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Hacking: Cameron aide to be questioned
Source: Agencies |
September 8, 2010, Wednesday
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A KEY aide to UK Prime Minister David Cameron will be questioned by police over allegations a major British tabloid illegally eavesdropped on politicians and celebrities - including the British princes, a senior Scotland Yard officer said yesterday.
Assistant police commissioner John Yates told a parliamentary committee that Cameron's communications director Andy Coulson, the newspaper's former editor, is expected to meet with investigators after they look into new allegations made by an ex-reporter.
Coulson quit as editor of the 3 million-circulation weekly News of The World in 2007 after the newspaper's royal reporter was convicted of hacking phone voicemail messages and jailed, along with a private investigator.
The pair was found to have accessed voice messages left for royal officials, including some from Princes William and Harry.
Coulson has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, or knowing that hacking cell phones was widespread among his former staff.
In an article published on Sunday, the New York Times quoted a former reporter, Sean Hoare, and other unnamed ex-staff as claiming that Coulson had in fact been aware of the practice.
Yates said that police would speak with Hoare, who was fired from the tabloid, in "the near future," and discuss with prosecutors whether their inquiry should be reopened.
He said officers would also speak with Coulson - who has said he is willing to meet with investigators. "At some stage, I imagine we would be seeing him in some capacity," Yates told the committee.
Yates said he had written to the New York Times asking editors to review a decision not to assist the police by supplying materials from the newspaper's interviews.
Opposition Labour politicians have said that Coulson should be sacked and Cameron's critics are using the issue to question the judgment of the man who became prime minister in May. The issue is an unwanted distraction for the government as it prepares to unveil an austerity program next month to rein in a record peacetime budget deficit.
Assistant police commissioner John Yates told a parliamentary committee that Cameron's communications director Andy Coulson, the newspaper's former editor, is expected to meet with investigators after they look into new allegations made by an ex-reporter.
Coulson quit as editor of the 3 million-circulation weekly News of The World in 2007 after the newspaper's royal reporter was convicted of hacking phone voicemail messages and jailed, along with a private investigator.
The pair was found to have accessed voice messages left for royal officials, including some from Princes William and Harry.
Coulson has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, or knowing that hacking cell phones was widespread among his former staff.
In an article published on Sunday, the New York Times quoted a former reporter, Sean Hoare, and other unnamed ex-staff as claiming that Coulson had in fact been aware of the practice.
Yates said that police would speak with Hoare, who was fired from the tabloid, in "the near future," and discuss with prosecutors whether their inquiry should be reopened.
He said officers would also speak with Coulson - who has said he is willing to meet with investigators. "At some stage, I imagine we would be seeing him in some capacity," Yates told the committee.
Yates said he had written to the New York Times asking editors to review a decision not to assist the police by supplying materials from the newspaper's interviews.
Opposition Labour politicians have said that Coulson should be sacked and Cameron's critics are using the issue to question the judgment of the man who became prime minister in May. The issue is an unwanted distraction for the government as it prepares to unveil an austerity program next month to rein in a record peacetime budget deficit.
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