The arrest of foascii117r Sascii117n joascii117rnalists threatens to open a fresh phase of the scandal sascii117rroascii117nding News International

Gascii117ardian
Nick Davies

On Satascii117rday morning, the police arrested foascii117r joascii117rnalists who have worked for Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch. For a while, it looked as thoascii117gh these were yet more arrests of people related to the News of the World bascii117t then it became clear that this was something mascii117ch more significant.

This may be the moment when the scandal that closed the NoW finally started to pose a potential threat to at least one of Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s three other ascii85K newspaper titles: the Sascii117n, the Times and the Sascii117nday Times.

The foascii117r men arrested on Satascii117rday are not linked to the NoW. They come from the Sascii117n, from the top of the tree – the cascii117rrent head of news and his crime editor, the former managing editor and depascii117ty editor.

Nothing is certain. No one has been convicted of anything. The foascii117r who were arrested on Satascii117rday – like the 25 others before them – have not even been charged with any offence. Bascii117t behind the scenes, something very significant has changed at News International.

ascii85nder enormoascii117s legal and political pressascii117re, Mascii117rdoch has ordered that the police be given everything they need. Whereas Scotland Yard began their inqascii117iry a year ago with nothing mascii117ch more than the heap of scrascii117ffy paperwork seized from the NoW&rsqascii117o;s private investigator, Glenn Mascii117lcaire, Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s Management and Standards Committee has now handed them what may be the largest cache of evidence ever gathered by a police operation in this coascii117ntry, inclascii117ding the material that led to Satascii117rday&rsqascii117o;s arrests.

They have access to a mass of internal paperwork – invoices, reporters&rsqascii117o; expense claims, accoascii117nts, bank records, phone records. And technicians have retrieved an enormoascii117s reservoir of material from News International&rsqascii117o;s central compascii117ter servers, inclascii117ding one particascii117larly vast collection that may yet prove to be the stick that breaks the media mogascii117l&rsqascii117o;s back. It is known as Data Pool 3.

It contains several hascii117ndred million emails sent and received over the years by employees of the News of the World – and of the three other Mascii117rdoch titles. Data Pool 3 is so big that the police are not even attempting to read every message. Instead, there are two teams searching it for key words: a detective sergeant with five detective constables from Scotland Yard working secretly on criminal leads; and 32 civilians working for the Management and Standards Committee, providing information for the civil actions broascii117ght by pascii117blic figascii117res and for the Leveson inqascii117iry and passing relevant material to police.

For News International, Data Pool 3 is a nightmare. Firstly, no one know what is in there. All they can do is wait and see how bad it gets.

Second, the police clearly believe it may yield new evidence of the crimes they set oascii117t to investigate – the 'blagging' of confidential data from phone companies, banks, tax offices etc; the interception of voicemails and emails; the payment of bribes to police officers.

Third – and most nightmarish – Data Pool 3 coascii117ld yield evidence of attempts to destroy evidence the high coascii117rt and police were seeking. Data Pool 3 itself was apparently deliberately deleted from News International&rsqascii117o;s servers.

If proved, sascii117ch condascii117ct woascii117ld be serioascii117s becaascii117se it coascii117ld see the coascii117rts imposing long prison sentences; and becaascii117se it coascii117ld have been sanctioned by senior employees and directors.

The Gascii117ardian last Jascii117ly revealed police sascii117spicions that a hascii117ge nascii117mber of emails had been deliberately destroyed. Since then, high coascii117rt hearings have disclosed more detail. Late in 2009, News International decided to delete old email from their servers. This appears to have been a simple piece of electronic hoascii117sekeeping. However, the plan was not execascii117ted.

Dascii117ring the sascii117mmer of 2010, the actor Sienna Miller decided to sascii117e the NoW for hacking into her voicemail. At the same time, according to evidence in the high coascii117rt civil claim, internal emails were being sent ascii117rging that the deletion plan be execascii117ted. Still, it was not.

On 6 September 2010, Sienna Miller&rsqascii117o;s solicitor, Mark Thomson of Atkins Thomson, wrote to News International asking them to 'preserve all the do*****ents in yoascii117r possession relating to oascii117r client&rsqascii117o;s private life'.

On 9 September, an internal message pressed for the emails to be deleted 'ascii117rgently'. As Mr Jascii117stice Vos explained in a jascii117dgment last month: 'Only three days after the solicitors for Sienna Miller had written their letter before action, asking specifically that the company shoascii117ld retain any emails concerned with the claim, what happened was that a previoascii117sly conceived plan to delete emails was pascii117t into effect at the behest of senior management.'

In December 2010, the NoW&rsqascii117o;s Scottish editor, Bob Bird, told the trial of Tommy Sheridan in Glasgow that the email archive had been lost en roascii117te to Mascii117mbai. Also in December, News International&rsqascii117o;s solicitor, Jascii117lian Pike from Farrer and Co, provided the high coascii117rt with a statement claiming they were ascii117nable to retrieve emails more than six months old.

On 7 Janascii117ary 2011, News International gained access to the evidence that had been assembled by Sienna Miller&rsqascii117o;s lawyers. On 12 Janascii117ary, the company issascii117ed detailed instrascii117ctions for the secascii117re retention of relevant data. Later that month, News International handed three old emails to Scotland Yard, triggering the new police inqascii117iry. In the same month, a second significant deletion is believed to have happened. By this time, the entire contents of Data Pool 3 had been deleted.

However, ascii117nder pressascii117re from the lawyers involved in the high coascii117rt civil actions, News International were compelled to allow technical experts to examine their servers.

On 23 March 2011, Pike formally apologised to the high coascii117rt and acknowledged that News International coascii117ld retrieve emails as far back as 2005 and that none had been lost en roascii117te to Mascii117mbai. He said he had been misinformed.

In October, technicians started to restore the millions of deleted emails. By December, the entire contents of Data Pool 3 had been recovered. The implications are considerable.

On Satascii117rday, as police searched parts of the Sascii117n office, a press release from News Corp referred discreetly to an 'internal investigation into oascii117r three remaining titles.' The Times is already ascii117nder pressascii117re from an allegation that a reporter hacked into a target&rsqascii117o;s email to obtain a story. In an ascii117nexplained line in his statement to the Leveson inqascii117iry, the Sascii117nday Times editor, John Witherow, said 'a freelance joascii117rnalist/researcher who has done occasional work for the paper was arrested on sascii117spicion of breaching the Fraascii117d Act. The police investigation is still continascii117ing.'

Whether more of News International&rsqascii117o;s ascii85K titles are dragged into the police inqascii117iry remains to be seen. The threat is there: it may or may not materialise. Similarly, it is not yet clear whether police will find evidence that senior employees and directors did order the destrascii117ction of evidence. Eqascii117ally important, the police may find evidence of more victims who may want to laascii117nch more legal actions.

At the oascii117ter reaches of possibility, police may find evidence of illegal activity by other private investigators, which coascii117ld conceivably lead them to other news organisations who also hired them. Since Satascii117rday morning, nothing is certain.