McCanns hoping to speak at phone-hacking investigation/september 07, 2011

old story about the phone hacking

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/McCanns-hoping-speak-phone-hacking-investigation/story-13282176-detail/story.html



McCanns hoping to speak at phone-hacking investigation
Trusted article source icon
Wednesday, September 07, 2011


Kate and Gerry McCann want to highlight their experiences at the hands of the British press during the judicial investigation into the phone-hacking scandal.

The couple, whose daughter, Madeleine went missing in May 2007, were among those named yesterday as potential witnesses in an investigation provoked by anger at journalists' illegal interception of phone messages.


But the couple's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, said there was no evidence their phones had been hacked.

He said the couple, who live in Rothley, hope to be granted "core participant status" in the inquiry, expected to deliver its report in a year.

This would give them the right to be represented by a legal team, who could cross-examine witnesses and make opening and closing statements.

Mr Mitchell said the remit of the inquiry was far wider than phone hacking.

"It is going to be looking at press ethics and media activity in general and they are deemed to be relevant witnesses on that basis," he said.

"Assuming they get that status, the plan will be that they will give evidence about their treatment at the hands of the press more generally."

Inquiry officials appearing at the High Court, in London, yesterday published a list of names and organisations who will appear as witnesses.

They included former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, former senior Metropolitan Police officer John Yates, News International, the Guardian newspaper, Express Newspapers and the Metropolitan Police.

The McCanns have spoken and written about press intrusion and misrepresentation of their campaign to find Madeleine, who disappeared from her family's holiday flat in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, on May 3, 2007, as her parents dined out nearby with friends.

In March 2008, they accepted a payment and front page apologies from Express Newspapers.

It related to what they said were 100 "grotesque and grossly defamatory allegations" in the Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express and the Daily Star Sunday.

Mr Mitchell has previously told the Leicester Mercury it is possible he was a victim of illegal attempts to access his mobile phone messages at the height of the case.

He said, in July this year: "We were not naive.

"At that time, we knew it was a possibility that this was going on so we were always careful about what we said in messages."

Other people whose names were put forward for core participant status yesterday were former Formula 1 boss Max Mosley and Chris Jefferies, the former landlord of alleged murder victim Jo Yeates.

Barrister David Sherborne said he also represented another group of more than 100 "victims'' whose voicemail had allegedly been intercepted.

He said many of those had already launched legal action against News of the World publisher News Group Newspapers, which is part of News International.

Thanks Annabel


He said, in July this year: "We were not naive.

"At that time, we knew it was a possibility that this was going on so we were always careful about what we said in messages."

Now what would they have to "be careful" about? Why did CM say they hadn"t been hacked but the McCanns say they have. I thought
it would have been the Met who informed the person who was hacked when they discovered it on the NOTW phones, the person being
hacked wouldn"t know.

If the mccanns had been hacked they would be in jail by now.


They weren't hacked and Mitchell wasnt hacked either ....it was HIM who WARNED the mcccanns about being monitored so he isn't stupid enough to says anything revealing on the phone when he knew someone could be listening.

kitti wrote:If the mccanns had been hacked they would be in jail by now.


They weren't hacked and Mitchell wasnt hacked either ....it was HIM who WARNED the mcccanns about being monitored so he isn't stupid enough to says anything revealing on the phone when he knew someone could be listening.

If they are attenting the interview with some others, they must have proof they have been hacked .

Weren't the PJ or leics police hacking (intercepting) their calls?

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/VODAFONE.htm

gillyspot wrote:Weren't the PJ or leics police hacking (intercepting) their calls?

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/VODAFONE.htm

Hi gillyspot,

The hacking you are referring to is while the McCanns were still in Portugal in 2007, the Police monitored their calls. This hacking is the News of the World, we don"t know when the hacking was supposed to have taken place.

the inquiry isnt only about hacking, its also about the media and how they portray certain situations or what it written about the people featured in the articles published.

Panda wrote:

kitti wrote:If the mccanns had been hacked they would be in jail by now.


They weren't hacked and Mitchell wasnt hacked either ....it was HIM who WARNED the mcccanns about being monitored so he isn't stupid enough to says anything revealing on the phone when he knew someone could be listening.

If they are attenting the interview with some others, they must have proof they have been hacked .

If the McCanns' had had an email, letter or visit regarding them being hacked then we would know about it. The media would have been falling over themselves to tell us on their orders.

Here is why they are there (according to Gerry).

