Met finds phone hacking 'victims'

9 February 2011 Last updated at 17:56 GMT The Met Police has been criticised for failing to carry out thorough investigations in the past Police investigating claims of phone hacking from 2005 have found more potential victims in police files.

They found "links" while reviewing the files from the conviction of a News of the World royal editor and new evidence from publisher News International.

They said they were taking urgent steps to notify people who had previously been told that police had "little or no information" about them.

There was no evidence yet that voice mail had been hacked, police said.

The force has been accused by a number of public figures of failing to carry out thorough inquiries in the past, and launched a new inquiry last month after receiving new information.

Scotland Yard said the possibility of voice mail hacking "will be an important and immediate new line of inquiry".

"As a result detectives are taking urgent steps to advise [the individuals] of this development at the earliest opportunity. If any others are identified as possible victims in due course they will also be contacted."

Links discovered

Scotland Yard said the specialist crime directorate Operation Weeting "have been able to make some links not previously identified" after reviewing the files and evidence.

"The team have also identified some individuals who were previously advised that there was little or no information held by the [Met Police] relating to them within the case papers and exhibits and this is now being reviewed."

A police spokeswoman said any potential victims wanting to use police evidence in a civil case will be shown the evidence but it will not be handed over.

Associated Press reported that thousands of people were involved.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said: "Until I am satisfied that we have validated the data we are re-examining I am not prepared to discuss any of the numbers involved, but I intend to make this information public at the earliest opportunity.

"This is clearly a major task with a considerable amount of work to be done which will take a significant amount of time and resources."

Reported settlements

Police will also make contact with victims whose phones "we already have reasonable evidence to believe may have been hacked".

In January 2007, royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for four months and six months respectively.

Claims that phone hacking was widespread continue, and more and more celebrities and public figures have launched civil legal actions against both the paper and the police.

The Goodman and Mulcaire case first revealed several public figures had been hacked.

Two of them - Gordon Taylor and Max Clifford - brought private cases against the News of the World and received reported settlements of £700,000 and £1m respectively. The cases were settled before key documents were revealed in court.

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