Nine Remarkable Revelations From the Hacking Trial

It’s been a busy week, so for this column, I have relied heavily on my co-author of Dial ‘M’ for Murdoch, Martin Hickman. If you want to read the definitive guide to the hacking trial you must read the account by Peter Jukes and Martin. More can be found here.

1. Bin there, done that

Back in 2008, when neighbours caught people rooting through our bins, it always gave me great pleasure to know they would have put their hands in the bag full of nappies after the baby had been poorly. I have no idea who the intruders were, but I remembered the anecdote when it was revealed at the Old Bailey that, on one of the white boards seized from the home of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was written the word “Binology”. 

“Binology” – the science of of finding documents in the bins of a newspaper’s target. The word appeared on an invoice submitted to News of the World by a private detective when it was edited by Brooks. 

She told the trial: “There was a particular private detective who worked for various newspapers who would go through bins, lawyers’ bins and high-profile people: Benji the Binman. And he would sell that information to newspapers.” She said she might have had some anxiety about using binology.

2. The Real Cost of the Trial to the Taxpayer is Not £110 million

The total includes the massive defence fund provided by Rupert Murdoch. It is estimated that the cost to taxpayers will be £35m.

As Roy Greenslade says “the police and the prosecuting authorities were taking on a powerful international company that had, for years, deliberately denied the existence of hacking and later defied attempts by the police to investigate it.

“The investigation proved to be complex, involving many, many hours of painstaking research into computer files. It was bound to cost money. Can anyone imagine how the rest of the press would have howled if the police had simply thrown up their hands and said it was too expensive to carry on?”

3. Cash for Defence Stories

While being edited by Brooks, The Sun paid a defence official for exclusive stories about the deaths of soldiers in Afghanistan, military scandals and titillating examples of indiscipline in the ranks. In all the Sun paid £100,000 paid to Bettina Jordan Barber, a mid-ranking official at Ministry of Defence who liaised with the MoD’s press bureau, between 2004 and 2012. The resulting headlines included: “Mucky major’s a sex swinger,” “Major feels privates’ privates” and “The Lust Post.”

4. Was News of the World closed to save the Sky TV deal?

A month before the News of the World closed, executives discussed it, to help the controversial Sky deal. Jurors were shown an email from Simon Greenberg, director of corporate affairs at News International to Brooks and another executive in early June 2011. At that time Scotland Yard had intensified its inquiry into hacking and a growing number of hacking victims were suing for breach of privacy. 

“This is why we should consider the shutdown option,” Greenberg wrote. “Is the brand too toxic for itself or the company? I believe it is. Unparalleled moments need unparalleled action. You could be the person to save the Rubicon deal.” Rubicon was News Corp’s codename for its £7 billion bid for the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster, BSkyB. News Corp abandoned the bid amid the public outcry over phone hacking allegations.

5. Your Royal Hackedness

The News of the World eavesdropped on the private world of Princes William and Harry, and our future King’s then-girlfriend Kate Middleton. Their hacking of the princes was kept secret until it was revealed at the DCMS select committee. But it was revealed at the current trial that the paper’s royal editor Clive Goodman had hacked Middleton, the current Duchess of Cambridge, 155 times — including on Valentine’s Day 2006. He hacked Prince William 35 times and Prince Harry on nine occasions. Among the exclusives the News of the World unearthed were that William got lost on an Army training exercise and that Middleton called him “babykins”.

6. Your Spyness

Among those who may have left messages for Hannah Pawlby, special advisor to Charles Clarke, was a former head of Britain’s foreign spy agency, MI6. Hannah never heard three urgent messages left for her by the News of the World’s editor – because they had been accidentally deleted by Mulcaire. On a tape recording made by the private detective, Coulson could be heard saying: “I’ve got a story we’re planning to run tomorrow that I’d really like to speak to Charles about. I wouldn’t do this in the normal course of events but it’s quite a serious story…” After beeps, an automated message says: “Message deleted” – and Mulcaire exclaims: “Oh fuck”.

7. Irony isn’t dead. Neither is hypocrisy.

Despite visiting David Blunkett to challenge him about his private life, Andy Coulson was involved in an illicit affair with Rebekah Brooks. When a lawyer suggested to Coulson that the relationship was “pure hypocrisy,” he replied, in a moment of self-realisation, “the irony is not lost on me.”

8. Hacking round the clock

Metropolitan Police detective, Steven Fitzgerald, told the trial that in the two years before the police pounced on the operation in August 2006, News of the World’s private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, and journalists made 6,813 calls to 281 unique voicemail numbers, or UVNs. Calls to UVNs were described as attempted or successful hacks of mobile phone messages. Among those whose messages were eavesdropped leading politicians, such as David Blunkett, Sven Goran Eriksson, and the actors Jude Law, Sienna Miller and Daniel Craig. The Metropolitan Police estimate 1,000 people were hacked by the News of the World.

9. The Milly Dowler hack

Mulcaire submitted an invoice to the News of the World marked: “Dowler messages.” It was paid in full.