"Gerry McCann will give evidence about the media frenzy following the disappearance of his daughter Madeleine"

http://www.channel4.com/news/why-im-giving-evidence-at-the-leveson-inquiry

Will he mention the (surely) hundreds of calls from "Team McCann" to all UK media outlets starting within hours of Madeleine's disappearance as a cause for this? Hmm I doubt it. Let's hope Judge Leveson asks him about it though.

Message to the McCanns - Grab a tiger by the tail - You can never let go!

He's Already given evidence about this, would he be giving re-evidence if the trial wasnt goung to be heard next year?



Just making sure that the masses off their Facebook fans that didn't get it last time, do this time.

kitti wrote:He's Already given evidence about this, would he be giving re-evidence if the trial wasnt goung to be heard next year?



Just making sure that the masses off their Facebook fans that didn't get it last time, do this time.

Morning Kitti, I don"t think the McCanns have any right to be there if they havn"t been hacked.!!! There are only a select few because it
would take a month of Sundays to interview everyone and as gillyspot says, they have already claimed for Libel from the Daily Express, this
is something quite different.

'The private diary of Kate McCann - mother of missing girl Madeleine - was published by the NoW when her husband had not even seen it. The treatment of the McCanns was a "national scandal"'


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15752002

Really? How would the NOTW get their hands on Kate McCann's private diary? I don't understand this. Are we supposed to believe that the NOTW stole her diary, then printed its contents in the newspaper?

Hi Wintabells, thanks for the link. I can"t understand how the NOTW could have got hold of Kate"s diary, the Article is very long but I picked
out a bit relating to the McCanns, note a Barrister will be appointed to represent the participants. Iv"e included the Press participants and
maybe this is related to allegations against the Press rather than phone hacking, The McCanns sued the Expesss but not the NOTW which
supposedly printed from Kate"s Diary without her knowledge or consent?

Core participants are decided on the basis of whether they:

• played, or may have played, a direct and significant role in relation to the matters to which the inquiry relates
  
• have a significant interest in an important aspect of the matters to which the inquiry relates
  
• may be subject to explicit or significant criticism during the inquiry proceedings or in the report, or in any interim report
  

More than 50 alleged victims of media malpractice have been
granted the right to be core participants, including Harry Potter author
JK Rowling, actors Hugh Grant and Miller, and Gerry and Kate McCann,
the parents of missing child Madeleine.

Those with core participant status will be represented by a
barrister and can seek to cross-examine witnesses and make opening and
closing statements. Core participants may also apply for public funding
for legal representation.

Organisations that have been given core participant status
include the Metropolitan police, News International, Northern &
Shell, Guardian News & Media, Associated Newspapers, Trinity Mirror,
Telegraph Media Group and the National Union of Journalists.

More core participants can be added during the course of the inquiry.

What recommendations will the inquiry make?
The first part of the inquiry will make recommendations on:

• a new, more effective policy and regulatory regime which
  supports the integrity and freedom of the press, the plurality of the
  media, and its independence, including from government, while
  encouraging the highest ethical and professional standards
  
• how future concerns about press behaviour, media policy,
  regulation and cross-media ownership should be dealt with by all the
  relevant authorities, including Parliament, government, the prosecuting
  authorities and the police
  
• the future conduct of relations between politicians and the press
  
• the future conduct of relations between the police and the press
  

The second part of the inquiry will consider the implications
for the relationships between newspaper organisations and the police,
prosecuting authorities, and relevant regulatory bodies - and to
recommend what actions, if any, should be taken.




Lord Justice Leveson was the judge during the 2006 trial over the murder of schoolboy Damilola Taylor


Who is Lord Justice Leveson?
Lord Justice (Sir Brian) Leveson became a barrister in 1970 and a QC 16 years later.

The 62-year-old was made a High Court judge in 2000 and
appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2006. He was senior presiding judge
there from 2006 to 2009 and now, as chairman of the Sentencing Council,
is responsible for criminal sentencing policy in England and Wales.

Lord Justice Leveson is well known for being the barrister
who led the prosecution case against serial killer Rose West, who was
jailed in 1995 for the murder of 10 women and girls.

He was also the judge during the 2006 trial over the murder of 10-year-old London schoolboy Damilola Taylor.

Who are the judge's six advisers?
The six members of the inquiry panel range from journalists and police officers to civil rights campaigners. They are:

• Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights group Liberty
  
• George Jones, former Daily Telegraph political editor
  
• Sir David Bell, former chairman of the Financial Times
  
• Elinor Goodman, former Channel 4 political editor
  
• Lord David Currie, former chairman of Ofcom
  
• Sir Paul Scott-Lee, former West Midlands chief constable
  

how did the NoTW get hold of K McCs diary, id like to know how that happened.

