Phone-hacking list growing in UK

LONDON - Scotland Yard has admitted to the discovery of new potential victims of the phone-hacking scandal, opening the way to a wave of further damaging privacy claims by politicians and celebrities against Rupert Murdoch's News International.

In the first sign that the new Metropolitan Police investigation into voicemail hacking at the News of the World is trying to right the failures of its much-criticised predecessor, the officer in charge of the inquiry revealed that new links had been found between existing evidence and internal emails handed to police last month by Murdoch's newspaper group.

"Urgent steps" were being taken to inform the new group, all of whom were previously told by the Met that there was "little or no information" held about them on files seized in 2006 from the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister who had been mounting a High Court challenge over the police's handling of the case, is believed to be among the new potential victims.

Files containing the names and personal details of thousands of individuals, including many celebrities and public figures, were kept by Mulcaire, who was used by the NOTW and jailed in 2007 for listening to the voicemails of aides to Prince William.

But civil litigants, such as the actress Sienna Miller, have been forced to go to court to obtain details of the alleged hacking.

In an apparent admission that the initial police investigation, headed by Deputy Commissioner John Yates, had failed to inform all victims of hacking, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said: "We are determined to ensure we conduct a robust and thorough investigation ... We will be as open as we can be and will show [victims] all the information we hold about them."

Although the Yard declined to discuss how many new potential victims had been identified, the statement that they form an "important and immediate new line of enquiry" will add to News International's headaches.

The newspaper group already faces lawsuits from at least a dozen celebrities, ranging from Miller to former Sky pundit Andy Gray, and has paid nearly 2 million ($4.18 million) to settle privacy claims from Max Clifford and from Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association.

In 2009, police disclosed that the material seized from Mr Mulcaire's home included 4332 names or partial names of people in whom he had an interest; 2978 mobile phone numbers; 30 audio tapes which appear to contain recordings of voicemail messages; and 91 PIN codes.

The latest development in the four-year saga has arisen directly from the decision last month by News International to hand over to detectives an unspecified number of emails following the sacking of Ian Edmondson, the head of news at the NOTW.

- INDEPENDENT