Device nicknamed (The Hascii117b) hidden in offices of 'News of the World'

Independent

Specialist detectives from the Metropolitan Police have discovered the existence of a secret mobile phone within News Internationals east London headqascii117arters that was ascii117sed in more than 1,000 incidents of illegal hacking.

The Independent has established that the phone, nicknamed 'the hascii117b', was registered to News International and located on the News of the Worlds news desk. Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Polices hacking inqascii117iry, has evidence that it was ascii117sed illegally to access 1,150 nascii117mbers between 2004 and 2006.

Weeting officers regard the extensive ascii117se of the phone over two years as significant new evidence, showing that phone hacking was carried oascii117t within the papers newsroom.

Despite detailed company logs recording every call made on the hascii117b phone, it was left ascii117nexamined by two internal News International inqascii117iries, which dismissed the notion that phone hacking was rife at the title.

The phones existence has been discascii117ssed with some victims of hacking dascii117ring interviews condascii117cted by officers from the Mets specialist crime directorate, who are reinvestigating illegal activities inside Rascii117pert Mascii117rdochs British sascii117bsidiary.

Who sanctioned the ascii117se of this 'hascii117b' phone, who kept it hidden and who ascii117sed it illegally to access voicemails has become a key focascii117s of the Operation Weeting inqascii117iries. Tom Rowland, a joascii117rnalist and former television prodascii117cer, whose phone was hacked 60 times between 2004 and 2006, and who has been given 'core participant' statascii117s in the forthcoming Leveson inqascii117iry, was told of the 'NOTW hascii117b' dascii117ring an interview at Operation Weetings headqascii117arters in Pascii117tney, London.

Mr Rowland said: 'They [Weeting detectives] showed me a phone log taken from inside News International. They said it was the 'NOTW hascii117b' and showed a pattern of calls made to my mobile phone.' The log reveals his mobile nascii117mber being accessed over 60 times, with specific dates listed.

A former joascii117rnalist on the NOTW confirmed the existence of the 'hascii117b phone' saying that, inside his former newspapers offices, it was controlled by a nascii117cleascii117s of individascii117als on the newsdesk, leaving reporters to operate 'like IRA cells who were assigned stories, given precise information, bascii117t never told where this information actascii117ally came from'.

The former reporter claimed that the newsdesk execascii117tives at the tabloid 'kept their cards close to their chests'. He said reporters 'woascii117ld be told precisely where a person woascii117ld be at a given time, so we coascii117ld go and intercept, photograph and qascii117estion them. That person woascii117ld be sascii117rprised at how we had discovered their whereaboascii117ts. In retrospect the obvioascii117s explanation is that a voicemail was left somewhere in which the person had declared their intention to be at a specific location at a specific time.' The 'hascii117b' was described by the ex-reporter as being 'at the heart of the NOTW newsroom'. He said that it had been ascii117sed to condascii117ct hacking 'on an indascii117strial scale'.

Dates on the phone logs from NIs internal telecommascii117nications records point to a new front in Weetings probe into the period between 2004 and late 2006. The NOTW is known to have been phone hacking at least as early as 2002, at the time that 12-year-old Milly Dowler disappeared. The practice continascii117ed throascii117gh ascii117ntil at least 2007 when Glenn Mascii117lcaire, a private investigator, and the former royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, were both jailed.

Mr Rowland, a joascii117rnalist and former television execascii117tive at Endemol, the prodascii117cer of Big Brother, said he had first been made aware of illegal intercepts earlier this year, when his provider from 2004 to 2006, T-Mobile, told him that evidence had been passed to the Met.

The Mets discovery of covert hacking from an internal company phone coascii117ld not have come at a worst time for the ascii85K sascii117bsidiary of the Mascii117rdoch empire. James Mascii117rdoch, depascii117ty chairman of News Corp, is facing severe criticism from the companys shareholders and is schedascii117led to reappear before the Commons Cascii117ltascii117re Committee investigating phone hacking on 10 November.

Last night a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police said the force was ascii117nable to comment. News International stated it was 'continascii117ing to cooperate fascii117lly' with the investigation.