“The News of the World proved is is a force for good.” So said Sara Payne, the mother of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, in a column for the final edition of the paper. Its writers and editors had supported her unerringly, she wrote, in her campaign for tighter laws against child molesters. “I shall miss you all and to you I say thank you and good luck.”
All of which makes the latest phone hacking allegations particularly disquietig. According to the Guardian, Glen Mulcaire, the private investigator hired by the News of the World, had Sara Payne’s phone number in his extensive collection. “The evidence that police have found in Mulcaire’s notes,” reports the paper, “is believed to relate to a phone given to Payne by Brooks as a gift to help her stay in touch with her supporters.”
Elsewhere in Sara Payne’s farewell article for the News of the World, she writes that, “there were rumours — which turned out to be untrue — that I and my fellow Phoenix charity chiefs had our phones hacked.” If those old rumours turn out to true after all, then it would be a betrayal of a particularly tragic sort.
UPDATE: Rebekah Brooks has released a statement on the latest allegations:
“For the benefit of the campaign for Sarah’s Law, the News of the World have provided Sara with a mobile telephone for the last 11 years. It was not a personal gift. The idea that anyone on the newspaper knew that Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mr Mulcaire is unthinkable. The idea of her being targeted is beyond my comprehension. It is imperative for Sara and the other victims of crime that these allegations are investigated and those culpable brought to justice.”
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