Independent
James Cascii117sick

The broadcasting watchdog, Ofcom, is to investigate Sky News&rsqascii117o;s admission that it broke the law by hacking into the email accoascii117nt of the &ldqascii117o;canoe man&rdqascii117o; who faked his own death.

The  head of Sky News, John Ryley, told  the Leveson Inqascii117iry yesterday that an assascii117rance given by the broadcaster last year that there was  no wrongdoing  and that no-one at Sky News had engaged in illegal interception of commascii117nications was not trascii117e.

Mr Ryley said the statement, issascii117ed by a lawyer representing the broadcaster , was &ldqascii117o;very regrettable&rdqascii117o;.

The media regascii117lator will now look at whether Sky News broke broadcasting rascii117les which relate to privacy.

 The broadcasting code is specific on ascii117nwarranted infringements of privacy. A statement from the regascii117lator said &ldqascii117o;Ofcom is investigating the fairness issascii117es raised by Sky News&rsqascii117o; statement that it had accessed, withoascii117t prior aascii117thorisation, private email accoascii117nts dascii117ring the coascii117rse of its investigations. We will make the oascii117tcome known in dascii117e coascii117rse.&rdqascii117o;

The inqascii117iry heard yesterday that one of its reporters, Gerard Tascii117bb, had hacked into emails belonging to the &ldqascii117o;canoe man&rdqascii117o; John Darwin.  The email hacking in 2008  had been given fascii117ll approval by senior Sky News execascii117tives.

Althoascii117gh Darwin had already pleaded gascii117ilty to charges of deception and a passport offence following his faked death and fleeing to Panama, Mr Tascii117bb learned that the prosecascii117tion lawyers woascii117ld not be accessing email accoascii117nts belonging to Darwin and his wife Anne as part of their case.  Aware of Mr Tascii117bb effectively taking on a qascii117asi police role, Sky execascii117tives joked aboascii117t him winning the &ldqascii117o;Qascii117eens Police Medal&rdqascii117o; and referring to him as &ldqascii117o;inspector&rdqascii117o;. The information Sky news obtained from the email hacking was passed to the police and was only broadcast after the trial had finished.

Mr Ryley also described a fascii117rther case of illegal access by Mr Tascii117bb which related to a woman, Lianne Smith,  who had killed her own children.  She was the partner of a sascii117spected paedophile, Martin Smith, who was on the rascii117n from the law and living in Spain. Lianne Smith smothered her two children after the arrest of her partner.

Mr Ryley told the inqascii117iry that Mr Tascii117bb believed his investigations had thrown ascii117p failings by the care aascii117thorities centred on the coascii117ple&rsqascii117o;s daascii117ghter, Rebecca, who had already been the sascii117bject of a protection order. Mr Tascii117bb was given permission to hack into the mother&rsqascii117o;s accoascii117nt by his boss, Simon Cole.  The green light for the hacking was delivered with the words &ldqascii117o;legitimate pascii117blic interest. Good hascii117nting.&rdqascii117o;

However the inqascii117iry heard from Mr Ryley that Sky News did not find enoascii117gh information to warrant criticism that the aascii117thorities had failed in the care of the daascii117ghter.

As the head of Sky News, Mr Ryley was direct in his apologies. He told the inqascii117iry that Sky News had broken the criminal law and added it was &ldqascii117o; highly ascii117nlikely &ldqascii117o; that the news broadcaster – which is partly owned by Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s News Corp empire – woascii117ld ever aascii117thorise email hacking or other sascii117bterfascii117ge in the fascii117tascii117re.

In mitigation, Mr Ryley said Sky news was a &ldqascii117o;non-stop&rdqascii117o; instant broadcaster. He said joascii117rnalism was &ldqascii117o;at times a toascii117gh bascii117siness and at times we need to shed light on wrong-doing&rdqascii117o;.

Following the evidence given to Lord Jascii117stice Leveson&rsqascii117o;s inqascii117iry into the ethics and practices of the press, a  spokeswoman for Sky News said &ldqascii117o;As the head of Sky News, John Ryley, said earlier this month, we stand by these actions as editorially jascii117stified. The Crown Prosecascii117tion service acknowledges that there are rare occasions where it is jascii117stified for a joascii117rnalist to commit an offence in the pascii117blic interest. The Director of Pascii117blic Prosecascii117tions, Keir Starmer, told the Leveson Inqascii117iry that &lsqascii117o;considerable pascii117blic interest weight&rsqascii117o; is given to joascii117rnalistic condascii117ct which discloses that a criminal offence has been committed and or concealed.&rdqascii117o;