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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Brian Paddick writes: The Lib Dem Guide to phone hacking
July 9, 2011 11:12 AM
• [Jul 08] Brian Paddick writes: UNIQUELY perhaps, I was a victim of the News of the World's private investigator, Glen Mulcaire, when I was a senior police officer at New Scotland Yard, working along the corridor from the officers who conducted the first phone hacking inquiry in 2002. But they never told me I was victim. It was only a couple of years ago when my solicitor received a call from a Guardian journalist, that I knew Mulcaire had my name and mobile phone number in his notebook.
. . The . . most sinister explanation, unsubstantiated but possible, is that someone in the police could have curtailed the initial police investigation because the News of the World had something on them. We know that members of the Parliamentary Committee investigating these issues were warned-off recalling Rebekah Brooks (nee Wade), then editor of the News of the World, under threat that their own private lives would be exposed in the newspapers if they did (she was never recalled).
Similarly, one can speculate that there could have been some senior police officers, who may have had similar warning shots fired across their bows. I can recall at least two Chief Constables who had 'secret love child' stories published by tabloid newspapers in the past, and it is possible that other senior officers' skeletons have been discovered by the press but not yet revealed to the public.
I have to stress that we have no direct evidence to support any of these possible explanations . . The corruption allegations should be investigated by an independent police force, led by a senior officer with no previous connection to the Metropolitan Police. Whilst I have confidence that Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers is conducting a thorough investigation under Operation Weeting, what went wrong with the first phone hacking investigation is beyond her remit.
Only a public inquiry led by a judge, who can compel witnesses to give evidence on oath, stands any chance of getting to the bottom of this. The illegal practices of the press, the relationship between the police and the press, and politicians and the press, all need to be examined. And those found guilty of criminality should be prosecuted.
As for me, as I told Andrew Gilligan in the London Evening Standard during the last Mayoral Campaign, my skeletons and I have been out of the closet for some time, which is why I am unafraid to speak out and demand that the police and the press are held to account.
• Brian Paddick writes: The Lib Dem Guide to phone hacking [Lib Dem Voice Jul 08]
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