Phone hacking: Six more arrests in Weeting inquiry

Phone hacking: Six more arrests in Weeting inquiry

www.bbc.co.uk

Six people have been arrested by detectives investigating phone-hacking allegations against journalists, Scotland Yard has said.

The arrests took place at addresses in London, Oxfordshire, Hampshire and Hertfordshire.

Police said one woman and five men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.metro.co.uk
www .telegraph.co.uk
www. dailymail.co.uk

According to some sources, Rebekah Brooks is one of those arrested in a dawn raid today, along side her husband Charlie (close friends with David Cameron whom he used to go horse riding with)

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie are reportedly among six people arrested this morning in dawn raids by detectives investigating allegations of phone hacking.

www.metro.co.uk...

Wakey wakey!!

'The coordinated arrests were made between approximately 5am and 7am by officers from Operation Weeting, the MPS inquiry into the phone hacking of voicemail boxes,' a statement from Scotland Yard, which said the arrests followed consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service, explained.

Glad to see she has not gotten away with this one, she needs brought to justice along side Piers Morgan. Its about time he came home to face the music.

According to the Sun (ironic eh?) "All six - five men and one woman - were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977."
www.thesun.co.uk...

www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

The Daily Mail article has the best pictures (including one of her house lol) and a timeline up to now which is pretty decent.

Ah good,
The fact she has been arrested a second time means that there is either more evidence of the offence she was arrested for a few months ago (and is still on bail for) or there are further offences. Either way, I think the era of powerful media moguls is about to come to an end. They've ran roughshod over us for a long time now, at least this whole furore has shed light on this dispicable bunch and any who cavort with them.

Apparently, most senior police officers are now scared of saying anything to the media in case they get fingered for "corrupion". The way it is supposed to be, not the politicisation of the Police that has happened over the past 10-15 years. The Police are supposed to be politically neutral, but recently, especially under Blaur and Brown, they were getting involved in Government policy which is a dangerous game.

This has been a very serious story.

It has just got even more serious.

Brooks and husband have now been arrested for perverting the course of Justice.
The current Prime Miniser is very close friends with these people. He rides horses with them. I imagine he is loosing it at this very minute.

reply to post by lacrimaererum


This could, depending on how it plays out, bring down the Government. If Cameron is forced to resign, who would step up and would they work with the Lib Dems?

We might be having an election sooner than we think, either that or the Tories will soldier on with a mintority Government, making the next 3 years pretty miserable....

reply to post by stumason


The charges are quite likely to lead to prison time
Jonathan Aitken got 18 months
Jeffery Archer got 4 years

en.wikipedia.org...

This could well bring down the government, I think I will watch proceedings from parliament to see if this gets raised, I suspect the opposition will see this as a great chance to make Cameron sweat some more.
www.parliamentlive.tv...

Perhaps it will be raised during
Oral Questions to the Secretary of State for Justice, including at 3.15 pm Topical Questions.
Or
3.30pm Urgent Questions, Ministerial Statements (if any).

A great profile on Rebekah and Charlie from the telegraph showing their connections with the Cameron's and some other high profile figures.
www.telegraph.co.uk...

The pair, who were introduced by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson at a party, are at the centre of the Chipping Norton set – a group of high-powered figures in the media, politics and entertainment.

It was a clique that came under the spotlight when it emerged that Mrs Brooks had been lent a former Metropolitan Police horse, which the Prime Minister, David Cameron, had ridden.

The revelations became known as "horsegate" among political journalists, who saw the episode as exposing the close relationship between some of the most influential people in the UK.

Included in the set and among Mr and Mrs Brooks's neighbours are Mr Clarkson, Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth and her husband PR boss Matthew Freud, Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone, Blur bassist Alex James and the Camerons, by virtue of the Prime Minister's nearby constituency in Witney, Oxfordshire and home in Dean.

While I am of course pleased to hear that the persons involved in these ghastly scandals and invasions of privacy have been arrested, I am somewhat concerned by some of the implications for the future behavior of the press. While the mighty media empires had the run of the place, you pretty much knew where you stood, who was in command of what organisation, which organisations were affiliated or sympathetic to which party, company, political standpoint and so on.

But now, we have a situation where if the current trend of upheaval continues, and the major players are replaced, then those of us who keep an eye on the news will have to re define our understanding of the position from which any comment, made in the mainstream press, is made. We will have to massively adjust our understanding of the way that whatever journalists and editors remain, and what thier take on the world is, so that we may adjust the way we interpret their news.

You see, one of the good things about the way things were, is that despite the realisation that the people running the information empire were scum, and employed scum to do the dirty jobs that NO ONE should be doing, we knew them. We knew thier background, we had the oppertunity to read thier memiors, and thier biographies. We had gigabytes of data on them, ready to be accessed, and accumulated thus, BECAUSE these people were what they were, and were doing what they were doing.

The people that come to replace these animals, these intellectual vandals , therefore must be watched, monitored and carefully examined by those they would seek to influence, using the tools at thier disposal. My concern is that rapid changes in these empires, may combine with the apathy in some sectors of the readership of papers which might be affected by these upheavals, to produce a situation where no one is quite sure what strings are being pulled where, by the new faces. In short, we the people, lack a certain level of intelligence on these new faces that will be pulled in to fill the gaps.

I suppose that the only option is to wait and see who comes out smelling best. But until these events and thier affects on the wider media have died down, it will be very difficult for the man in the street to be able to filter the news he reads with an understanding of the political and financial aims of its operators, something that a little mind work could allow very easily before.

GOOD! If I had tapped someone's phone at work i would have been well sacked by now, thrown into prison and flogged! Sure report a news story and if there is a scandal to be reported or evidence of wrong doing by a politician, business person et al then yes that should be exposed, But report it in a fair and just manner. Hacking the phone of a murdered school girl is simply below the belt and not on. It is immoral. It is time people who think they are above the law are brought to book.

I dont know if David Cameron, Tony Blair or any other politician are directly implicated in some way to all of this but if they are or are guilty of any other crime then they too should face charges and put on trial. You cant have a criminal justice system with rules for one set of people and others are untouchable.

I wonder when Rupert Murdoch will be arrested. It cant be long in coming.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Wikileaks type operations are the future of journalism as they cannot be bought. The press were just a bunch of worthless "hacks" anyway. The best stories, where they were not committing criminal acts, came from whistle blowers. Id prefer to see more of that and less about celebrity A's personal life.

reply to post by Maponos


I could not agree with you more. I also would like to see some real journalism, but what you may not grasp is that most people are after something to read with thier coffee, a bit of journalistic slap and tickle. Along side that, they get the "news" of the day. The primary function of the papers involved most heavily with the scandal that is currently unravelling before us, is NOT to inform, but to indoctrinate. To skew the raw data as firmly in one direction as is functionally possible, to insert a way of thinking, into the mind of the reader. To be realistic, all mass media outlets behave the same way, in different directions. But where the parties involved are concerned, they are aimed at people who do not wish to think deeply about the affairs of the world. They want to be told what they should think, so that they do not have to think about it too hard. Many of them probably have great excuses for such intellectual laziness, but whatever the reason, the papers involved largely serve this mass of unthought as thier bread and butter.

With that understanding in place, it is clear to see that although you and I realise that the real news does not come from the papers, and the mass media outlets, the majority of people do not realise that, and those that do, often could not care less. Many people have far more pressing immediate concerns, than what they read in the paper, and treat it all with an off handedness, that belies the true scale of the effect of the propeganda machine upon thier attitudes and thinking, because they do not know it is happening.

This in mind, perhaps you understand why I am somewhat concerned about the upheavals that are happening now. It is not that I care a damn who feeds me lies, but more that I like to be aware of what the liar in charge is aiming at, something that is far easier to do when one knows the face, the name, the history of the liar in question.

It is fair to say that "better the devil you know" is a over simplification that breaks down under the merest examination, but in this case, I worry about what may replace the current status quo. Who ever gets thier hands on the reigns after the current batch of arrests, can largely claim to have dominion over the data flow into the minds of vast swathes of our nations population, and they in turn get to vote. Do you see why I am concerned about this?

The only problem is, the evidence given to the Leveson enquiry by Sue Akers, has the possibility of being in contempt of the Weeting investigation, thus denying Brookes a 'fair trial', borrocks i say. This to me is going to be yet another cover up. That Akers woman gave the evidence knowing full well how it would be treated and reacted to, which makes me think she is also involved in the 'corruption' at the Met, by doing so she can theoritically get Brookes off, her Brookes lawyers will argue she cant have fair trial and it will give them leverage over any case / sentence imposed by the courts during appeal.

As much as this looks good, i can see this becoming a sham and a whitewash, with those complicit in very serious charges getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist if that

reply to post by TrueBrit


I do understand you point, the problem is most people dont actually know which devil they are supporting, perhaps this will help

Star is part of Express newspapers currently owned by Richard Desmond.
Rupert Murdoch owns Sun & Times via News International
Daily Mail is part of Associated Newspapers (as is the free paper Metro)
Guardian & Observer are owned by the Scott Trust. (Rothschild's are linked to this)
Daily Telegraph is owned by Conrad Black

reply to post by FFS4000


On the bright side some of the press published photos of where she lives, just in case a lynch mob is called for. If what you say is true then we can expect Ms Akers will get some attention. You have to wonder, would she really sacrifice her career for someone like Brooks?

reply to post by FFS4000


The Attorney General has said he will look at the "possibility" of any prejudice in the evidence given by Akers, but I don't believe anything will come of it. There used to be a time when News International et al had the Government's ear, but right now they will all do well to be seen to be putting as much distance between them as they can. This is, after all, the only thing politicians can be 100% trusted upon, they will run a mile from any scandal or connection to one.

Brooks and friends will get their day in court, mark my words. Even if there was any kind of prejudicing, it was only minor and not relating to the offences at large, just her relationship with the Met which isn't what she is being arrested for.

reply to post by stumason


Indeed the perjury charge suggests that they now have evidence she lied, which means that they perhaps enough to charge her with the hacking itself? Time will tell, this is shaping up to be one of the biggest scandals in British history.

She will indeed have her day in court, "acquiring" a baby aint gonna save you this time Beckie!

I hope she gets 4 years minimum and I hope David Cameron has to resign this week. I think im going to go cause a sh1tstorm on twitter. BRB lol