Today the Crown prosecution service announced yet another case moving to the next stage. This one covers cash alledgedly paid to staff at Sandhurst, The Officer training school for the British army.
Operation Elveden: Duncan Larcombe, John Hardy, Claire Hardy and Tracy Bell to be charged
Alison Levitt, QC, Principal Legal Advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), oversees CPS decision making and all potential prosecutions in relation to the ongoing phone hacking investigations and other related matters.
Ms Levitt said: "This statement is made in the interests of transparency and accountability to explain the decisions reached in respect of cases arising from Operation Elveden, which is the Metropolitan Police Service investigation into allegations involving the unlawful provision of information by public officials to journalists.
"This announcement relates to a file of evidence from the Metropolitan Police Service received by the CPS on 28 March 2013. The file concerned one journalist, two public officials and two members of the public.
Now if we look at the statement given in evidence by the accused man to the Leveson Inquiry there are a couple of interesting points.
firstly inParagraph 11
In recent weeks it is fair to say that a number of new measures have been introduced, All editorial staff have been briefed by the new chief executive, Tom Mockridge, on What he expects from his team and reminded that phone hacking and other illegal activities are totally unacceptable. We have also all been briefed on the new Bribery Act and given a copy of NI’s payments policy document which, as I noted above, we all had to sign for.
which suggests that when Management changed there was a sudden move to strip a culture of payments from the paper
and further from Paragraph 33
In all cases, payments have to be authorised by the news desk as our line managers if the payment is more than £1,000 it is my understanding that the payment then has to be authorised personally by the Editor or the Managing Editor
Now that would lead to the question as to why there is only a single member of Newspaper staff on that Charge? you would question whether from that statement there should be either the editor or the managing editor standing in the dock as well. Of the two, only one has been arrested so far. Ifpayments have to be signed off, and the payments total more than £23,000 in this case, then you would expect some form of paperwork trail to senior management, and for them to be included in the case.
Secondly today a report by the Independent Police complaints commission has been published into the activity of the Surrey Police force over the Hacking of the Phone of Millie Dowler. Now this is only an outline report as the court cases for Rebekah and friends over this are still to happen.
Here's the guardian article, and it appears that once again when Senior Police officers are in the frame, the relevent paperwork has gone missing
Surrey police had 'collective amnesia' over Milly Dowler phone hacking | UK news | guardian.co.uk
Senior officers at Surreypolice were "afflicted by a form of collective amnesia" about the force's failure to investigate the alleged hacking ofMilly Dowler's phone by a newspaper in 2002, anIndependent Police Complaints Commission report has found.
The revelation of the hacking of the murdered teenager's phone by theNews of the World led to revulsion that triggered the tabloid's closure. The IPCC found that there was knowledge of the alleged hacking "at all levels" of the Surrey police team investigating the case, and that its head, Craig Denholm, even received documents mentioning it. But nothing was done for almost a decade, even after the 2007 conviction of a journalist from the paper for hacking the royal family and a private investigator for carrying it out.
But the IPCC said they could not find evidence to disprove the assertion by Denholm, now deputy chief constable of Surrey, that he did not know and did not make the "relevant connections".
plus a further Surrey police officer has been arrested, but whether the two events are connected is unknown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Thirdly Yesterday the Delaware court case brought by shareholders against the members of the Murdoch Board for a lack of control of their underlings and the cover up of the hacking has reached agreement before Rupert has been called to give witness.
News Corp. Agrees to $139 Million Investor-Suit Accord - Bloomberg
News Corp (NWSA).’s directors agreed to a $139 million settlement of investors’ claims that they turned a blind eye to illegal conduct at the media company, including phone hacking by employees.
Insurance covering News Corp. (NWSA)’s board, including Chairman Rupert Murdoch, will fund the settlement of lawsuits seeking to hold directors accountable for the scandal sparked by the exposure and attempted cover-up of illegal reporting tactics used by some News Corp. journalists in the U.K., according to a statement today by the company and shareholders who sued. The money will go into News Corp.’s coffers rather than to individual investors.
I've had it explained to me by an Orange local that this will massively increase the insurance bills for Newscorp directors.
Fourthly we had the latest Civil court case day, where another 8 cases were agreed and paid off. However another 8 new claims were added on, leaving it so that there are still 25 outstanding currently from the current batch. Of these new 8, one is a close friend of Princes William and harry, bringing the Royals back into the frame. One of the settled cases is another of the Staff of Tony Blair, from the time he was in Government. showing further penetration of the UK government that went unremarked by senior members of the police.
And finally, the first case management day for Civil Claims against the Daily Mirror has occurred, events dating back to when Piers Morgan was editor,
Twitter / lisaocarroll: At high court four claims against ...
At high court four claims against Mirror. David beckham's nanny Abbie Gibson, corrie actress Shobna gulati, Sven and Garry flitcroft
Twitter / lisaocarroll: Garry Flitcroft is claiming ...
Garry Flitcroft is claiming phone was hackedin relation to sex exposé in 2002 high court hears. Mirror Group denies Seeking adjournment
No further use on that today, but things still happening.