I thought there was an unwritten rule, a sort of code of practice that if you court the press, make a living or benefit from it as a celeb or whatever, that you are fair game for press scrutiny being in the public eye and all that???

What we should remember is the 'Fund' is a private fund, not a charity, but a private fund, so courting the press for publicity for donations either directly or through the purchase of a book, then this is all using the press, the media, to support your own cause - living by the sword!!???

Its a two way street Gerry! You court the press and they are bound to look at you and your motives very closely old chum!

So it seems the McCanns are there about Kate"s Diary whose contents led to a front page expose........... for the NOTW to be able to access
the Diary, they could hardly raid the McCanns House, or be given it so I assume they copied from the PJ files, pages of the Diary were
photographed by the PJ and if this was released along with many files it would be easy to copy them. If they were shelved then the NOTW must have bribed someone in the PJ.

That Panda is a very good point, money talks doesn't it, especially that certain person at the PJ they wouldn't have relised that the NOTW were as corrupt as we have all now found out them tobe.

You never know Panda if this is true then maybe it will come out,, just as it has re: Milly Dowler and Sarah Payne??

Lillyofthevalley wrote:That Panda is a very good point, money talks doesn't it, especially that certain person at the PJ they wouldn't have relised that the NOTW were as corrupt as we have all now found out them tobe.

You never know Panda if this is true then maybe it will come out,, just as it has re: Milly Dowler and Sarah Payne??

Hi Lilyofthevalley......It"s the only thing I can think of because Philomena let it be known that she had encouraged Kate to start a Diary while she was in PDL and I do remember the PJ copying pages, which I don"t remember reading so assume they are in the shelved files.If they
were released to the public when the case was shelved, the NOTW could not be blamed for printing extracts.

I heard an excerpt about this the News this evening from the Lawyer representing the Dowler's and Gerry & Kate McCann.

Apparently Kate likened the printing of extracts from her Diary - like being "raped". Though The Telegraph has reported it as being "mentally raped". I didn't hear the "mentally" bit and can't be sure that was actually said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/8888091/Leveson-Inquiry-live.html

Its a very long article.

Angelique wrote:I heard an excerpt about this the News this evening from the Lawyer representing the Dowler's and Gerry & Kate McCann.

Apparently Kate likened the printing of extracts from her Diary - like being "raped". Though The Telegraph has reported it as being "mentally raped". I didn't hear the "mentally" bit and can't be sure that was actually said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/8888091/Leveson-Inquiry-live.html

Its a very long article.

- and yet she is quite happy to share her mental state and her thoughts with all and sundry in her booik!!???

well im not entirely sure that the analagies the McCs use are appropriate.

By Sarah Rainey7:07PM GMT 16 Nov 2011
Mrs McCann's thoughts and feelings about her daughter's disappearance were printed in extracts from her personal journal, which appeared in the News of the World in 2008.
David Sherborne, the lawyer acting for 51 victims of press intrusion, told Lord Justice Leveson that the publication of the diary was a "blatant intrusion" into the McCann family's private live.
They "begged for restraint" but little was shown, Mr Sherborne said.
The News of the World later apologised for printing the diary, which was leaked by a reporter after being in the possession of the Portuguese police.
The revelations came on the third day of the Leveson inquiry as the court heard:


Portuguese cops get the blame again!!!

The Portugese Police only leaked to the Portugese Press, why would they"leak" extract of a Diary in English ?

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/story_print.html?id=5721480&sponsor=

Victims will paint vivid picture of 'despicable' tabloid press in British hacking scandal


By Martin Evans, The Daily TelegraphNovember 16, 2011



A screen grab image taken in London on July 19, 2011, shows News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch (Front R) and his son James (Front L) giving evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee on the phone hacking scandal.
Photograph by: PARBUL, AFP/Getty Images

Kate McCann was left feeling "mentally raped" after the News of the World published the private diary she had been keeping for her missing daughter, the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard on Wednesday.

The journal she kept after three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007 was so confidential that even her husband had not read it. The diary was seized by the Portuguese police as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine, but the inquiry was told that in September 2008 the News of the World published the journal under the headline: "Kate's Diary: In Her Own Words."

David Sherborne, the lawyer representing the McCanns along with 50 other victims of alleged press intrusion, said the experience left the family feeling violated.

