US paper snubs phone-hacking probe
The New York Times (NYT) has refused to co-operate with British police looking into allegations of phone-hacking made by the newspaper last week, a senior officer said.
But Assistant Commissioner John Yates said the Metropolitan Police will press ahead with questioning former reporter Sean Hoare and consulting with prosecutors over whether to reopen its investigation into the News of the World.
In interviews with the NYT and the BBC, Mr Hoare claimed that eavesdropping on voicemail messages was widespread at the News of the World and known to the then editor Andy Coulson - now Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications.
His claims are denied by both the News International-owned newspaper and Mr Coulson himself, who has offered to speak to police.
In an appearance before the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, Mr Yates said he expected to see Mr Coulson "at some stage", but would not decide whether to take up his offer until after Mr Hoare has been interviewed.
Officers wrote to the NYT asking the US paper to reconsider its decision not to hand over information, citing "journalistic privilege", but Mr Yates said he was "not hopeful".
It was an article in the New York paper which revived the phone-hacking issue last week, three years after News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for illegally intercepting the voicemail messages of Princes William and Harry.
Mr Yates came under fierce questioning from MPs on the select committee over the police's decision not to contact some 91 people - believed to include politicians and celebrities - whose voicemail PINs were discovered during the investigations into Goodman and Mulcaire.
He said that police or mobile phone service providers had contacted around 10 to 12 people in cases where they thought there was "the minutest possibility" that an attempt had been made to hack into their messages.
The assistant commissioner promised to speak to Labour MP Chris Bryant, who complained in the Commons chamber that he had been told he was on Mulcaire's list, but police had done "absolutely nothing" about it.
