Just one day before a UK parliamentary committee is to hear evidence from James and Rupert Murdoch and former News International executive Rebekah Brooks on the News of the World phone hacking debacle, a whistleblower of the scandal has been found dead.
Sean Hoare, a former celebrity reporter at NotW and journo at The Sun, came forward last year to reveal that then-editor Andy Coulson had asked him to hack phones in order to chase stories. He said he had played voicemail messages for Coulson and that claims by Coulson that he was unaware of the phone hacking were “simply a lie”. Hoare’s body was discovered at his home and police said his death was not thought to be suspicious. NotW sacked Hoare due to drug and alcohol problems and has previously warned other media outlets that Hoare’s allegations against the paper should be treated with “extreme scepticism”.
Nick Davies, the investigative journalist at The Guardian who has doggedly followed the NotW case and revealed many of its biggest scandals, says Hoare was a “lovely man” who wanted to stand up not so much for the victims but for the other journalists stuck in the “machine”. Davies writes on Hoare:
Explaining why he had spoken out, he told me: “I want to right a wrong, lift the lid on it, the whole culture. I know, we all know, that the hacking and other stuff is endemic. Because there is so much intimidation. In the newsroom, you have people being fired, breaking down in tears, hitting the bottle.”
He knew this very well, because he was himself a victim of the News of the World. As a showbusiness reporter, he had lived what he was happy to call a privileged life. But the reality had ruined his physical health: “I was paid to go out and take drugs with rock stars — get drunk with them, take pills with them, take cocaine with them. It was so competitive. You are going to go beyond the call of duty. You are going to do things that no sane man would do. You’re in a machine…
…And the voicemail hacking was all part of the great game. The idea that it was a secret, or the work of some “rogue reporter”, had him rocking in his chair: “Everyone was doing it. Everybody got a bit carried away with this power that they had. No one came close to catching us.” He would hack messages and delete them so the competition could not hear them, or hack messages and swap them with mates on other papers.”
Meanwhile, police were called to investigate a bag containing a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin outside Rebekah Brook’s home. The bag was found in a car park and handed in to security. Shortly afterwards Brook’s husband Charlie — a close personal friend of PM David Cameron’s — arrived to claim the bag but was unable to prove it was his. Police are now examining CCTV footage to find out who dropped off the bag, although Charlie claims a friend dropped off the bag for him and misunderstood where it was to go. He claims the bag contains personal documents and a laptop of his, and according to his official spokesperson, “They were nothing to do with Rebekah or the [phone-hacking] case.”
Yesterday also saw the career of another top UK cop come crashing down. Assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the UK’s top counter-terrorism police officer, John Yates, resigned yesterday, just hours after Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson announced his own departure. Their resignation came one day after Brooks was arrested on allegations of phone hacking and police bribes.
PM David Cameron cut short a trip to visit Sudan and returned to Britain to call an emergency parliamentary session for Wednesday to discuss the latest developments of the NotW scandal.
The latest attack on Murdoch papers now comes from internet pranksters LulzSec. If you attempt to go to The Sun homepage, it automatically redirects you to LulzSec’s Twitter feed where you can read tweets like: “WE HAVE JOY WE HAVE FUN, WE HAVE MESSED UP MURDOCH’S SUN” and “Don’t be a #peon like the others. We are showing you a very small surface; the real damage is currently giving the admins heart attacks. ;)”
It’s a long week ahead for Rupert Murdoch.
More News of the World wraps:
* Rebekah Brooks arrested and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson resigns
***“I want to right a wrong, lift the lid on it, the whole culture. I know, we all know, that the hacking and other stuff is endemic. ***
Upon your head Steve Hoare, will be placed a Crown of Gold.
This is becoming more and more like ‘The International’… Conspiracy theories abound!
Nothing helpful about what “LulzSec” is doing.
First of all RIP Steve Hoare. Dispite all the crap that Governments and organisations spew out about ethics and supporting whistleblowers, it’s a hard and lonely road and only the brave venture along it. So sad and such a terrible loss.
The big problem and I feel for Hoare’s family is the police’s credibility has been shot to pieces because of their involvement in this matter. They are probably not the ones who should investigate his death. The only creditable option they have now is to have a Royal Commission. Because if the police investigate it, no matter what the findings are into the circumstances of his death many will not believe it and it will mean that his poor family will not get the closure they need.
So is that “taking drugs with rock stars” job up for grabs now?