will pile pressure on the new inquiry team at Scotland Yard to pursue criminal charges in the eight cases where admissions have been made. The team is now under huge pressure to secure evidence linking a perpetrator to the hacking of the eight victims.
Although the police team must fulfil a higher standard of proof than that required in civil cases, they are now faced with clear evidence that hacking took place in the eight cases – and the admission will provide further evidence that there was a culture of hacking permeating the newspaper. "If they don't bring charges now, they will be open to serious questions because they have got these clear admissions," said a leading criminal barrister, who did not want to be named. "What they have got now is a limb, someone's phone has been hacked so someone must be responsible for that, and therefore it is going to be very difficult for the police to resist a criminal charge."
Among the eight victims – who include Tessa Jowell, the former culture secretary, the actor Sienna Miller, former Sky sports commentator , Kelly Hoppen the interior designer and Joan Hammell, a former aide to John Prescott, are new cases identified by the reopened police inquiry after News International handed over vast amounts of material.
More than 45 detectives are sifting though tens of thousands of emails and intercepts in which the names of celebrities are mentioned, and officers are being seconded to the investigation team from serious crime units within the Met, including the homicide inquiry team, because of the pressure on the investigation.
On Tuesday, the former news editor Ian Edmondson and the current chief reporter of the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck, were arrested on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting mobile phone voicemail messages. Both men were later released on police bail to return in September. Should new evidence emerge they could be rearrested at any point between now and September.
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