"How did the News of the World get this from the police? We may never know now," he said. "The publication of this material with a picture on the front page suggesting she had provided this herself left her feeling mentally raped, her husband says, and is it any wonder?"

On the third day of the public inquiry, Mr Sherborne made a searing attack on the tabloid press in Britain. He told the inquiry that phone hacking at the News of the World was more like an "industrial revolution" than the "cottage industry" that had been suggested previously by Robert Jay QC, counsel for the inquiry.

But he said the hearings were about more than just the illegal interception of voicemails. He said his clients would paint a vivid picture of the "despicable" actions of some tabloid journalists, which led to a breakdown in the trust between the press and the public.

Bob and Sally Dowler

The first witnesses who will appear before the inquiry panel on Monday will be the parents of Milly Dowler, the 13 year-old murder victim.

Mr Sherborne said Bob and Sally Dowler would set out how the "despicable" actions of journalists at the News of the World raised their hopes that their daughter might have still been alive.

They are expected to describe the "euphoria" they felt when, after days of trying, they finally got through to their missing daughter's voicemail and realized some of her messages had been deleted.

"For a brief period they believed Milly, who disappeared in March 2002, was still alive.

But the messages had been deleted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective working for the News of the World. "Perhaps there are no words which can adequately describe how despicable this act was, but the Dowler story is just one of those you will hear," said Mr Sherborne.

The parents were also subjected to "appalling intrusion" into their grief when they were photographed attempting to trace Milly's final movements.

"It was a very private moment, something the couple had decided to do between themselves to try to come to terms with their teenage daughter's disappearance," said Mr Sherborne.

"But their moment of grief was obviously a photo opportunity too good to resist. Somehow the press found out that they were undertaking that walk on that particular day and that particular time.

"First stolen voicemail messages. Why not then steal these precious moments too? Ethically, what's the difference?"

Sara Payne

Among the other witnesses the inquiry will hear from will be Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was murdered in 2000.

Mr Sherborne said Ms Payne led the News of the World's long-running campaign to introduce anti-paedophile legislation known as Sarah's law, but it emerged that the phone given to her by the newspaper had probably been hacked by Mulcaire.

"This was a sickening postscript, perhaps a new low amongst a wealth of lows, for a newspaper whose former glory has been so fatally befouled by its cultural dependency, it seems, on the dark arts, which sadly give journalism and journalists a bad name," he said.

Chris Jefferies

The Leveson inquiry will also take submissions from Chris Jefferies, 65, the retired English teacher who was arrested last year after being wrongly suspected of involvement in the murder of his tenant, Joanna Yeates, in Bristol.

"It took the tabloid newspapers only a matter of moments to destroy his reputation," said Mr Sherborne. "Mr Jefferies is an example to us all that this could happen to any one of us, celebrity or not. It was a devastating destruction of all aspects of Mr Jefferies's life, from the professional to the most deeply personal."

JK Rowling

The Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, is expected to describe to the inquiry her battle for privacy.

"The family have still photographers and press camped outside her house. Her young children have had notes placed in their school bag," said Mr Sherborne.

"Pictures of them have been snatched whilst they've been enjoying time on holiday. She will explain the very real corrosive effect that this has had on her children."

Charlotte Church

Mr Sherborne said Charlotte Church, the singer, would explain how her life had been blighted by the tabloid press and particularly the News of the World.

The inquiry is expected to hear how a story in 2005 detailed an affair her father had been having, which had an "absolutely devastating" effect on her mother, Maria. He said the story had been obtained through phone hacking and shortly before it was published Miss Church's mother had attempted suicide.

Mr Sherborne went on: "In an act of great sensitivity, as Ms Church will explain, following the article published, the newspaper approached her mother and persuaded her to give them an exclusive, despite her fragile condition, as part of a Faustian pact that in return they would not run a lurid follow-up story about her husband's affair."

Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant, the actor, is expected to tell the inquiry how Tinglan Hong, his former girlfriend and the mother of his daughter, has been subjected to harassment from photographers.

Mr Sherborne suggested that the reason was because Mr Grant had been a leading light in the campaign to expose the extent of hacking. She said someone had obtained her number and made a series of phone calls from a withheld number one evening when Mr Grant was on television talking about the closure of the News of the World, Rupert Murdoch and press standards generally.

Mr Sherborne said: "When she finally answered she was threatened in the most menacing terms, which should reverberate around this inquiry: "Tell Hugh Grant he must shut the —- up."

The hearing continues.

Today's hearing

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearings/