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Timeline: News of the World phonehacking scandal

The Guardian, Monday 9 November 2009
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Article history

2006
August Anti-terror police arrest the News of the World royal editor, Clive Goodman, on suspicion of illegally intercepting phone calls. Glenn Mulcaire, a footballer turned detective, is also arrested. Scotland Yard had previously been contacted by members of the royal household who suspected their mobile phones had been hacked into. A series of stories in the paper seemed to be based on voicemails left on their phones. Goodman is suspended a few days later. November Goodman admits conspiracy to intercept St James Palace phone calls "without lawful authority". Mulcaire pleads guilty to the same offence and to further charges of intercepting phone calls. News of the World editor Andy Coulson says: "I have put in place measures to ensure that they will not be repeated by any member of my staff."

2007
January Clive Goodman sentenced to four months in jail. Mulcaire gets six months. Coulson resigns immediately. March Les Hinton, the News International (NI) executive chairman and PCC code of practice committee chairman, tells MPs that Goodman acted alone. May David Cameron appoints Coulson as his director of communications. The Press Complaints Commission report into phonetapping concludes there is no evidence to challenge the assertion by Colin Myler, Coulson's successor, that Goodman and Mulcaire acted alone. July Gordon Taylor sues NoW for involvement in illegal interception of messages on his phone. High court later seals Taylor's file and the paper pays him more than 400,000 in damages.

2009
July The Guardian publishes a story revealing that News Group newspapers have paid more than 1m to settle legal cases that threatened to reveal evidence of its journalists' repeated involvement in the use of criminal methods to get stories. The piece cites two sources who suggest News Group staff were using private investigators to hack into thousands of mobile phones. Commons culture committee secretary John Whittingdale says: "If NI did not have any
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Timeline: News of the World phone-hacking scandal | Media | The Guardian

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knowledge of these practices, it begs the question as to why they paid more than 1m." Three inquiries launched: by the director of public prosecutions, the PCC and the Commons select committee. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger tells MPs that the Taylor case shows the practice of phone message tapping was not limited to one NoW journalist and says the committee and the PCC were misled. He points out that two sources familiar with the case had said "thousands of individuals may have been targeted" for illegal snooping. News International employees tell MPs that Goodman was the only person at the NoW involved in the hacking. September Hinton tells MPs he authorised payments to a disgraced NoW reporter and private investigator after they had been jailed for hacking into the mobile phones of royal aides. November The PCC says there is 'no new evidence' of widespread phone-hacking at the News of the World. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger says the report into News of the World phonehacking allegations puts the PCC in 'last chance saloon'. The next week, he resigns from the PCC code committee. Journalist body the IFJ says it will review the way the PCC handled its inquiry into the News of the World's alleged hacking of celebrities' phones. December The Commons select committee report is delayed as it calls News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks to give evidence.

2010
January News International admits it was forced to give Clive Goodman a generous payoff because it failed to follow statutory procedures. Publicist Max Clifford goes to court to seek disclosure of documents that he claims show News of the World investigators intercepted messages on his mobile phone. Three leading mobile phone companies tell the Guardian that they have discovered a total of more than 100 customers whose voicemail was accessed by Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman. Commons select committee chairman John Whittingdale is understood to have accepted that Rebekah Brooks will not now give evidence. February A high court judge orders the News of the World to hand over documents to Max Clifford. Select committee chairman John Whittingdale writes to Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates for what it claims was a failure to give more detailed evidence to MPs over the scale of hacking. It is reported that the News of the World may offer Max Clifford an out-of-court settlement to persuade him to settle his legal action. September The New York Times publishes a 6,000-word essay on the scandal, which quotes a named journalist as saying that Coulson "actively encouraged" him to engage in phone-hacking.
2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

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