Ex-Private Investigator Glenn Mulcaire
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Ex-private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Ex-private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Photographer: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
Glenn Mulcaire, the ex-private
investigator who hacked into celebrities’ voice mails for News
Corp. (NWSA)’s News of the World, lost a U.K. appeal to avoid giving
“incriminating” evidence in civil lawsuits against him.
The ruling today by the Court of Appeal in London upholds a
judge’s order for Mulcaire to disclose who at the now-defunct
tabloid told him to intercept phone messages left for a British
actor and a celebrity publicist and what information was
collected. Mulcaire’s lawyers argued that by doing so he would
incriminate himself.
“I intend to appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court,
because this may affect my right to claim” the privilege
against self-incrimination “in other civil cases still being
brought against me,” Mulcaire said in a statement released by
his lawyer, Sarah Webb. Judge David Neuberger said Mulcaire
doesn’t have to release the information until the nation’s
highest court decides whether to review the issue.
Mulcaire and News Corp.’s U.K. newspaper unit were sued by
dozens of celebrities and other victims whose phones were hacked
to get stories. The company settled more than half of the 60
hacking lawsuits against it last month including those by actor
Jude Law and soccer player Ashley Cole.
London police, who are examining Mulcaire’s notebooks and
contacting hundreds of possible victims, have arrested more than
20 people in three related investigations, including the
newspaper’s former editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.
Steve Coogan
Today’s appeal is part of separate lawsuits filed by actor
Steve Coogan and Nicola Phillips, a former employee of celebrity
publicist Max Clifford, whose voice mails Mulcaire intercepted.
They won requests for the disclosure of documents that included
their names or mobile-phone numbers.
In a statement outside court, Coogan’s attorney John Kelly
said the decision “is likely to be relied upon by other phone
hacking victims” in cases against News Corp.’s U.K. newspaper
unit and Mulcaire.
Phone-hacking victims are giving testimony to a separate
judge-led inquiry examining press behavior. Sienna Miller, a
British actress, told the inquiry that the News of the World’s
scoops led her to accuse her friends and family of leaking
information to reporters. A similar claim was made by singer
Charlotte Church.
Mulcaire’s evidence, if it’s disclosed, would shed light on
the scandal just as several so-called test cases are preparing
for the first phone-hacking civil trial scheduled to start Feb.
13.
Self Incrimination
“Mulcaire cannot claim privilege against self-
incrimination” and “therefore he has to provide the
information,” Judge Neuberger told a court this morning.
Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, a reporter for the News of the
World, were jailed in 2007 for intercepting phone messages meant
for members of Prince Charles’ staff and for Gordon Taylor,
chief executive officer of the Professional Footballers
Association. Mulcaire was also charged with intercepting voice
mails left for celebrities including Elle MacPherson.
News Corp. closed the News of the World in July to help
contain the five-year-old scandal. Mulcaire has successfully
sued the company over claims it improperly stopped covering his
legal fees after lawmakers questioned the payments.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Erik Larson in London at
elarson4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Anthony Aarons at
aaarons@bloomberg.net
<!—->
Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/mulcaire-must-reveal-who-at-news-corp-gave-phone-hacking-instructions.html
View full post on National Cyber Security » Computer Hacking