The phone hacking controversy first began to come to public attention because of a story
in The News of the World about Prince William’s knee in 2005. Now, the Royal angle has revived because of a report from Robert Peston
that the newspaper allegedly paid a Royal protection officer for contact details of senior members of the Royal family. Peston reports that:
This latest revelation will further increase the pressure on News International to explain who knew what and when about phone hacking and payments to the police. Expect to hear more demands from MPs that News International Executives explain what they knew about what, when and whether any of the select committee inquiries were misled.‘According to a source, the e-mails include requests by a reporter for sums of around £1000 to pay police officers in the royal protection branch for the information. The phone details could have been used to hack phones of the royal family. “There was clear evidence from the e-mails that the security of the royal family was being put at risk”, the source said. “I was profoundly shocked when I saw them.” The source added that the e-mails were unambiguous signs of criminal activity at the News of the World. “It is quite astonishing that these emails were not handed to the police for investigation when they were first found in 2007”, he said. The e-mails were not passed to the Metropolitan police until 20 June this year, when they were re-obtained – from the offices of the solicitors Harbottle and Lewis – by a recently appointed new team of News International executives.’
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